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April 16, 2004/Nisan 25 5764, Vol. 56, No. 30
Prague shul hails brit milah
MAGNUS BENNETT
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PRAGUE - David Abramson is only a few days old, but already he has made a huge impact on Prague's Jewish community.
Last week he became the first child in at least 30 years to be circumcised at the 98-year-old Jubilee synagogue, known locally as Jerusalemska.
The brit milah comes as the Jewish community draws up plans to return the Jerusalem-ska shul to its original status as Prague's second most important Jewish cultural center.
The brit milah ceremony is so rare in the Czech Republic that a specialist had to be flown in from Zurich to perform it.
David's father, Samuel Abramson, is the Orthodox rabbi of Jerusalemska, which boasted a bustling, thriving congregation before the Holocaust and the anti-Jewish policies of the former Communist regime took their toll. It now has fewer than 30 official members.
The congregation's administrator, Emil Svatek, said he was delighted to see a brit milah after so many years.
"It's a great addition to our family," he told JTA. "We lost so many in the past, but now we can see a bright future."
David Stecher, chairman of the Prague Jewish community's supervisory board and godfather of young David, also was a happy man.
Stecher, thought to be the last person circumcised at Jeru-salemska back in 1969, also believes the brit milah represents a brighter future for the shul.
"I think this an important moment because I remember that 20 years ago everyone was saying Jewish life will be finished here within 10 or 20 years," he said.
The brit milah is the latest in a series of events that have helped put Jerusalemska back on Prague's Jewish map. Two years ago, Stecher became the first man in more than 30 years to get married in the shul. Last year, an outreach event designed to bring assimilated Jews back into the community drew 2,000 people.
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