We started our day with an excursion to the town of Pilsen. And though we did indeed visit the famous brewery, we began with a few Jewish locations first.
We met a young woman, Jana and her husband Boruch, who both converted to Judaism and have dedicated their lives to the Jews of Pilsen, and their community. Unfortunately not much but a couple of breathtaking synagogues remain of this once bustling Jewish epicenter.
One of the synagogues that we visited was the second largest in all of Europe. The shul, now empty, in a state of disarray, needs millions of dollars in repairs, and is impossibly cold during the winter. However, the shul was temporarily warmed up as we participated in a shiur led by the Av Beit Din
, Rav Gedalia Dov Schwartz. We then moved onto the castles of Prague, cloistered off in an exclusive area near a covenant and Governmental buildings. We even walked through a famous alleyway where Kafka used to sit and write in a local café. That café is now a bookshop, selling Kafka’s works, among others.
Finnally we had dinner at the Israeli Consulate, and met with the Consul General, learning about some of his important work here in the Czech Republic.
And now… it is off the Artzeinu Hakedosha – we will be arriving in the early morning at Ben Gurion International Airport.
Shalom and good night,
Rabbi Gelman
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