The Tandelmarkt -- Old Men and Boys at Rag Fair -- Jews in
Prague -- The Judenstadt -- Schools and Synagogues --
Remote Antiquity -- Ducal Victims -- Jewish Bravery --
Removal of Boundary Wires.
From the Hradschin, with its imperial associations, living and dead,
to an Old Clothes Market, is a change over which you may laugh or
lament, according to your mood. If you have seen Rag Fair in London,
you can form a weak notion of what I saw in the _Tandelmarkt_ at
Prague on my return to the _Altstadt_ from the palatial hill. For,
besides the difference of architecture, which heightens the general
effect, foreign Jews, whether in consequence of shabbier clothes or
dirtier habits, have always a more picturesque appearance than their
brethren in England.
What a gabble! accompanied by gesticulations so violent that you would
think the traders were coming to blows. Old men bent by age, of
venerable aspect and beard patriarchal, stand chaffering as eagerly
for cast-off garments as if they had Methuselah's years before them in
which to enjoy the proceeds. "It is naught," argues the buyer; and the
graybeards whine over their frippery, and turn it about, and display
it to the best advantage, and reply in a tone that extorts at last the
reluctant coins from the customer's pocket.
Look at the boys! How they ply nimbly hither and thither, picking up
stray bargains: adepts already in the craft of their grandsires. Look
at their fathers! No whining in their traffic: but hard altercation,
in which patient subterfuge proves more than a match for vehemence.
Here and there, however, a cunning Czech, by sharp practice with his
tongue, and a timely exhibition of his money, succeeds in carrying off
a blouse or hosen on his own terms; and the Hebrew, while pouching the
coins, sends after him low mutterings, which forebode ill to the next
customer.
As you wander among the stalls, and push between the busy groups,
noting how much of the merchandise appears utterly worthless, you will
find cause enough for laughter and for lamentation.
According to the census of 1850, the number of Jews in Prague is about
nine thousand, of whom nearly eight thousand are natives. Besides
these, there are many resident in some of the neighbouring villages;
but the number is less now than formerly. Daily perambulations of the
city with the old, familiar, dingy bag on shoulder, in quest of "clo,"
and the trade of the _Tandelmarkt_, are the resources to which most
betake themselves.
The place assigned for their residence, known as the _Judenstadt_
(altered of late years to _Josefstadt_), is a few acres of the
_Altstadt_, lying between the _Grosser Ring_ and the river: by far the
most densely populated part of Prague. It is crowded with houses:
traversed by narrow streets not remarkable for cleanliness, and has
altogether an uninviting aspect. Your sanitary reformer would here
find a strong case of overcrowding: two or three families in one
room, and a dozen, and, in some instances, more than twenty owners for
a single house. The number of faces of men, women, and children at the
windows, and the many comers and goers along the devious ways and in
and out of the darksome passages, leave you no reason to doubt the
fact. And in these miserable tenements dwell some of the chiefest men
of the community--men appointed to places of trust and honour, who sit
in the old Jewish council-house, and officiate in the synagogue.
But even here the ancient complexion and character are changing. New
and commodious houses built in a few places are a standing reproach to
the rest of the neighbourhood, and to the partisans of dirt. And while
prying about you will hear the voices of children in sundry schools,
where the teachers talk and work as if they were in earnest. Nor is
spiritual culture neglected, for you will see some four or five
synagogues, and a _Temple of the Reformed Israelitish God's-worship_.
In Prague, the manners and customs of the Jews are said to retain more
of their primeval characteristics than in any other place out of Asia;
the chief cause being the bitter persecutions to which the race, as
everywhere else, were subjected. Some accounts assign their first
settlement here to the fabulous ages of history, and make it
seventy-two years earlier than that of the Czechs, or in the year 462
of the present era. And the tradition runs, that on the ground now
occupied by the _Judenstadt_, and on part of the _Kleinseite_, the
first buildings were erected.
In the early days the Jews lived in whatever quarter of the city
suited them best; but, in consequence of many corrupt practices, Duke
Spitignew II. banished them all from Bohemia in 1059. Eight years
later, Duke Wratislaw II., moved to pity, granted leave for their
return, though not on compassionate conditions. Besides doubling their
former amount of yearly tax, they were to pay an annual fine of two
hundred silver marks, to purchase twelve houses near the river in the
_Kleinseite_ for their residence, and to wear a yellow cloak as a
distinguishing garment. Their number was never to exceed one thousand;
but in a few years it had grown to five thousand, whereupon the
surplus were banished; and, to check smuggling among the remainder,
they were removed from the _Kleinseite_ to their present quarters.
The yellow cloak having fallen into disuse, Ferdinand II. revived the
regulation with sharp severity in 1561. From the Second Ferdinand (in
1627) the Jews obtained important privileges, in consideration of a
yearly gift of forty thousand gulden: liberty to choose their own
magistrates and judges, to establish schools, and multiply in numbers
without limit. In 1648 they took a valiant part in the defence of
Prague against the Swedes, and the banner won by their bravery is
still preserved in the old synagogue. In 1745 they were once more
banished, but had permission to return the following year. Joseph II.
placed them on an equality with other citizens, and allowed them to
buy land, and dress as they pleased.
In the good old times, whenever any turbulence occurred in Prague, it
was always made the excuse for plundering or persecution of the Jews;
and in this particular their history accords with that of their
brethren in all other cities of Europe. They did but barely escape in
the memorable '48. Their town once had nine gates, which were shut at
nightfall; and subsequently, wires stretched across the streets,
marked the boundary between Hebrew and Christian: these were removed
in the year last mentioned, and have not since been replaced.