Klausen Synagogue

This guide to the Klausen Synagogue in Prague follows the 1689 fire that destroyed the Jewish Town's original cluster of buildings, including the classroom where the celebrated Rabbi known as the Maharal once taught. It traces the community's rebuilding under Rabbi Shelomo Khalish Cohen and the towering Baroque ark commissioned two years later by Samuel Oppenheimer. Look up at that ark, carved and gilded to be the last thing worshippers saw before they sat down to pray.