The Jewish Community of Prague

There is evidence of Jews in Prague from the tenth century onward. Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, it was a major center of rabbinic activity. The community suffered from persecutions in 1096 and 1142 and established the Jewish quarter as a result. Despite intermittent attacks, both legal and physical, the Jewish community continued to grow and became one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe in the early modern period, consisting of about 35,000 inhabitants. World War II put an end to centuries of vibrant Jewish life in Prague, which now has a Jewish population of less than two thousand.