MARK TALISMAN
MARK TALISMAN (, l I s I < I ) [ I \l \ I s [ On the Sunday following the revolution, the Jewish community of Prague devised its own plan of liberation. I was fortunate to be there a few weeks...
...Among the new Czech leaders is Rita Klimova, the new ambassador to Washington...
...The Precious Legacy had visited 10 cities in the United States and Canada, but not a line was printed about it in any Czech newspaper during the five years of its creation and display...
...The events began in Josefov (the ancient Jewish quarter of Prague) on November 17, 1989, when 40 Czech Jews gathered in the 16th-century Jewish town hall (It was on the stage of this hall that Franz Kafka read his works before they were sent to the publisher...
...Before the revolution, such a bold document would have been unthinkable...
...His task now is to work with the young rabbi, Daniel Meyer, and an energetic group of Jews who want to learn Hebrew and celebrate the Jewish life cycle in the open...
...When all eight were ablaze, a special prayer was chanted in Hebrew and Czech for the health and success of Czechoslovakia's new president...
...Shortly after his election, Galsky conferred with President Vaclav Havel and other officials of the new Czech government about a range of Jewish concerns...
...There, he found the offices all but deserted...
...Now the exhibit will travel to Israel and other countries...
...Openly Jewish, Klimova was born in Prague, but lived some of her teen years in Brooklyn...
...Galsky was returned to the presidency of the Council of the Jewish Communities of the Czech Lands, which he had served before the Communist putsch removed him from office...
...A representative of the government was present to receive these greetings and to transmit them to the president...
...Formal relations were completed in February...
...Desidir Gal-sky, the distinguished former leader of the community who had been ousted, and beg his forgiveness in the hope of retaining some form of menial employment—if that were even conceivable under the circumstances...
...Winter dusk setded in early in Prague on this Chanukah night, as the Jewish town hall's bells counted 4 o'clock while the hands of the clock, with both Hebrew and Roman numerals, arrived at four from opposite directions...
...Inside, the crimson satin banner of continued on page 56 the Czech Jews stretched across the iron gratework that enclosed a central bimah (platform...
...At the next regular meeting of the Council of the Jewish Communities of the Czech Lands the following Wednesday, Kraus was formally presented with the manifesto calling for his resignation...
...Kraus did just that...
...Deputy Prime Minister Jiri Hromadka expressed to Galsky his desire to visit Israel soon, and the new Czech foreign minister, Jiri Dienstbier, told Galsky an early priority of the new Czech government would be to recognize Israel...
...Hromadka also agreed to co-sponsor a Prague concert in March of five cantors from the United States and Canada to perform first for the Jewish community in the Jerusalem Street Synagogue, the largest in Prague, and then for the general community...
...She lamented to me that the press of duties in forming the new government had prevented her, for the first time in her memory, from attending the Al-teneu Schule for the first night of Cha-nukah...
...The new president, Vaclav Havel, invited Galsky to sit in a special section to witness the sWearing-in and then to present greetings in the 15th-century casde where Bohemian kings were inaugurated...
...Prominendy displayed on the banner is a magen david with a Swedish military cap in its center...
...While in Czechoslovakia, I concluded negotiations for revival of The Precious Legacy, an extensive exhibit of350Judaic objects from the Jewish Museums of Prague, which was co-sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and the Project Judaica Foundation in 1983...
...Many of these artifacts had been confiscated by the Nazis from Jews and shipped to Prague, intended for an eventual "museum to an extinct race...
...These volumes will join other samizdat publications soon to be exhibited in the museum of the city of Prague...
...Czech Jews formulated a manifesto and nailed it to the door of their town hall...
...I was fortunate to be there a few weeks later to hear of the drama from the participants...
...Jews began streaming to the Alteneu Schule, the 13th-century synagogue on Maiselova Street in the Jewish quarter...
...the banner was given to the Jews of Prague for defending the Crown of Bohemia against the invading Swedes in the 17th century...
...He coordinates the work of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the foint Distribution Committee and the federal government's legislative program for CJF...
...The following Sunday, December 4, 1989, elections were held and Dr...
...Heller, decided to quit at once but the general secretary, Frantisek Kraus, defi-andy refused...
...Spared from the wartime destruction that ravaged other cities, Prague kept intact its Judaica collection in eight historic Jewish sites and 50 warehouses...
...The Jews were elated...
...I was there on the eighth night, the first Chanukah in freedom under Czechoslovakia's new government, elected and installed only hours before...
...Kraus rushed for political sustenance to his protector, the Ministry of Religion...
...After everyone signed it, they nailed the manifesto to the town hall door for others to read and, hopefully, to sign...
...The Jews were there to air their many grievances against their two leaders, who had been installed with the blessings of the Communist Ministry of Religion...
...When confronted with these demands, the elderly president, Buhomil Mark Talisman, director of the Washington Action Office of the Council of Jewish Federations (CJF), supervises all Federation activities related to the resettlement of Soviet fews...
...Galsky had been the leader of a clandestine samizdat (underground press) operation that allowed the young Jews of Prague to sustain themselves and hundreds of others with first-time Czech translations of great Hebrew writings— works such as hand-typed, handbound copies of Rashi, each copy passing among dozens of people...
...Young people told of how they had been spied upon and denounced to the secret police by the general secretary of the Council of the Jewish Communities of the Czech Lands...
...Not only did he not resign, but his Communist colleagues presented him with a formal letter of commendation...
...Galsky read a letter on behalf of the Jewish community, wishing the new president success and pledging him and his new government the support of the Jewish community...
...she is still dis-armingly Brooklynesque in her speech...
...Older people mourned the loss of their once-revered community structure, having seen it fall into a Kafkaesque administration at the hands of their "leaders...
...The assembled Jews formulated a manifesto demanding that the two leaders resign at once...
...Then Dr...
...Now the Jewish community lined up to sign the manifesto...
...Fifteen other countries wanted to have the exhibition but were refused by the government of Czechoslovakia...
...When he inquired of the one person he could find, he was told that, under the circumstances of rapid change, he would do well to rush back to the community, find Dr...
...Both children and adults were called up to the bimah to light a candle on the 16th-century menorah...
Vol. 15 • April 1990 • No. 2
