led here before the
destruction of Jerusalem seems little likely. It was, indeed, averred by
the Jews of Prague that they had their settlement here long before
Libu[vs]a launched her prophecies, before the birth of Christ in fact,
so that they at least might be considered guiltless of the Divine
Tragedy on Golgotha. Their legend calls the place Buiarnum, which
suggests some acquaintance with the Celtic tribe that rested for a while
in Bohemia, gave its name to the country and then wandered to Bavaria,
where it repeated the performance. I find this legend of the Jews
difficult to believe despite my earnest endeavour to find something of
truth in Saga's ebullitions. How, for instance, is it possible that the
gifted lady Libu[vs]a did not discover the advantages of a Jewish colony
and that she omitted to prophesy a contribution out of the sons of
Israel towards her new foundation? No, if there had been any Jews within
signing distance of this city when it arose, Praha would have started
with a mortgage on her, and the entertainment tax would probably be
double what it is this day.

You may take it as a general principle that every country has the Jews
it deserves. If you oppress them, trample them in the mud as was
customary in pre-war Russia, they will turn and rend you when their turn
comes round; this is happening in Russia at present. If you despoil a
Jew by violence, he will do the same to you by guile, and you may or may
not be left with your full complement of cuticle. If you treat the Jew
as one entitled to equal rights with equal responsibilities, you will
find him an excellent citizen.

As elsewhere in the Europe of the Middle Ages, the Children of Israel in
Prague were confined to certain quarters of the town. We have heard how
a number of them were ordered to leave the Hrads[vs]any side of the
river and settle in the Old Town. The quarter allotted to the Jews was
in that part of the Old Town known as Josefov, and the Old Ghetto stood
approximately in that complex of narrow streets between the river at the
Rudolfinum Bridge and the broad thoroughfare Mikula[vs]ska T[vr]ida. I
could point out the place from my terrace if I were minded to give its
locality away and to depart from my principle of making every man choose
his own point of view.

The life of the Ghetto centred round the old Jewish Town Hall, with its
quaint, indeed rather unsightly, tower on which is a clock that you are
expected to treat as one of