Jewish Prague [antikvár]

THE JEWISH TOWN OF PRAGUE - ITS ORIGIN AND SETTLEMENTOne thousand years ago a Jewish-Arab merchant by the name of Ibrahim Ibn Jacob said, among other things, the following about Prague:"The town of Fraga is built of stone and limestone and it is the biggest town as regards trade. Russians and Slavs come here from the royal town with goods. And Muslims, Jews and Turks from the lands of the Turks alsó come here with goods and trade coins!"How long have Jews lived in Prague? Ten centuries, or even longer? Let us content ourselves by saying that they have been here since ancient times and that it is impossible to determine exactly when they made their way to Prague and when they settled here.After Jerusalem, Prague occupied a wholly exceptional place in the Jewish tradition. Although there were towns with far greater Jewish settlement in the medieval Jewish diaspora, places where whole generations of miraculous rab-bis lived, nothing could equal the glory of Jewish Prague!According to the oldest legend it was Princess Libuse who, with her clair-voyant spirit, prophesized that at the time of her grandson a foreign nation would arrive in Bohemia and bring the land good fortune ifit were affably re-ceived. And so when the fírst Jews allegedly made their way to Bohemia in 860, during the rule of Hostivít, they really did receive an affable welcomealong with an order to settle in the environs of Újezd.The legend telis us that the Jews arrived here immediately after the demoli-tion of the church of Jerusalem and that a ghetto existed here already before the arrival of the Slavs. Christian and Jewish chroniclers, among them Václav Hájek of Libocany (t 1553) and Dávid Gans (t 1613), inform us that in the years 995-997 the Jews were granted permission to settle in Prague and to found their own township here - a ghetto - as a reward for the aid they had rendered the Christians in their fight against the pagans. According to Václav Hájek the Jews were alsó allowed to build their own school in Mensí Mésto, the Lesser Town of Prague (now Malá Strana - the Little Quarter), on a site below the present Convent of Our Lady Below the Bridge. Similarly as in the case of other countries, the Jews made their way to Bohemia in the first centuries of the Christian era. They came as merchants, as intermediators of trade and exchanges of goods, and alsó to seek protection and security against the endless persecution and pogroms to which they were subjected.In his History of the City of Prague V. V. Tomek states that Jewish merchants (negotiatores) may have been in Bohemia already at the time of the Markoman tribe and that "they were especially the chief entrepreneurs in trade with people", being alsó engaged in trade with slaves and prisoners.In view of its closeness to the river and considerable number of small mar-