Vltava | schwingeninswitzerland

When we were in Prague’s Jewish Quarter, we saw the Old-New Synagogue. I got very excited and started yammering on about the Golem of Prague. Someone asked, “wasn’t he in Lord of the Rings?”

Nope, that’s Gollum, although Tolkien may have been making an allusion to the Golem (which becomes dangerous and makes bad decisions when it gets a soul). I realized not everyone knows about the Golem, so here it goes.

The Golem is a character in Jewish folklore that is artificially created and endowed with life. Huh? In other words, it is an animated anthropomorphic being created entirely from inanimate matter. Say what?

You know how Frosty the Snowman came to life one day. It’s like that.

In the late 16th century, to protect Prague’s Jews from anti-semitic attacks, Rabbi Loew of Prague created The Golem. He took clay from the banks of the Valta River, fashioned a man from it and said incantations to bring it to life. Initially, the Golem was a big help, kind of like your own personal robot.

Unfortunately, the Golem could only follow orders. This led to some strange outcomes as he would continue doing what he’d been asked to do until he was told to stop. You can see how this could become problematic. Eventually, the Golem ran amok and had to be deactivated.

The Golem has appeared in a vast array of works including: the Simpsons (Bart finds the Golem), Michael Chabon’s novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavailer and Clay (a great read) and in various editions of Dungeons and Dragons. It even served as inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (which she started writing in Switzerland, not far from where we live). The above statue of the Golem, looking astonishingly like Darth Vader.

Last weekend, we met Mrs. DiCaprio in Prague and had a great time. There are no friends like old friends and it is a wonderful city. Aside from the great company, here are some of the things we liked about Prague:

While certain parts of Prague have definitely figured out the tourist schtick, it didn’t seem as overdeveloped and the local culture seemed a bit more accessible than some cities.

It wasn’t majorly bombed during WWII and so it is rather old and incredibly beautiful.

It’s got a ton of history, a river running through it, beautiful buildings and the light is amazing. It gives the city a romantic, dreamy quality.

Czech culture is really interesting. Completely over-generalizing, the Czech Republic is independent, peaceful, loves democracy and is skeptical of authority (which is understandable given their conquest and years of rule under foreign empires like the Hapsburgs, Nazi Germany and The Soviet Union).

The Czech Republic has a rich tradition of art, music and literature that are distinctly Czech. This tradition still percolates through daily life there. Below is the Franz Kafka Memorial in the Jewish Quarter. It was inspired by his story “Description of a Struggle“.

Vaclav Havel, playwright, poet, essayist, dissident and first post-communist leader of the Czech Republic died in December 2011. His contributions cannot be overstated.

Czechs are proud of their history. Statutes abound. You see plaques all over the place with little paragraphs. For example, Johannes Kepler, the mathematician, scientist and astronomer lived in Prague. He has a plaque on a former residence.

Crosses in Prague’s main square commemorating the execution of 27 Protestants during the 30 Years War by the Catholic Hapsburgs in 1621.

There is a statute known as the Jan Hus Memorial in the center of Prague at at one end of Old Town Square. It depicts depicts Hus, a young mother, victorious Hussite warriors and Protestants who were forced into exile. He was burned at the stake for his beliefs that Catholic mass should be given in the vernacular, the local language, and not in Latin.

Prague has lots of interesting public art.

After John Lennon’s death, people painted his portrait, lyrics and grievances on this wall. The communist government painted them over every day. Each night, they appeared anew. It’s known as the Lennon Wall.