{"id":385,"date":"2013-10-05T23:27:49","date_gmt":"2013-10-06T06:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/?p=385"},"modified":"2013-10-12T08:10:03","modified_gmt":"2013-10-12T15:10:03","slug":"prague-blog-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/?p=385","title":{"rendered":"Prague Blog #6"},"content":{"rendered":"
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October 5, 2013<\/p>\n

Michaela picked us up with Hana early this morning at 7:00 am for the drive down to Ckyne. \u00a0Prague is beautiful at all times of day, but especially in the morning when things are quiet and the sun is coming up. \u00a0As we headed south, the road took us through a pastoral landscape of low, green, rolling hills fenced off into small farms with random clumps of forest here and there. \u00a0Every few miles we passed a small village or could see one in the distance. \u00a0Ckyne is about two hours south of Prague. \u00a0We passed through Strakonice, once the fez capitol of the world. \u00a0As we approached Ckyne the hills got larger and steeper, the road curved more and the scenery became more green. \u00a0We first passed through Volyne, a town that looked like it might have about 5,000 people. \u00a0A few minutes and hairpin turns later we arrived at Ckyne. \u00a0The town was larger than we expected. We were told there were 3,000 people living there. \u00a0Michaela stopped at a market to ask for directions to the new synagogue. \u00a0Make a left and another left and you will see it. \u00a0Sure enough, there it was, bright and shiny in its brand new white paint job.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0877\"<\/p>\n

We were early so I got to look around a bit. \u00a0The building was immaculately restored. There was a small prayer room at the top, used when it was too cold downstairs. \u00a0This will be the permanent home for the old torah they found in the attic. \u00a0Downstairs in the main sanctuary, they have repainted as best they could the design they found for the are around the ark. \u00a0The place looks terrific, very comfortable. \u00a0They built large cases on the side for exhibits about local Jewish history. \u00a0They look like giant closets when closed up, really a terrific design and very practical, with shelves behind glass on top and pull-out drawers underneath.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0931\"<\/a>The services began around 10am and lasted almost three hours. \u00a0Over 100 people attended, far exceeding any expectations I had. \u00a0There were representatives of other old Ckyne families: Wedeles, Wudl, Fantes, Sittig and Nathan and I represented the Blochs. The services were led by a wonderful singer named Michal For\u0161t<\/a>. He lives in Prague also acts as a cantor for the small congregation in Liberec (Reichenberg). \u00a0Michal was wonderful, explaining and performing and reading in Czech and English, guiding everyone through a somewhat traditional service.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0924\"<\/a>The old torah scroll found in the synagogue was used for the service, even though it is a bit damaged. \u00a0One of the attended was Anna (Kineret) Sittig, a rabbi from Amsterdam. \u00a0She was called into service to help with the torah, which was not rolled to the correct portion (Noah, near the beginning). \u00a0I got up and helped her roll the old torah until we got to the right place. \u00a0It was really very exciting because obviously the torah had not been used in about 100 years, since the community disbanded and sold the building (long before the Nazi era). \u00a0And it was fun to think that probably our ancestors had used this very same torah.<\/p>\n

Michal called Nathan up to do some of the prayers before the torah reading, and then Nathan was called for the first aliyah, the prayer before the first reading from the torah. Having Nathan there made everyone very excited, I think, because they all started to take photos. \u00a0I couldn’t resist joining in. \u00a0I put a video up on facebook<\/a> of Nathan saying the prayer following the torah reading. \u00a0More photos from the trip are in the 1<\/a>, 2<\/a>, 3<\/a> facebook albums I made.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0932\"<\/p>\n

Julius M\u00fcller acted as gabay and helped figure out all the various people to call up for the remaining aliyot. \u00a0A man from Germany, Hermann L\u00f6ffler, who had helped support the restoration of the synagogue, was called asked to call out the names. After Nathan, I came up, then the Sittigs and Wudls and also a friend of my fellow Geni curator from Israel, Rafi Kornfeld, was touring in the region and came to join us. \u00a0The last aliyah was given to everyone in the community, so we all stood up around the old torah as Michal read from it to conclude the torah service.<\/p>\n

The service was long, and with most of it in Czech or Hebrew, sometimes my attention flagged. \u00a0At one point I actually got disappointed because I was missing the smell of an old building. \u00a0I wanted some sense that the old congregation had been there. \u00a0The place felt too new somehow.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0989\"<\/a>After the service, many of us were invited by Jindra Bromova, the woman who organized the entire restoration project and this event, to the local hotel restaurant for lunch. \u00a0Nathan passed on the trout, but I actually liked it even though I don’t ordinarily eat much fish. \u00a0After lunch, we all went to the outskirts of town and climbed up to the old Jewish cemetery. \u00a0It is on a hill enclosed by a high wall that has broken down in one place so you can easily walk in. \u00a0The tombstones were recently cleaned (by Matana, I heard) and looked white and polished. \u00a0I could not find Rabbi Bloch’s grave, until I took out my blackberry and went to the Geni page and found a photo. \u00a0I realized it was against a wall and then Alex Woodle showed me exactly where it was. \u00a0Not with all the rest of the graves, but completely separate, along a wall about 10 yards away, his grave stood almost alone, lined up with some much later graves of children who had died young. \u00a0I did not understand this, since he died in 1850. \u00a0Later I asked Achab Haidler, a wonderful man, and actor by profession, who has helped catalogue many Jewish cemeteries<\/a> in the region, and he thinks the grave was moved, or perhaps the plaque with his name fell off and someone attached it to a different grave along the wall. \u00a0He said he would investigate further. \u00a0You can hear Achab on this video of the Ckyne synagogue<\/a>. \u00a0Achab can read all the tombstones, a very difficult task, and he even made a catalogue of the cemetery in Ckyne<\/a>. \u00a0 I should also mention Jan Podelsak, a local man who had been \"IMG_0957\"<\/a>working to rescue the old cemetery and the synagogue for about 20 years. \u00a0In fact, I recalled coming to Prague in 1996 and getting a poster about saving the Ckyne cemetery that he must have designed. \u00a0Jan was clearly very moved by the tribute to him and seeing his long dream fulfilled. \u00a0He is a local hero there in Ckyne.<\/p>\n

We returned to the synagogue at 4pm for a concert led by Michal For\u0161t<\/a>\u00a0and his band of musicians from Prague. \u00a0They began with a lengthy spoken introduction about my grandfather Eric Zeisl (whose grandmother was from Ckyne), followed by a performance of several of his works: Menuhim Song<\/a> for violin and piano, Shepherd’s melody for Clarinet and piano and two songs for baritone (Ein Stundlein wohl vor Tag<\/a> and my mom’s favorite Stilleben<\/a>). \u00a0This was well received and then followed by a very entertaining series of Jewish standards (Romania, Halavai, etc). \u00a0Michal is truly a great performer (and he said he had a cold, but we didn’t notice at all).<\/p>\n

The restoration of the Ckyne Synagogue<\/a> was obviously a group effort with many people involved. \u00a0Jindra’s business partner Vladimir Silovsky was extremely nice and showed me all the work that had been done. \u00a0The mayor was there too, and Jindra said he had dedicated one million Czech crowns to the project (about $50,000), which is quite a large sum for such a small town. \u00a0Many people came from all over the region to attend the ceremony. \u00a0An elderly Jewish woman, apparently the only one in the entire region, came to attend also. \u00a0She showed me her mother’s Jewish star and other family documents. \u00a0Apparently she had survived as a hidden child.\u00a0I met a British girl, Natalie, from Cesky Budejovice (Budweis) who came with some local friends of hers that she had met. \u00a0A Czech-Swiss woman said she had read about it on the Internet and decided to come from Basel. \u00a0 \u00a0There was a film crew and the rededication made the evening news in the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

We left just before Achab Haidler conducted a Havdalah service, because we had a two-hour drive back to Prague and both Nathan and I were exhausted. \u00a0Michaela drove us back through the scenic villages and countryside to the shining lights of Prague, with its castles and churches all lit up against the evening sky. \u00a0This has been an incredible trip for Nathan and for me, one that I am sure we both never forget. \u00a0I hope to return to Prague and the Czech Republic soon, to see all our friends and relatives, and to explore in more depth the home of 3\/4 of my ancestors. \u00a0I am coming away with a much better mental picture of the world that they lived in, and a real connection to their lives, which was my goal all along.<\/p>\n

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October 5, 2013 Michaela picked us up with Hana early this morning at 7:00 am for the drive down to Ckyne. \u00a0Prague is beautiful at all times of day, but especially in the morning when things are quiet and the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schoenblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}