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• 1 media/Jewish_Museum_and_the_Spanish_synagogue_in_Prague.jpeg 2022-02-09T14:17:53-08:00 Jewish Museum in Prague 83 plain 2022-05-09T12:39:48-07:00 The JMP, or Židovské muzeum v Praze, has played an important role in the preservation of Jewish artifacts and the documentation of Jewish culture since its founding in 1906. One of the oldest Jewish museums in Europe, it started out as Spolek pro založení a vydržování Židovského musea v Praze (The Society for the Establishment and Maintenance of a Jewish Museum in Prague) and was formed in response to the demolition of much of Josefov, ostensibly as part of city planning efforts, at the turn of the twentieth century. Its primary purpose was to ensure the preservation of valuable ritual objects from the three synagogues that were razed, but it also aimed to document Jewish life in Bohemia and Moravia. The Society’s activities ended with the arrival of the Nazis in 1939 and its collections were placed under the administration of Prague’s Jewish Religious Community (JRC) in 1940 (12).
  
  

  During the occupation, JRC staff lobbied for the creation of a central museum, with the ulterior motive of saving artifacts from pre-war museums, defunct Jewish synagogues, and eradicated Jewish communities throughout Bohemia and Moravia. The Nazis approved the proposal, and Židovské ústřední muzeum, or the Central Jewish Museum, was established in 1942. Items confiscated from Jewish communities were thereafter shipped to the museum for the duration of the war (13).
  
  After WWII, the Central Museum was re-established as the JMP and placed under the administration of the National Council of JRCs. In 1948, communists successfully staged a coup d’etat. The museum was nationalized as the State Jewish Museum in 1950, and its activities were severely restricted. After the communist regime fell in 1989, the museum buildings were returned to the Jewish Community of Prague, while its collections were returned to the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic in 1994. Since then, the JMP has operated as an independent museum (14).
  
  Today, it is one of the most frequented museums in Prague and contains one of the world’s largest Judaica collections. In addition to overseeing many of the Jewish Quarter’s historical synagogues, the Ceremonial Hall, and Old Jewish Cemetery, the museum also administers a gallery, an archive, and a library (15).