Jewish Museum in Prague

In 1906, the museum was founded to preserve artefacts from synagogues demolished during the clearance of Prague’s Jewish ghetto. The museum’s activities were restricted under both Nazi and Communist rule. In 1994, it regained independence, and its buildings and collections were returned, allowing research, education, and exhibitions to resume.

Located in Prague’s former Jewish Town, Josefov, the museum includes five synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery. The Pinkas Synagogue houses the Memorial to the Victims of the Shoah from the Czech lands, with nearly 80,000 names inscribed on its walls. Its upper floor hosts the exhibition Children’s Drawings from the Terezín Ghetto (1942–1944), created during secret art classes led by Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, reflecting the children’s inner world amid persecution.

The museum functions as a cultural and educational centre, offering guided tours in multiple languages and educational programmes for schools. It also manages the Shoah Documentation Department and an Oral History Project, recording survivor testimonies and preserving Jewish memory as part of Czech cultural heritage.