The unassuming Benediktská Street may surprise some with its rich Jewish history.
Benedict Street No. 1 was the home of Bar Kochba, a student organization that has promoted the understanding of Judaism as a national identity since the late 19th century.
As the original Jewish national idea became a political idea, the group's importance gradually declined until, at the end of the 1930s, the association disbanded due to a decline in membership. However, it grew to include such Zionist luminaries as Max Brod, Franz Kahn, and Hebrew University co-founder Hugo Bergmann.
In the 1920s, former members Hugo Bergmann, Robert Weltsch and Hans Kohn founded the Association for Jewish-Arab Dialogue in Jerusalem, which they called Brit Shalom.
Group photograph of members of the Bar Kochba Society in the academic year 1913.
Seated, from left: JUC Oskar Busch (treasurer of the society), phil. Arthur Freund (librarian of the society), Pepi Wien (vice-president of the society), JUC Hans Kohn (president of the society), JUC Felix Seidemann, phil. Milka Saphir, chem. Max Kohn.
Lying down: Franz Klinger, on the right med. Alfred Kraus.
Standing, from left: Prof. phil. Alfred Kraus, Prof. Viktor Freud, phil. Julius Bernstein, med. Felix Rezek, JUC Ernst Koref, jur. Leo Bloch, Ing. Pacovský, techn. Arthur Engländer, phil. Karl Semmler, JUC Robert Weltsch, med. Otto Kraus, techn. Otto Engländer, jur. Ernst Klinger, techn. Paul Grünberger, JUC Viktor Kubie, phil. Paul Steindler, techn. Franta Pollak, JUC Bruno Löwner, techn. Emil Theiner, med. Paul Katznelson, med. Paul Steiner (above), MUC Gustav Aschermann, chem. ing. Traub, med. cand. Emil Kraus.
Leo Baeck Institute Archives, Hans Kohn Collection (AR 259).
How do the students in the photograph differ from the non-Jewish students at the University of Prague?
Answer below.