How the Charles Bridge Crucifix became an image of antisemitism in Prague

The Crucifix on the Charles Bridge, Prague … the head of Christ is surrounded with verses from the ‘Kedushah’ – and has a backward letter aleph (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

In today’s debates about the appropriate place of statues of slaveholders and politicians with extreme views, perhaps some attention should turn towards a statue on the Charles Bridge, one of the best known sights in Prague, the Czech capital.

At first sight, a large Crucifix and Calvary scene might seem appropriate early expressions of Catholic piety alongside the saints that line each side of the 15th-century bridge across the Vltava River.

But all is not as it seems, as I learned during a visit to Prague last year.

In all, there are 30 statues or collections of statues on the pedestrian bridge that connects the Old Town to Prague Castle. They form two rows, one on each side of the bridge. Over the years, many statues have been damaged and many originals being replaced by copies.

The statue of Saint John of Nepomuk is the first of the many Baroque statues on the Charles Bridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The statue of Saint John of Nepomuk, installed on the north side of the bridge in 1683, was the first of the many Baroque statues on the bridge. It was commissioned to mark the 300th anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint John of Nepomuk.

The bronze statue is based on a clay model made in 1681 by the Viennese sculptor Matthias Rauchmiller (1645-1686). The sculptor Jan Brokoff (1652-1718) created a large wooden sculpture based on Rauchmiller’s model, which was then cast in bronze in Nuremberg. Rauchmiller’s clay model is now in the National Gallery of Prague.

The statues of Saint Norbert, Saint Wenceslaus and Saint Sigismund on the north side of the Charles Bridge are the work of Josef Max (1804-1855), who was commissioned by the Abbot of Strahov in Prague, Dr Jeroným Zeidler. Saint Wenceslas is the patron of Prague and has another statue on the bridge, Saint Norbert was reburied in Strahov in 1627.

The statues of Saint Wenceslas, the patron of Prague, with Saint Norbert and Saint Sigismund (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

However, the one truly cringe-worthy statue on the bridge is a Crucifix that is part of a Calvary scene. The head of Christ is surrounded by the Hebrew words Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Adonai Tzva’ot (‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts’) from the Jewish prayer, the Kedushah. The inscription essentially appropriates Jewish liturgy to tell Jews they should worship Christ as God and in a not-too-subtle way seeks to blame Jews for the crucifixion of Christ.

The Crucifix and Calvary scene is one of the most historically interesting sculptures on the bridge, and it gained its present appearance gradually over many centuries.

The original wooden crucifix was installed soon after 1361 and was probably destroyed by the Hussites in 1419. A new crucifix with a wooden corpus was erected in 1629. but this was severely damaged by the Swedes near the end of the Thirty Years’ War. The remnants of this crucifix can be found in the National Museum in Prague.

The second crucifix was replaced by another wooden Calvary which, in turn, was replaced with a metal version in 1657. This crucifix, bought in Dresden, was originally made in 1629 by H Hillger, using a design by WE Brohn. Two lead figures were added in 1666, but these were replaced in 1861 by the present sandstone statues by Emanuel Max of the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist.

The controversial part of this composition is the gold-plated lettering which Elias Backoffen, a Jewish community leader, was forced to pay for in 1696 as a punishment for an alleged blasphemy by a Jewish businessman.

As his punishment, Backoffen was ordered to raise the funds to buy the gold-plated Hebrew letters that were placed around the head of the statue, spelling out ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord of Hosts,’ the Kedushah, the solemn Hebrew prayer incorporating verses from the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Ezekiel, and Psalm 146.

The Kedushah is traditionally the third section of all Amidah recitations. In the silent Amidah, it is a short prayer, but its public repetition is considerably lengthier and requires a minyan or quorum of ten Jewish men over the age of 13. The prayer incorporates three Biblical verses:

קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ ה' צְבָאוֹת מְלֹא כָל הָאָרֶץ כְּבוֹדוֹ

Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh Adonai Tz’vaot M’lo Khol Ha’aretz K’vodo

‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory’ (Isaiah 6: 3).

בָּרוּךְ כְּבוֹד ה' מִמְּקוֹמוֹ

Baruch K’vod Adonai Mim’komo

‘Blessed is the Glory of the Lord in Its Place’ (Ezekiel 3: 12).

יִמְלֹךְ ה' לְעוֹלָם. אֱלֹהַיִךְ צִיּוֹן לְדֹר וָדֹר. הַלְלוּיָהּ

Yimloch Adonai L’Olam, Elohayich Tziyon L’dor Vador Hall’luyah

‘The Lord will reign for ever, your God, O Zion, for all generations, Hallelujah’ (Psalms 146: 10).

All three of the verses are recited as part of the congregational response to the cantor. For the first verse (Isaiah 6: 3), it is traditional for everyone to rise to their toes with each recitation of the word קָדוֹשׁ (kadosh, ‘holy’). During the Kedushah of the Amidah, those taking part in the prayer are expected to stand.

Of course, these verses are also adapted liturgically by Christians in the Sanctus and Benedictus at the Eucharist. But this lettering above the Crucifix is pointedly in Hebrew, and so the city fathers of Prague were appropriating one of the most sacred quotations in Judaism in a public effort to humiliate the city’s Jews with a reminder that they would be forced to look on each day as they crossed the bridge.

This has since become a prime example of late mediaeval European antisemitism and has long offended Jewish tourists in the city where the legendary mystic Rabbi Judah Loew created the fearsome Golem.

The letter א (aleph) in the word Tzva’ot is backwards, and tour guides once interpreted this as a secret signal to other Jews. In fact, the letter was removed by the Nazis during their occupation of Prague, and when the Czechs who restored the letters after the war made a mistake. In addition, the letter ו (vav) in Adonai seems to have gone missing.

The Charles Bridge is lined with 30 statues or collections of sculptures, and is one of the best-known sights in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019; click on image for full-screen view)

In recent years, in a long overdue righting of a wrong, the city has added a bronze tablet under the statue, with explanatory texts in Czech, English and Hebrew. The tablet was installed after Rabbi Ronald Brown of Temple Beth Am in Merrick, New York, noted the possibly offensive intention of the text during a visit to Prague.

After three centuries of silently mocking Prague’s Jews, three small plaques – in Czech, English and Hebrew – were affixed on a wall under the crucifix in 2009.

The bronze plaques read: ‘The addition to the statue of the Hebrew inscription and the explanatory texts from 1696 is the result of improper court proceedings against Elias Backoffen, who was accused of mocking the Holy Cross.’

The addition of the Hebrew inscription, ‘which represents a very important expression of faith in the Jewish tradition, was supposed to humiliate the Jewish Community.’ It is signed ‘The City of Prague.’

The texts were the subject of negotiations. An early draft featured much stronger language and called the cavalry scene ‘a witness to the gross disparagement of the idea of holiness.’ It detailed the hostile trial of Elias Backoffen and said the inscription was ‘a result of violence and an attempt to humble a community that worshipped in a different way.’

The plaques were unveiled on 8 March 2000, with about 40 North American rabbis, the Mayor of Prague, Jan Kasl, and several Catholic leaders present. The date was chosen to mark a variety of Christian reconciliation projects advocated by Pope John Paul II and Cardinal John O’Connor, Archbishop of New York.

Jan Kasl, who paid for the plaques himself, received critical letters from local neo-Nazis questioning the move. Some people at the unveiling hoped the plaques signalled improved relations between the city’s Christians and small, struggling Jewish community in Prague.

‘This statue now becomes a monument of the horrors of antisemitism and a great symbol of reconciliation,’ said Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the North American Boards of Rabbis.

Bishop Pavel Pilsner said the plaques do not mean a diminution of Christian devotion to Christ, but are an effort to ask forgiveness from the Jewish community for the offending inscription that ‘insulted and reduced the dignity of the Jewish community of Prague.’

An armed Turk at the base of the statues of Saint John of Matha, Saint Felix of Valois, and Saint Ivan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

As for the other statues on the bridge, the statues of Saint John of Matha, Saint Felix of Valois and Saint Ivan form the most spacious and expensive sculpture. This collection was designed in 1714 by Jan Brokoff’s son, Ferdinand Brokoff (1688-1731), who is known for several statues on the bridge.

The sculpture was commissioned to honour the two founders of the Trinitarians, the order that ransomed or bought back and redeemed Christians held in captivity by the Turks. Saint Ivan, the saint patron of Slavs was added to the group for unknown reasons.

The base depicts a cave in which three chained Christians are praying for salvation behind a grille, watched over by Turk and a guard-dog.

Three chained Christians behind a grille beneath the statues of Saint John of Matha, Saint Felix of Valois and Saint Ivan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

A new Anglican province is formed in Egypt and across North Africa

Patrick Comerford with Archbishop Mouneer Anis at a recent USPG conference in High Leigh

Patrick Comerford

The Province of Alexandria has become the 41st province or self-self-governing Church in the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria officially became the 41st province of the Anglican Communion yesterday (29 June 2020).

The new province was previously known as the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa, and was then a diocese within the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

The first Primate of the new autonomous church is Archbishop Mouneer Anis, who will continue in this role and in his existing role as the Bishop of Egypt until his retirement next year (2020).

The new Province of Alexandria has four dioceses: Egypt, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Gambella (Ethiopia). It also covers ten countries: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia. Morocco is included within the Church of England’s Diocese in Europe because to its proximity to Gibraltar.

The former Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa completed its transition into an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion after the move was approved at meeting of Anglican Primates in Jordan in January and by the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council.

The General Synod of the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East approved the request to secede from its province, and the diocese then came under the temporary Metropolitical authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who signed a Dead of Relinquishment legally inaugurating the new Province of Alexandria.

The new Province is named after Alexandria, the north Egyptian city that was home to one of the earliest branches of the Christian Church.

Archbishop Mouneer Anis said, ‘the early church in Alexandria has shaped the Christian thought of the whole world during the first millennium. It is our prayers that the new Province of Alexandria would do the same during the third millennium.’

The former Diocese of Egypt has played a vital role in inter-faith dialogue and in recent years has been helping refugees from South Sudan and other countries along it borders.

An international service of thanksgiving to mark the inauguration of the new Province will be held in Cairo at a later date. The Province of Alexandria has been allocated Sunday 2 August in this year’s Anglican Cycle of prayer – a date that had been allocated to the now-postponed Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops.

Some years ago, when Archbishop Mouneer was the President Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, he was a speaker at the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), when he spoke about recent upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa.

He was asked frank questions about the conflict in Libya, the state of affairs in the ‘Holy Land,’ and what Anglicans can do.

Archbishop Mouneer has visited Libya many times, and before his fall Colonel Gadafy had handed over to the Anglican Church ‘a wonderful 16th century church’ in Tripoli that had been renovated at a cost of $1 million.

Turning to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said that Jerusalem has been at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict not just since the Israeli state was declared in 1948, but from very early on. Jerusalem is at the heart of the issue and at the heart of the conflict, he said, and we cannot ignore the place of Christians either. All three faiths have rights in the city. This is an international city, to which these three main religions should have free access. Both Jews and Muslims want exclusive access to Jerusalem, but a common-sense solution is required he said.

He spoke openly of the role of Anglicans as a small Church in every part of the Middle East. We have a bridging role between the Churches, as is being experienced in Egypt and Jerusalem, and in the Gulf, but Anglicans also have a bridging role between Christianity and Islam, and he believes Anglicans are the most active Church in dialogue in the region.

He provided an interesting analysis of the different Islamic groups in the Middle East, and pointed out that the majority of Muslims in the Middle East are peaceful, peace-loving moderate people, who have co-existed with Christians and Jews in the region for the past 14 centuries.

He offered interesting insights into the recent developments in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Yemen Jordan, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, and spoke with compassion and passion of the experiences of young people and of women.

Archbishop Mouneer Hanna Anis with the Coptic leader, the late Pope Shenouda III (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

At the USPG conference that year, Archbishop Mouneer pointed out that the Coptic Orthodox Church, with 12 million members, is not only the biggest Church in Egypt, but is also the biggest Church in the Middle East. They are paying a heavy price, he said, and they remember that they were martyred in the first centuries and after the Islamic conquest, that they have suffered in the past, and that they have paid the price.

He offered interesting insights into the role of Turkey and its influence on many thinkers in Syria, Egypt and Tunisia. He pointed out that Islam in Turkey is different, more moderate and more peaceful, that Arab countries are watching Turkey, and, he suggested then, they were thinking Turkey’s model could be a good one.

I first got to know Archbishop Mouneer during working visits to Egypt around 2003 and 2004, when I was working on a resource pack, including a DVD, on Christian-Muslim dialogue. Later, he visited Ireland, including Christ Church Cathedral Dublin. He took part in one of the ‘Discovery’ services in Saint George’s and Saint Thomas’s Church, I brought him to the mosque in Clonskeagh, and he and his family were guests in my home in Dublin.

Archbishop Mouneer Anis spent 26 years in medical practice before becoming a bishop. Speaking at that USPG conference in High Leigh, near Hoddesdon, he drew on his own experiences as a doctor and a bishop in Egypt.

A pressing need in the 21st century is the need for health care, which is a basic human right and which underpins the millennium development goals. As Anglicans, he said, we need to be involved in restoring wholeness, and to follow in the steps of Jesus who sent his disciples to heal the sick and preach the kingdom.

Archbishop Mouneer pointed out that the healing ministry of Christ was linked with his proclamation of the Kingdom of God, and the outcome of healing always was that people give glory to God. When the Church offers healing, we walk in the steps of Christ and fulfil his mission, offering a practical response to the command to love our neighbour.

He also recalled the beginnings of the medical mission of the Anglican Church in Egypt, which is traced back to Dr Frank Harpur, a TCD-trained doctor and CMS missionary from Ireland who is well-known for eradicating the parasite enclostomi in Egypt.

Dr Harpur began working on the Nile on a floating house boat that he used as a hospital, visiting villages on the banks of the Nile and in the Nile delta, treating villagers. From this work, the Harpur Memorial Hospital was built in Menouf in 1910. ‘And they are still talking about Harpur,’ said Dr Mouneer, a former director of the hospital.

Providing figures on the state of the health of the world’s children, he told that year’s USPG conference: ‘Looking at all these sad figures, the Church cannot be silent.’ The work may be like a drop of water in the ocean, but we should do our best to relieve the suffering of people, in that way becoming partakers in Christ’s mission and compassion, he said.

We need to translate the good news of the Gospel into action, Archbishop Mouneer said. ‘There is an abundance of preaching in the Church, but the world wants to see the Gospel in action and not just to hear about it.’

He said health care is showing the Gospel in action. He recalled that he is asked frequently by Muslim friends in Egypt when they see the work of Christian-run hospitals, why Christians care in such a way. He answers because Jesus taught us to love everyone, and because he loved everyone. Love involves action and sacrifice. Healing and health are not only physical but holistic. The healing ministry is a vocation and not just a job, and practising medicine is a calling and not a job.

Archbishop Mouneer Hanna Anis in Christ Church Cathedral during a visit to Dublin