Jewish Museum in Prague

The Jewish Museum in Prague advertises itself as the most-visited museum in the Czech Republic, but until Thursday it hadn't been visited by us. That's largely because the museum is closed on Saturdays, when we have the most free time, because it's the Sabbath. With a second straight free Thursday, however, we decided to see it.
The museum is really broken up into six different sections: four synagogues, a cemetery and another historic building. My two favourite parts were the Spanish Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery. The Spanish Synagogue housed artifacts and information about Jews in the Czech lands in the 20th Century. Needless to say, this was a turbulent time. There were displays showing artifacts from various aspects of Jewish life in this time, including belongings from people imprisoned by the Nazis and various documents relating to the Communists' about-face about the state of Israel. There were also displays highlighting prominent Czech Jews in various disciplines.
The Spanish Synagogue was also impressive just for its interior. Every inch of the walls are covered in intricate patterns. It wasn't much to look at from the outside, but inside it ranks with some of the most beautiful religious buildings we've seen over here.
The Old Jewish Cemetery is a tiny little spot of land in the Jewish Quarter, or Josefov. For centuries it was the only cemetery available to the residents of Josefov, so they came up with a plan to conserve space. The graves were dug deep so people could be buried on top of each other. Consequently, there are now about 12,000 gravestones and possibly as many as 20,000 people buried in this small plot of land. Walking on the paths through the many old gravestones, standing inches apart with some leaning on each other, was quite something. It was also surprisingly peaceful, considering its location in the centre of Prague.
The other sights each covered a different topic. The Pinkas Synagogue, where the museum begins, is a monument to victims of the Holocaust. Names of Czech Jews deported by the Nazis are painted on the walls of the synagogue, sorted by family and the towns they were taken from. The Ceremonial Hall, right next to the cemetery, had a display on historical Jewish burial rites, including some example artifacts. The Klausen Synagogue had a display of religious artifacts, and the Maisel Synagogue traced the history of Jews in the Czech lands from the first appearance to about the start of the 20th Century (where the Spanish Synagogue picks up the story). It was all very interesting, and fairly well-presented. We decided against the fairly expensive audioguide, but the information on it might have been useful, especially when looking at the artifacts.
-Jason
Pictures: The first picture is from the inside of the Spanish Syangogue. It's not Chelsey's picture. All of the museum sites except the cemetery had a strict no-picture rule. So this is just a picture that we found on the internet. The second picture of the cemetery is Chelsey's. There are several more of her cemetery pictures on the Picasa site.