I appreciate the clarification of the Prague Jewish cemetery situation.
I'm a bit dismayed at the notion that the contents of a newly discovered
12th century Jewish cemetery could be moved to the well known we thought
was endangered.
I remember the cemetery in which Rabbi Lowe and many others are buried
as being very small, and I remember being told that it is already
several layers thick with remains. So I don't see how more remains can
be added. I find a great similarity to the alarm of American Indians
that the bones of their ancestors have been exhumed from sacred burial
grounds to be stored in museums.
I am also concerned with lack of attention to the Jewish history of
Prague that I found in official and unofficial tourism documents which
seem to treat it as a minor footnote. Actually there have been Jews in
Prague at least as long as there have been Christians. It's no accident
that the Nazis planned on building their museum of the extinct Jewish
race in Prague (which accounts for the preservations of its synagogues
and the cemetary). In fact the Jews of Prague were so will integrated
into Prague society and culture that the nazis could not force Jews into
a ghetto there, transporting them to Teresinstadt instead.
Ken Goodman
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