New Yorkers in Prague Get Insider’s Glimpse of Jewish Rebirth

PRAGUE - In the center of the Czech Republic capital of Prague sits the appropriately-named Male Namesti, literally the “Small Square,” where two buildings sport the trademark purple flag of New York University. Inside, some 150 undergraduates from the school’s main campus in Greenwich Village spend their semester abroad learning about Prague and, for the students of professor Kateřina Čapková’s Modern Jewish History class, the rebirth of the storied city’s historic Jewish community.

On a recent day, Rabbi Manis Barash walked a block from his Chabad-Lubavitch center to give the class an insider’s glimpse to Jewish Prague, a city he “fell in love with” when he and his wife arrived as emissaries some 14 years ago. His lecture also focused on the tenets of Chasidism and how the religious movement, with its emphasis on the innate value of scholar and simpleton alike, transformed Jewish life across Europe.

“It’s extremely important to hear from someone who believes in what we are learning in class,” said Čapková, a non-Jewish academic who also works with the Terezin Institute, an association of Holocaust survivors in the Czech Republic. “It’s also very important to be in contact with different Jewish communities in Prague.”

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Barash, whose center has presided over the establishment of an institute dedicate to the teachings of Prague’s most famous rabbi, the 16th-century sage known as the Maharal, told the class that Chasidism – which draws on the Maharal’s teachings – rejuvenated Jewish life by focusing on the power of the individual and the Jewish people’s collective unity in relation to the Torah.

By the start of World War II, centers of Chasidic life had sprouted up all over Europe, but the Holocaust nearly wiped it all out.

“The Chasidic movement today is a miracle,” said Barash, offering his adopted home of Prague as an example. “Chasidism suffered tremendously in the Holocaust, but today there are beautiful Chasidic communities once more.”

Turning to the teachings of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, who sent thousands of emissaries to strengthen Jewish life in locations large and small around the world, Barash said that just as in the Europe of the past, Jewish life is experiencing a rebirth.

As an example, he noted that his children take part in an online school where they learn with other emissaries’ children across the globe.

“Why should the Internet only have instructions on how to build a bomb?” he offered. “Why not use it in a positive way?”

Echoing the views of other students, Lisa Chase, a junior at NYU’s College of Arts and Sciences, said that she found the discussion to be enlightening.

“I was really appreciative that he came, because before, I was having trouble connecting with the Jewish community here,” said Chase. “Rabbi Barash gave us resources.”

Alyssa de Ubl, a sophomore studying at NYU’s Stern Business School, was fascinated by the way the Barashes are raising their children.

“I was most interested by the way he’s choosing to educate his children,” said de Ubl. “He sent two of his children to the United States, and the younger ones are learning on the Internet.

“Even though there is not a large and established community here,” she continued, “they’re still willing to raise their children with strong Jewish values.”