| Museum's History |
About Museum
Museum's History
Present
at the establishment of the Jewish Museum in Prague in 1906 were the
historian Dr. Hugo Lieben and Dr. Augustin Stein, the representative
of the Czech Jewish movement and later head of the Prague Jewish Community.
The original aim was to preserve valuable artefacts from the Prague
synagogues that had been demolished during the reconstruction of the
Jewish Town at the beginning of the 20th century. The Museum was closed
to the public after the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia on 15
March 1939. In 1942 the Nazis established the Central Jewish Museum,
to which were shipped artefacts from all the liquidated Jewish communities
and synagogues of Bohemia and Moravia. Its founding was proposed by
Dr. Stein who, in co-operation with other specialist members of staff,
sought to save the Jewish objects that were being conficated by the
Nazis. Following long negotiations, the Nazis approved the project to
set up a central museum, albeit guided by different motives than the
Museum´s founders.
After
World War II, the Jewish Museum came under the administration of the
Council of Jewish Communities in Czechoslovakia. In 1950, ownership
was transferred to the State, which, as of 1948, was in the hands of
the communists. As a result, the Museum was markedly restricted in its
preservation, exhibition and educational activities.
The collapse of the communist regime in 1989 created the necessary conditions that led to a
change in the Museum´s status. On October 1, 1994,
the Museum buildings and collections were returned to the Jewish Community
of Prague and the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic
respectively. At the same time, the Jewish Museum took on new life as
a non-state organization.
© 2004 - 2008 Jewish Museum in Prague