Comments | inangkor: Jewish Quarter

inangkor

Jewish Quarter

Jun 12, 2007 22:03

Today we went to the Jewish Quarter, then hiking and swimming in a park outside the city. I am a technology master! I figured out how to use LJ galleries. Hopefully now I will be able to share more pictures with you. Keep in mind these are tourist junk and not for my portfolio but... this is what I saw today. I'll post the good ones after I've ( Read more... )

praha

Comments 4

d_willrobinson June 12 2007, 20:08:44 UTC

Cool pics; thanks for sharing.

Interesting reading about the graveyard. Just this week I was in an old (1700-1800) (OK, old for the US) cemetery. The gravestones were all aligned north-south and were on the western edge of the grave. This allowed the body to be on the east side and face east. When the archangel Gabriel blows his horn on the judgment day, he will come from the east and these poor souls will be ready.

inangkor June 13 2007, 09:37:38 UTC

"On Your Mark.... Get Set... SALVATION!"

Prehistoric burials were also found with the body curled on their sides and facing east. I guess they've been preparing for a while.

lieseldenver June 12 2007, 20:49:59 UTC

Things you probably already know:

-- Jews put rocks on everyone's graves, not just leaders. It's a sign that someone was there to pay their respects.

-- Jews didn't choose to bury their people on top of one another; they were forced to because they were only given a tiny amount of land for the cemetery. The cemetery became all crooked teeth because the Jews that would have cared for it were, you know, killed.

inangkor June 13 2007, 09:35:52 UTC

I didn't know that about the pebbles but I did know the Prague Jewish community only had a very small amount of land for the cemetery.

We went to Pinkas synagogue as well, where the names of all the Czech Jews killed in the camps were written on the walls. There's a hole in me when I start thinking about the holocaust, where I fail, my brain stops and I can't process how such a thing could possibly happen. I read a Jewish history in Prague and it was talking about totalitarianism and how the systematic annihilation of a person could be accomplished.

I know there are genocides larger than the holocaust going on right now. But something about the holocaust just touches and frightens me so badly, that humans could do such a thing and that it could be so... Planned. Regimented.

I guess that's one of the things that scares me the most, that even incredibly evil people can believe against all evidence and experiences to the contrary that they are doing good.