Walking (and Walking, and Walking) through old Prague gave us a strange feeling of how new the United States is in history. It is incredible to walk through a synagogue that has been in continuous use since the 1200's. The story of the mythical golem, almost seemed real when you visit the place where fictional stories (see Kellerman's The Golem of Hollywood) which ascribes the myth as it were true and how the Frankenstein's monster became an analog of the Golem, which was created from river bank mud, an artificial being crated for protecting ancient Jews was created.
Visiting the Jewish cemetery created in 1492 and then the old Spanish Synagogue was shocking and amazing. We did not know that the Nazi's defined Prague as the repository of a race they were wiping off the face of the earth. Judaica from all over Czechoslovakia was stored at the old Spanish Synagogue...Rabbi Bennett is an amazing font of knowledge making us able to relive the ancient history of our fellow-coreligionists from past centuries.
We are truly blessed to belong to Shaare Emeth to have had the blessing of both Rabbi Stiffman (who took us to Israel) followed by Rabbi Jeff's successor, Rabbi Jim who designed an incredible Jewish heritage tour of Eastern European Jewry and the the nightmare which was the Holocaust...An emotional horror is building in my mind for when when we travel to Poland the site of the horrors of horrors.
As American Jews we believe it our solemn duty to by able to face any and all deniers of what was the reality of Nazism.
-Stu and Pam Katz
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