Jewish Museum in Prague

Foundation and development (1906–1939)

The museum was founded in 1906 by the historian Salomon Hugo Lieben (1881–1942) and August Stein (1854–1937), a representative of the Czech-Jewish movement and a city councillor. At the core of its collection were items from synagogues that had been demolished as a result of the clearance of the Prague Jewish ghetto, which was demolished in an urban renewal campaign at the beginning of the 20th century.

During Nazi occupation (1939–1945)

After the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the Jewish Museum Association was abolished in the autumn of 1939. Its collection was taken over by the Prague Jewish community. In 1942, on the initiative of Karel Stein, head of the department for rural affairs, the Central Jewish Museum was established. The Nazis approved the project after lengthy negotiations, although they pursued different aims from its initiators. Under the cover name "museum", the Central Jewish Museum became a repository for liturgical objects, books and archival documents from defunct Jewish communities. Thanks to the efforts of the art historian and chief curator cs:Josef Polák and his colleagues, the institution continued operating during the war.

After the war (1945–1994)

Around 77,297 Czech Jews were killed during the Second World War and so afterwards there was almost nobody to claim the confiscated objects preserved in the Museum. Endowed with a new vocation, ensuing from the historical fact of the Holocaust, the Museum re-established its activity on 13 May 1945, under the administration of Jewish Religious Communities Council and under the leadership of Hana Volavková. Its first exhibition after the War took place on 26 June 1945. Among the personalities who worked here were the poet and scholar H. G. Adler who rescued many priceless documents from the Theresienstadt Ghetto for the Museum.

On 25 February 1948, after less than three years of post-war freedom, the Communists staged a coup d'état and took over the government of Czechoslovakia. Out of the Communist regime's initiative, the Jewish Museum became state property on 4 April 1950 and its name was changed respectively to the State Jewish Museum. During the Communist dictatorship, until its fall in November 1989, the raison d’être of the Museum was constantly disputed on ideological grounds. The topics seemingly related to the "campaign for peace and against fascism" (favourite clichés of the Communists) were allowed. Nevertheless, pretensed campaign against another adversary, Zionism, restrained the functioning of the Museum nearly to the point of preclusion, regarding research, exhibiting, publishing and cooperation with foreign experts alike. Curators were not allowed to have contact with Judaica curators abroad. Moreover, activity of the Museum was followed closely by the state organs. However, the concern of the state did not include conditions of the Museum collections and buildings. Jewish themes were suppressed.

Post 1989

In 1994, in the wake of the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the buildings used by the Museum, as well as the Old Jewish Cemetery, returned to the possession of the Jewish Community of Prague and the Museum's collections were restituted to the Federation of Jewish Communities as the legal successor of the ceased Jewish Communities. In the same year, Leo Pavlát became the director of the successively re-established Jewish Museum in Prague.

In 1994, the museum buildings were returned to the Prague Jewish community, while the bulk of the collections were returned by the state to the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic. On 1 October 1994, the museum regained its independence from the state. Leo Pavlát served as director from 1994 to 2023. Pavla Niklová became director on 1 July 2023.