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PlacesPeople & PlacesLiving · since 900

CZECHIA · 50.1°N 14.4°E · CITY

Prague

JosefovBohemia · to 1918Czechoslovakia · 1918-1939Protectorate (German occupation) · 1939-1945Czechoslovakia/Czechia · 1945-present

Among Europe's oldest continuous communities - city of the Maharal and the Golem legend, Kafka's German-Jewish circle, and the Old-New Synagogue (1270), Europe's oldest active-use synagogue building; ~78,000+ Czech Jews were murdered in the Shoah.

Modern locality anchor

Prague

Czechia · City · 50.1°N 14.4°E

This anchor orients the sourced locality record. It is not a reconstructed historical position or border; the single map below provides geographic context.

View location

Where is Prague?

Land geometry: Natural Earth 1:50m via world-atlas. Pins mark modern localities or representative regional anchors stored on Atlas place records, not historical borders and not reconstructed positions. · Sources & methods

THE COMMUNITY TIMELINE · EVERY NODE DATED

What happened to the Jewish community of Prague?

900–1526

Medieval community (10th-c. attestation)

1526–1745

Maharal era; Golem legend (16th c.)

1745–1780

1745 expulsion and return

1781–1938

Emancipation; German-Jewish literary flowering

This section addresses destruction and loss. It is one chapter, not the whole story — continue to what survives and what was created after
1939–1945

Protectorate 1939-45; Terezin transit; Pinkas memorial names

1945–present

Small postwar community

Today

Today

Small community; one of the world's most-visited Jewish heritage ensembles.

LANGUAGES & COMMUNITY

What did Prague sound like?

Prague Jewish Community
Yiddish (ייִדיש)Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)

Yiddish (ייִדיש) is a language with its own grammar, literature, and history — not “broken” anything, and not a dialect of Hebrew.

AFTER · IN FULL COLOR

What survives today?

In Prague

Small community; one of the world's most-visited Jewish heritage ensembles.

  • Old-New Synagogue (Altneuschul)

    synagogue · historic site

    c. 1270; Europe's oldest active-use synagogue building.

  • Jewish Museum in Prague

    museum · museum

    Pinkas, Klausen, Maisel, and Spanish synagogues.

  • Old Jewish Cemetery

    cemetery · historic site

  • Pinkas Synagogue memorial

    memorial · historic site

    80,000 names of Bohemian and Moravian victims.

KEEP GOING

Related places & stories

Guided story · 7 stopsThe vanished Jewish cities of Eastern Europe — and what remainsOn the eve of WWII, one in three Warsaw residents was Jewish. What happened — and what is still standing?Begin the route

SOURCES & REVIEW

  • Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (place entry)

    Macmillan Reference USA · 2007

  • Holocaust Encyclopedia

    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · open source

  • Vital Statistics: Jewish Population of the World (2024 country figures)

    Jewish Virtual Library · 2024 · open source

Reviewed 2026-07-30

Reading about Yiddish (ייִדיש) and Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)? Baba can help you understand the languages in context →