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The 7th of September 2009 (18th of Elul 5769) is the 400th anniversary of the death of Judah Loew ben Bezalel, known both as the Maharal and Rabbi Loew. Published by the Jewish Museum in Prague and the Academia Publishing House on the occasion of the major exhibition of the same name at Prague Castle, the deluxe book Path of Life is more than a mere catalogue for the exhibition, although it features a substantial selection of the exhibits on view from the collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague and from numerous other prestigious Czech and foreign cultural institutions. It is a work that provides insights into the authentic legacy of the Maharal, which so far has remained concealed from the Jewish and non-Jewish public. More (PDF)

Price:
99,- USD
72,- EUR
 
English ver.
 
89,- USD
64,- EUR
 
czech version

Text: Miroslava Ludvíková, Miroslava Tesařová, Zuzana Tlášková Illustrations: Hana Pavlátová An accompanying workbook for pupils and students of elementary and secondary schools that summarizes the life of Rabbi Loew and includes crosswords and tests on Jewish topics. In Czech, 14 pp, full-colour illustrations ISBN 978-80-86889-91-7

An accompanying catalogue to the exhibition in the Robert Guttmann Gallery. Jarmila Mařanová (b. 1922) studied at the School of Applied Arts in Prague and since 1962 has focused on graphic art. In 1963–67 she made a number of monotypes and prints based on motifs from the novels and short stories of Franz Kafka. In 2006 she donated a large set of these works to the Jewish Museum in Prague. A series of drawings and prints based on Prague motifs also dates from this time. These works are among her best and will be featured in the exhibition Kafka and Prague. Jarmila Mařanová also made a number of prints based on biblical motifs, as well as a series of lithographs for John Amos Comenius’ work The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart. In 1976 she emigrated to the USA, where she continued her artwork. In 1984, her illustrations of works by Kafka were praised by America’s leading art societies. She is currently living in the State of Idaho. Her work is represented in a number of European, American and Israeli collections.
Author Arno Pařík. 40 pp, 110 full-colour illustrations, in Czech and in English.
ISBN 978-80-86889-76-4

The catalogue for the exhibition at the Robert Guttmann Gallery presenting one of the most well-known graphic artists in pre-war Berlin who is almost forgotten today. Michel Fingesten (1884–1943) was born in Northern Moravia. Soon after beginning his art studies in Vienna in 1900 he left for America, where he travelled and made a living by drawing illustrations for newspapers. After returning to Europe in 1907 he studied with Franz Stuck in Munich. He then set off to Asia, where he spent four years on the eastern seas. In 1911 he was briefly in Paris, later settling in Berlin, where he began to focus intensively on graphic art. He soon became a well-known artist, and his works were often exhibited and acclaimed for their originality. After his work had been designated as ‘degenerate art’ in 1933, Fingesten moved to Milan, where he organized exhibitions and produced work that reflected ironically on the Nazi regime in Germany. Being of Jewish descent, he was sent to the Civitella del Tronto internment camp in 1940 and was later interned in Ferramonti di Tarsia. He died of an infection in Cosenza on the 8th of October 1943, a few days after it was liberated by the British Army.
Author Arno Pařík. 36 pp, 100 full-colour illustrations, in Czech and in English.
ISBN 978-80-86889-71-9

The catalogue for the exhibition of artworks by Hella Guth at the Robert Guttmann Gallery. Hella Guth (1908–1992) studied in Prague in the 1930s, where she spent part of her youth. Most of her work, however, was created in the difficult conditions of exile and in the face of international competition in London and Paris. Thanks to her diligence and talent, however, Guth managed to achieve relatively widespread acclaim not only in the 1950s and 60s but also in recent times, which have seen a rediscovery of her work in several galleries in France and Germany. The first ever solo exhibition in Prague of Guth’s works was prepared at the Robert Guttmann Gallery for the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth.
Editor: Arno Pařík. 56 pp., 154 colour illustrations, Czech and English editions.
(English) ISBN 978-80-86889-62-7

The catalogue for the Jewish Museum in Prague’s exhibition of artworks by Friedrich Feigl at the Robert Guttmann Gallery focuses on the life and work of this hitherto overlooked artist from Prague. It contains 72 pages and 203 full-colour reproductions of his paintings and prints. Friedrich Feigl was one of the initiators of the Osma group, whose first exhibition in April 1907 is considered to mark the beginning of modern art in Bohemia. The catalogue includes many previously unpublished details on his life and his pre-war works, particularly those in the collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague. Published by the Jewish Museum in Prague. Available in Czech and in English.

The catalogue for the exhibition in the Robert Guttmann Gallery is the first detailed look at the history of the Jewish Museum in Prague’s library, which is now a fully functional and modern institution with a comprehensive collection of Judaica and Hebraica from Bohemia. This publication covers the period from the establishment of the Jewish Museum in Prague’s book collections through to the founding of the Central Jewish Museum during the war and then moves on to the library’s activities after the war and during the existence of the State Jewish Museum through to the present. In addition, it features the pre-war Library of the Prague Jewish Religious Community and the fate of the Central Library in Terezín. There are also profiles of three figures who were closely connected with the fate of the museum and the library – S. H. Lieben, T. Jakobovits and O. Muneles. Richly illustrated, this catalogue presents previously unpublished archive documents, which are complemented by the lively reminiscences of contemporaries.
Editor: Michal Bušek. 80 pp., illustrations, Czech and English editions.
(Czech) ISBN 978-80-86889-54-2
(English) ISBN 978-80-86889-55-9

Catalogue accompanying the exhibition focusing on the fate of the Torah scrolls from Bohemia and Moravia that are now on loan to Jewish communities throughout the world and used for religious purposes. This catalogue charts their “second life”. The bulk of the unique collection of Torah scrolls and binders from the then State Jewish Museum in Prague was sold abroad in 1964. This catalogue highlights the tradition of the Torah scroll and its place in the life of the synagogue and elucidates the emergence and function of Torah scrolls by presenting a selection of these important artefacts. It also explains the fate of the Torah scrolls during and after the Holocaust, and tells the story of their sale and further existence by featuring copies of archive documents and charting the places in the world where the scrolls are now in use. By referring to particular examples, the catalogue seeks to highlight the bonds that have emerged between Bohemian/Moravian communities and the Jewish congregations around the world which are now using the scrolls.
Edited by Dana Veselská. pp. 72, full-colour illustrations, in Czech and English.
ISBN 80-86889-41-6

Published for the 100th anniversary of the Jewish Museum in Prague, this illustrated catalogue features a hundred of the most interesting items from the museum’s collections (which contain as many as 40,000 Judaic treasures). It includes a representative selection of textiles, metalworks, miscellaneous items, manuscripts, rare books and visual artworks. These items have been selected as they are either exceptional in some way or else are the most widely represented items in the collections. Most of them are on display in the museum’s exhibitions.
The catalogue contains whole-page photographs and details of the items with brief texts in six languages – Czech, English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.
The selection was made by the curators Michaela Hájková, Jaroslav Kuntoš, Olga Sixtová and Dana Veselská. Edited by Eva Kosáková. 252 pp.
ISBN 80-86889-33-5

Catalogue accompanying the exhibition at the Robert Guttmann Gallery focuses on the beginnings of the Jewish Museum in Prague and presents a catalogue of its prewar collection. The Museum’s first clash with the beast – in the form of the arrogant and insensitive approach of Prague City Hall – occurred in 1906. In that year, the Museum Association, under the guidance of Lieben and Stein, managed to save certain items from the synagogues that were demolished during the clearance of the Jewish ghetto in Prague’s Jewish Town and, in so doing, to lay the foundations for one of the first Jewish museums in Europe.
Until the Second World War, the Museum contained a representative collection of Judaica and Hebraica from the territory of Prague and Bohemia. A number of items from the pre-war collection now comprise the most valuable part of the Jewish Museum in Prague’s holdings. In 1940 the beast struck again. The Museum Association was closed down by the Nazis, but in 1942 the almost forty-year existence of the Jewish Museum in Prague contributed in a decisive way to the establishment of the Central Jewish Museum for the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – what is now the Jewish Museum in Prague.
Edited by Magda Veselská. In Czech and English, 156 pp., full-color illustrations.
ISBN 80-86889-38-6

A catalogue published for the exhibition Form of the Scroll presents various types of one of the earliest book forms – the scroll – and shows how it remains vital to the Jewish religion and culture. The collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague contain 500 scrolls, dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries and stemming from the Czech lands, Italy and elsewhere. The selected items on display include ceremonial scrolls that are read during the synagogue service – particularly the Torah scroll (containing the Pentateuch) – as well as private illuminated and illustrated scrolls of Esther. Family scrolls that record true stories of dramatic events in the lives of individuals are inspired by the Book of Esther and the festival of Purim. Local history and a more general picture of the insecure status of members of the Jewish community is reflected in the scrolls, often in a colourful way. The attraction of the scroll for modern artists is reflected in the work of El Lissicky (1917) and Markéta Cudlínová (2006). Author: Olga Sixtová, pp. 61, in Czech and English.
ISBN 80-86889-32-7

A catalogue for Canadian artist Melissa Shiff’s project which offers an alternative look at the traditional Jewish wedding ceremony. Led by an effort to enliven the rigid ritual practice that has remained unchanged for centuries and the desire to give it a new meaning that can be sustainable in today’s plurality of opinions and identities, the artist has prepared her own wedding as an experimental ‘live performance’. She uses a range of contemporary art techniques and intellectual strategies. The result of this innovative approach is a ritual with a traditional function and a freshly restructured content. Text by Louis Kaplan, Melissa Shiff, Michela Hájková.
35 pp., 63 full-colour reproductions, bilingual Czech-English.
ISBN 80-86889-34-3

Catalogue for the exhibition at the Robert Guttmann Gallery, focusing on the course and attributes of the traditional wedding ceremony of Ashkenazi Jews. The photographs, garments, rings, contracts and many other items on display provide an overall picture of one of the most important events in the life cycle of every individual and show how the wedding has been celebrated by the Jewish community in the past and present.
Text by Dana Veselská. 165 pp., 108 full-colour reproductions, bilingual Czech-English.
ISBN 80-86889-31-9

English, format 22 x 31 cm, 376 pp., hardback in a case; 500 full-colour illustrations of textile items (100 full-page) More >>>

Catalogue accompanying the exhibition at the Robert Guttmann Gallery (February 2 – March 19 2006) is focused on Josef Polák, an important art historian, museum specialist and organizer of cultural life in pre-war Czechoslovakia who significantly influenced the form of the Jewish Museum in Prague. Josef Polák advocated the ideals of pre-war Czechoslovakia as director of the state-owned East Slovak Museum in Košice. There he developed very progressive and successful activities in the fields of museum management, art history, heritage protection and public education. After returning to Prague, Polák was dismissed from the state service on account of his Jewish descent. In 1942, he became the main curator of the Jewish Central Museum in Prague, where he put together a collection-building concept and a system for sorting, describing and registering liturgical items, as well as setting out rules for the specialist care of artefacts. Despite being in immediate danger of his life as a Jew, he became involved in the resistance movement. He was arrested by the Gestapo in August 1944 and disappeared without trace in Auschwitz in January 1945. Exhibition curator and catalogue author is Magda Veselská. The catalogue is bilingual in Czech and English. 119 pages.
ISBN 86889-22-X

Alexandr Brandeis (1848-1901) was a patron of the arts and a friend of the leading Czech artists of the National Theatre generation: Mikoláš Aleš, Václav Brožík, J. V. Myslbek, Fr. Ženíšek and many other. The exhibition is devoted to several members of his family, primarely his dauther Helena and son-in-law Adolf Wiesner (1871-1942), who was also a supporter of the Czech national movement and respected painter at the time. Wiesner belong to the founding members of Mánes Assotiation of Fine Artists who founders of the independent journal of Czech Modernism ´Free Directions´. He was the pupil of Prof. Vojtěch Hynais at the Prague Academy and on the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries he worked mostly in Paris, together with Alfons Mucha and Fr. Kupka. In those days Wiesner came to the fore as a distinctive artist, noted for his portraits, melancholic landscapes and Art Nuveau decorative designs. After Nazi Occupation in March 1939 Wiesner was deported to Terezín ghetto, where he perished in 10 October 1942. The Jewish Musuem now shows his artworks first time after almost 70 years.

Laces from the Collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague
 

Emil Orlik – Portraits and Friends and Contemporaries
 

A catalogue published for the exhibition of the same name, this is actually a small monograph on Emil Orlik, the famous early twentieth century Prague artist, sketcher and portraitist. From 1899 onwards a member of the Vienna Sezession, he became celebrated for his woodcuts and portraits of famous artists, musicians, actors, poets, writers and philosophers. This monograph contains a detailed biography of the artist and features over 200 reproductions of his drawings, woodcuts, prints and paintings, with portraits of (among others) Albert Einstein and Richard Strauss. Author Dr. Arno Pařík, 96 pp., 212 full-colour illustrations.
ISBN Czech: 80-85608-73-1
80-85608-74-X English

Price:
7 USD
6 EURO
 
English ver.
 
czech version

The exhibition presented at the Robert Guttmann Gallery from September 8 till November 6 2005 was the first exhibition of the work of the painter Jiří Jilovský since 1927. The artist Jiří Jilovský (1884-1958) is known for his ‘high’ Art Nouveau work and his meticulously executed graphic pieces of various forms, techniques, styles and motifs. His series of Old Prague views, landscape scenes and portraits are among his most frequently shown graphic works. Particularly well-known are his innovative ex-libris, of which he made more than 120. It is less well-known that he was also a painter and that he also did set designs. He painted mainly portraits and landscapes, city views and genre-based scenes, as well as flowers, animals and decorative compositions. Jilovský mainly worked for in the German-speaking Jewish society, which vanished, almost without a trace, during the Holocaust. A catalogue is available now in Czech and English language. Curator and author of the catalogue: Arno Pařík.
ISBN 80-86889-07-6 (Czech version)
ISBN 80-86889-08-4 (English version)

Prague Jewish Cemeteries
 

The project "REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING" is focused on the depicting of the Shoah and on the possibilities of the reflections through the animated, documentary and featured films, which were shot in different time period after the World War II. During several years dozens of such films were presented to the public in five countries round the Central Europe. The final stage of this project is the release of the DVD/DVD-ROM with three films, which were awarded the prises on prestigious film festivals. These films are in original sounds with Czech, English, German, Hungarian and Polish subtitles.More >>>

An interactive CD ROM (“Synagogue Textiles”) has been released by the Jewish Museum in Prague in order to supply enough information to those who are interested in its textile collection More >>>

CD-ROM Prague Synagogues
 

DVD: Michael Bielicky
 

 
Dol Dauber. Musical Fantasies and Jewish Liturgical Songs
 

 
The Forgotten Voice of the Jeruzalémská Synagogue in Prague. Cantor Ladislav Moshe Blum
 

Audio CD: My Heart is a Jazz Band
 

A limited collection of a hundred numbered and hallmarked silver medallions has been produced for the 400th anniversary of the death of Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (ca. 1525–1609). This item features a sculptured depiction of the lion and plant motifs that appear on the Maharal’s tombstone. The back bears the Hebrew inscription Maharal mi Prag and the medallion hangs on a pearl necklace. The pearl is symbolically connected with the Maharal in three ways – his wife, who was a great support to him, was called Perl; there also is a connection to the Sabbath blessing: “courageous women, more precious than pearls”; and finally his epitaph includes the words: “he wrote… more than 15 works – a charming string of pearls around his head”. The medallion jewel is kept in a small velvet box, which contains a leaflet with the epitaph text in Hebrew, Czech and English.

This silver commemorative coin (nominal value CZK 200) was issued by the Czech National Bank in 2009 to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of the renowned Jewish scholar Rabbi Judah Loew (Löw) ben Bezalel. The embossed depiction on the obverse side contains four inset Stars of David with the dates of pogroms against Jews in the Czech lands. The reverse side features the figure of the golem on the base of a Hebrew text from the Talmud which is turned upside down. According to the designer, placing the text upside down conveys a view back to the history of the local Jewish community. Silver, coinage, 2009, designer Josef Šafařík Diameter 31 mm, weight 13 g

Featuring artist Mark Podwal's full color paintings depictng the life and legends of the Great Rabbi Loew, this Jewish calendar spans 16 months from September 2008 to December 2009. Included are the Jewish holidays, weekly Torah portions and a brief biography of Rabbi Loew, legendary creator of the golem. Published in commemoration of the rabbi's 400th yahrtzeit. In Hebrew and English. 13" x 12".
 
sample 1     sample 2     sample 3     sample 4    

Original silkscreen on Acquerello Stucco Gesso paper in a limited edition of 100 prints signed by the artist to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the Jewish Museum in Prague
 
Mark Podwal was born in 1945 in Brooklyn, New York. He is perhaps best known for his drawings that have appeared in the New York Times over the past thirty-four years. His work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Jewish Museum in Prague. Podwal is the author of ten of his own illustrated books, which include The Decline and Fall of American Empire (1971); Freud’s da Vinci (1977); A Book of Hebrew Letters (1978); A Jewish Bestiary (1985); The Book of Tens (1994); Golem: A Giant Made of Mud (1995); The Menorah Story (1998); Jerusalem Sky (2005). As an illustrator he has collaborated with a number of renowned writers including Elie Wiesel, Cynthia Ozick, Francine Prose and Harold Bloom. He has received numerous awards, both in the United States and internationally, and in 1993 was decorated a Knight and in 1996 an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française). Podwal is currently collaborating with Academy Award winning filmmaker Allan Miller on a documentary on The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague.

A collection of papers given over the course of a working seminar at the Educational and Cultural Centre of the Jewish Museum in Prague on March 9, 2006. The seminar took place with the financial support of the Association of Museums and Galleries in the Czech Republic. The publication of the collection was financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Czech Committee of ICOM.
Jewish Museum in Prague, 2006. Dana Veselská (ed.). pp. 130, 30 black and white illustrations, English summaries.
ISBN 80-86889-42-4

This publication on Hebrew abbreviations in Jewish dedicatory inscriptions is the result of long-term epigraphic research into the Jewish Museum’s textile collections which was begun in 2000 by the authors Iveta Cermanová and Michaela Scheibová. This work deals with the important subject of Jewish literature and epigraphy, which has not previously been researched in the above context, and provides a range of valuable information on Hebrew inscriptions. The introduction comprises a paper on Hebrew abbreviations in dedicatory inscriptions on synagogue textiles. This is followed by an extensive lexicon of abbreviations encountered by the authors in their research into the Jewish Museum’s textiles. The abbreviations are provided with their Hebrew spelled-out forms, as well as translations into Czech and English. There is also an overview of the Jewish calendar and a select bibliography. The book contains 80 full-colour illustrations and is 167 pages in length.

This guide, which is intended not only for art historians, ethnologists and antiquaries but also for the general public, provides an overview of Judaica – a term that refers to Jewish ritual objects used in the synagogue and the home, and to other objects associated with the life of the Jewish community, societies, guilds and individual persons. More >>>

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13 USD 8 EURO

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13 USD 8 EURO

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13 USD 8 EURO

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13 USD 8 EURO

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13 USD 8 EURO

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13 USD 8 EURO

Price :
13 USD 8 EURO

Price :
13 USD 8 EURO

Price :
13 USD 8 EURO

Price :
13 USD 8 EURO