Jubilee Synagogue, Prague

Interesting facts

Today it is the largest synagogue in Prague, with seats for about 850 worshippers.

Above the entrance runs Psalm 118:20 in Hebrew, its letters doubling as a chronogram that spells out the Jewish year 5666, or 1906.

A verse from Malachi asking 'Have we not all one father?' appears in Hebrew, Czech and German; the trilingual inscription was restored in 2019.

Construction took just fifteen months, from 26 June 1905 to its consecration on 16 September 1906, the festival of Simchat Torah.

It replaced three demolished Josefov synagogues: the Zigeuner (Gypsy) Synagogue, the Velkodvorská Synagogue and the New Synagogue.

After Czechoslovakia became independent in 1918, the imperial jubilee name gave way to Jerusalem Synagogue, after the street it stands on.

The last Jewish wedding before the Holocaust took place here in April 1941; the Nazis closed the building that September.

In 2003 restorers found a time capsule left by the builders, holding documents on the construction from 1906.

Its organ was built by the Prague organ builder Emanuel Štěpán Petr, a reminder that the congregation began as a Reform one.

Inside, seven horseshoe arches on each side carry the women's galleries of a three-aisled basilica with two transverse wings.

Why it is worth it

The Jubilee Synagogue is the most colourful building in Prague's New Town, and one of the most unexpected. Its west-facing facade on Jeruzalémská street is a burst of Moorish Revival fantasy - horseshoe arches, bands of red and white masonry in the Mudéjar manner, two towers flanking the entrance and a great rose window set with a Star of David - handled with the flowing ornament of Art Nouveau. Wedged into an ordinary street not far from the main railway station, it stops passers-by who have no idea it is there.

It was built as a consequence of loss. At the turn of the 20th century Prague carried out a sweeping clearance of the old Jewish quarter, Josefov, and three synagogues were demolished in the process. The Jubilee Synagogue was built to replace them, designed by the Viennese architect Wilhelm Stiassny and executed by the builder Alois Richter, and completed in 1906. It was originally named in honour of the golden jubilee of Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1898. With room for about 850 worshippers, it was a statement of the confidence of Prague's Jewish community in the last years of the Habsburg monarchy.

Inside, the Moorish scheme continues in a lighter, almost decorative key: arches, galleries for women, and walls and vaults covered in brightly painted Art Nouveau ornament, so that the whole hall feels woven rather than built. During restoration, original painted decoration in the Viennese Secession manner was found under later layers of paint. It was built with an organ and a choir loft, unusual features for a synagogue that now serves an Orthodox congregation.

During the Nazi occupation the building was spared destruction but used only as a store for property confiscated from Prague's Jews. It remains a working synagogue of the Jewish Community of Prague, and after a long restoration it opened to visitors in 2008.

Getting there

The synagogue stands in Prague's New Town, about 1 km from the Old Town and within walking distance of Praha hlavní nádraží, the main railway station. Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG) is about 12 km away as the crow flies.

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia

The Jubilee Synagogue, also known as the Jerusalem Synagogue, is an active Orthodox Jewish synagogue, located on Jerusalem Street in the Nové Město district of Prague, in the Czech Republic. It is currently the largest synagogue in Prague, although not the largest in the country.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia