The ambitious Czech 10 Stars project, which we have reported on JHE as it has developed, was inaugurated last month — 10 synagogues and associated Jewish heritage sites, in 10 towns all over the country, that have been renovated (or re-renovated) with a mono-thematic exhibit installed to form 10 regional centers of Jewish culture and education (and tourism). (See previous posts on the progress of the 10 Stars project HERE and HERE.)
10 Stars, carried out by the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, is the most ambitious single Jewish heritage project in the Czech Republic, and was financed by an approximately €11 million grant from the EU, with further funding from the Czech Culture Ministry.
The project includes former synagogues and sites in the towns of Úštěk, Jičín, and Brandýs nad Labem to the north; Plzeň and Březnice to the west; Nová Cerekev and Polná in the south-central part of the country; Boskovice, Mikulov and Krnov to the east.
JHE coordinator Ruth Ellen Gruber is in the Czech Republic this week, trying to see as many of the far-flung sites as possible.
Today (July 6) she visited Úštěk, a small town north of Prague where a concert by the Czech-Canadian Jewish singer Lenka Lichtenberg took place in the sanctuary.
Built in 1794 and remodeled in the 19th century, the synagogue resembles a miniature tower rising on a rocky cliff. A Jewish school was located in the basement.
The synagogue had fallen into utter ruin by the 1980s. It was returned to Jewish community ownership in 1993 and was then fully restored and rededicated in 2003, with an exhibit recreating a Jewish schoolroom and the home of a teacher installed in the basement.
Under the 10 Stars project, the building next door that had been acquired by the local Jewish community in 1870 for use as the rabbi’s house and a Jewish school, was renovated, and an exhibition on Jewish schools in the Czech lands has been installed there. It consists mainly of information panels and images, with a few books and other artifacts. The exhibition includes the reconstructed schoolroom and teacher’s residence in the basement of the synagogue, which have been expanded to include panels and other material.
Unfortunately, all of the panels, captions and even the computer touch screen are only in the Czech language. (We are told that each exhibit will eventually also have booklets with the material in English, but that the translations have not yet been completed.)
REG took the opportunity also of visiting the Jewish cemetery in Úštěk, which dates back to the 16th century. Long abandoned, it was restored in 2005 and is well sighposted (with even a QR code to get info on you smart phone), surrounded by a wall (though accessible via an open gate or through a broken part of the wall) and seems to be well maintained.