page_title: Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague
section_title: Notable people
hierarchical_section_title: Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague / Notable people
caption_attribution_description: Old Jewish cemetery in Prague
context_page_description: The Old Jewish Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery in Prague, Czech Republic, which is one of the largest of its kind in Europe and one of the most important Jewish historical monuments in Prague. It served its purpose from the first half of 15th century till 1786. Renowned personalities of the local Jewish community were buried here; among them rabbi Jehuda Liva ben Becalel – Maharal, businessman Mordecai Meisel, historian David Gans and rabbi David Oppenheim. Today the cemetery is administered by the Jewish Museum in Prague.
  The cemetery is mentioned in Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery, the novel which was named after it.
context_section_description: This list follows the numbering of the plan on the right.
  A small gravestone with triangular ending and engraved symbols of Magen David and a goose (gans means goose in German) belongs to David Gans (1541–1613), a contemporary of Maharal and other significant Jewish figures of the 16th century, a mathematician, astronomer, geographer and historian, whose chronicle Cemah David includes also Czech history.
  A gravestone of Gersonides – Mordecai Katz ben Gershom (died 1592) and his son Betzalel (d. 1589) – marks the place of eternal rest of important Prague Jewish printers. One of their works, Prague hagadah, was known throughout Europe.
  A tumba with a hexagram on the top of the front wall, which refers to name David, belongs to rabbi David Oppenheim (1664–1736). His book collection constitutes an important part of the Hebrew section of Bodleian Library in Oxford.
  A plain rectangular gravestone of rabbi and poet Avigdor Kara (died 1439) is the oldest on the cemetery. His elegy which describes a great pogrom of the Prague Ghetto in 1389 is still recited on Yom Kippur in Old-New Synagogue.
  A high rectangular gravestone commemorates Aharon Meshulam Horowitz (d. ca. 1545), the richest Jew of his time, who initiated building Pinkas Synagogue.
  On the hill Nephele (nephele is a miscarriage in Hebrew) were buried children who died before the age of one month. Remains and gravestones found during construction of modern Prague were transferred to this place, too.
  The oldest tumba on the cemetery belongs to a businessman, benefactor and renowned public person of the ghetto Mordecai Maisel (1528–1601). He built a synagogue in the Jewish quarter which is named after him.
  Rabbi Judah Löw ben Betzalel (1512–1609) and his wife rest under another tumba, decorated with symbols of a lion and wine grapes. Rabbi Judah, also called Maharal, wrote numerous religious and philosophical treatises. His name is also connected with legends; a legend about Golem is the most famous.
  A tumba belonging to Hendl Bassevi (died 1628) is probably the most representative on the cemetery. The lions seated on the gables of the tumba do not symbolize the name Judah; they carry the coat of arms of Hendl's husband Jacob Bassevi. He was the first Jew in Habsburg Empire to receive a title of nobility. A grave of this successful businessman cannot, however, be found on Prague Cemetery, because he died and was buried in Mladá Boleslav.
  The last tumba to be mentioned covers the grave of Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (1591–1655), a physician and a remarkable scholar born in Crete, who worked in many scientific fields and lived in many places in Europe, Asia and Africa.
caption: Orientation plan of the Old Jewish Cemetery of Prague
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