Prostějov submitted an appeal for the declaration of the Jewish cemetery as a monument

Prostějov - The Prostějov city council has submitted an appeal concerning the declaration of the former Jewish cemetery near the city center as a cultural monument. This was announced today by Mayor Alena Rašková (ČSSD) to ČTK. The former Jewish cemetery, which was destroyed during the German occupation and whose gravestones with Jewish inscriptions were taken by people from the surrounding area, was included in the list of cultural monuments by the Ministry of Culture despite the council's disagreement in mid-July. The ministry's decision is not yet final.

"We are not alone on this land as a city; there are also owners and managers of engineering networks, for whom the designation of the site as a cultural monument could pose future problems and, for example, increased costs for renovations," Rašková stated. According to the mayor, the city wants legal certainty that the interest in declaring the site a cultural monument outweighs the interests of the landowner and infrastructure owners. "We want to avoid a situation in the future where an owner would demand compensation for such costs from us due to increased renovation costs for infrastructure," she remarked.

The city informed representatives of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic about its appeal and will continue to negotiate with its representatives about the proposed modifications to the space of the former cemetery, where there is now a park and a school.

The proposal to declare the former Jewish cemetery a monument was submitted last year by the Jewish organization Kolel Damesek Eliezer and was supported by the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic as well as by conservationists. Last week, Rabbi Louis Kestenbaum from the USA arrived at the site of the former cemetery, accompanied by 20 Jewish supporters from the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Austria, and the Czech Republic.

Kestenbaum sharply criticized the city council, stating that it does not want to accommodate the proposal for a memorial arrangement of the former Jewish cemetery. The author of the cultural monument proposal, Tomáš Jelínek, also did not hold back criticism today. "It is completely scandalous that the leadership of Prostějov warns the Ministry of Culture about the 'disproportionate' activity of those requesting the site to be declared a cultural monument because they organized a memorial religious gathering at the cemetery site," he told ČTK.

Jelínek also disagrees with Rašková's statement that after the cemetery is declared a cultural monument, there could be unreasonable pressure from the Jewish community on the city as the landowner. "This is no longer a substantive assertion relevant to the assessment of a cultural monument, but an expression of inappropriate religious intolerance, as the leadership of Prostějov is bothered by the Jewish community's effort for a dignified arrangement of a site with the remains of almost 2000 people, which would also be paid for by the organization Kolel Damesek Eliezer," he pointed out.

According to spokesperson Jana Gáborová, Prostějov is negotiating with the Jewish community about a sensitive arrangement of the memorial site, which will be dignified and will not significantly disrupt the space. According to Kestenbaum, the proposed architectural solution for the memorial site, which he and his supporters advocate, does not contain any disturbing elements. The former cemetery currently resembles only a monument.

The old Jewish cemetery in Prostějov was established in 1801 and was abolished in 1943 at the request of the German mayor. Most of the gravestones were removed at that time, serving as building material or being reprocessed. A significant Jewish community lived in Prostějov until the 19th century. Notable figures buried at the now abolished cemetery include the ancestors of philosopher Edmund Husserl and writer Stefan Zweig.