Michelle Obama, accompanied by Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and political consultant David Axelrod, made an April 5 visit to Prague’s Jewish Quarter that included a stop at the Pinkas Synagogue.
The names of 80,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Bohemia and Moravia are inscribed on the synagogue’s walls. She also viewed a display at the synagogue of more than 200 children’s drawings from the Terezin ghetto on display.
While her husband was meeting with European Union leaders in the Czech capital, the first lady also visited the Old Jewish Cemetery, stopping at the graves of important figures from Prague’s Jewish history. She placed a folded piece of paper with a personal wish on the grave of rabbi and kabbalist Judah Loew ben Bezalel, also known by his acronym MaHaRaL, who died in 1609.
Obama also visited the Old New Synagogue, built around 1270 and the oldest European synagogue still used for religious purposes. She was greeted there by representatives of the Czech Jewish community.
The Associated Press reported that her whirlwind tour turned into a love affair with a city and its people, with crowds of young Czechs and tourists chanting “Obama! Obama!” and waving at the first lady. She waved back, and proclaimed near the end of her two-hour visit, “It was a wonderful visit, but much too short. I’ll be back.” — jta