Czech Jewish cemetary

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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 09:47:41 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Czech Jewish cemetary

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Michael Brenner <[email protected]>

Czech Jewish cemetary


Hi everyone,
 
I sent a letter to this list that I had received about the building on
an old Jewish cemetary of a Czech insurance company.  This continues
to be the case.  The Czech minister of culture, Pavel Dostal, made
some disparaging comments about the Jewish community and about
Orthodox Jews in particular in an editorial on the topic in a recent
edition of Pravo.  Although you've probably heard the story before,
here is the accurate version:
 
While building a headquarters for this insurance company, the remains
of a centuries old Jewish cemetary were uncovered.  This is not the
famous Old Jewish Cemetary of the Jewish quarter; this one is
separate.  Nevertheless, it is still ancient and it is still sacred. 
Minister Dostal, in response to the objections of the Jewish community
in Prague and elsewhere, wrote an editorial in Pravo where he made
disparaging comments about orthodox Jews, saying that he didn't
understand why it was so important to the Jewish community that
building on the location of a cemetary and at the very least,
restricting dancing or theater in whatever is built on top of the
cemetary, be prohibited. He plays on classic stereotypes of Jews as
being pushy and arrogant, and to demands from Anti-Defamation league
for an apology, he has answered simply that he's not an anti-Semite. 
Nevertheless, his comments are reprehensible in this day and age.

-- 
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