Josefov

I've read quite a bit about the Jewish Quarter of Prague. It's located just north of Stare Mesto (the old town) and just across the river from Prague Castle. It's the only major tourist spot I've yet missed, so today I thought I'd take a gander. I've been avoiding paying large amounts of money for tourist admission, figuring that it would be much better to enter Prague Castle and such monuments in the winter when there are less tourists and I have more money, so I skipped the main sights and wandered around the district, checking out the sights and looking for a Belgian cafe I read about in my guide. The Belgian cafe turned out to be really damn expensive (It's known as Cafe Moule [as in mussels] and the Moule were aroundabouts $30...welcome to living inland), especially the Belgian beer, al of which I had previously tried, so I sat and drank a mediocre Czech beer.

So the Jewish Quarter, better known as a ghetto, was where Prague's large Jewish population was herded into over time. Originally known as a tolerant place for Jews to live, restrictions became tighter and tighter, combined with the occasional pogrom. In the 1890s, city leaders decided that the ghetto was a blight on the city, tore down manuy of the old buildings and scattered its residents throughout the city. The old medival townhouses were replaced by (at the time) modern Art Noveuau buildings.

After Chamberlain capitulated and the Nazis were handed the Sudentland and the rest of what is now the Czech Republic on a silver platter, the city's Jews, many who still lived in Josefov, were rounded up and placed in a new ghetto outside of the city in Terezin. Unlike other ghettos throughout Europe, Josefov was left intact. Hitler intended it to become "The Exotic Museum of an Extinct Race".

I expected Josefov to be creepy, a strange relic from the past. It was creepy, to be sure, but not so much for its past but for its present. Josefov is a chic shopping district now. The Art Noveau buildings are impressive, to say the least, and it is beautiful, but after reading about its history its more than a little hard to take. Jewish souvenier shops line the streets, people pay to see the old synagogues and the cemetary, then the go shopping at the United Colors of Beniton and have a coffee at an upscale French cafe. It puts American gentrification to shame, let me tell you.

Now seems as good at time as any to bring up a hard to stomach subject: Czech racism. They don't like the Romas at all here (otherwise known as gypsies). My roommates brother warned me about the "black people". Not much to say to that. Guidebooks and the people running my program have already warned me about this subject. It's definitely something that will be looking me in the face the entire time I'm here. And I'm not quit sure what to do about it.