First online-only Jewish centre opens in Prague

The world’s first online-only Jewish community centre (JCC) has opened in Prague to serve the country’s 7,000 Jews after efforts to open a bricks-and-mortar alternative were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Driving the virtual centre into fruition was Pavlina Šulcová, who decided to act after working in Tel Aviv for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. “I don’t like waiting,” she told JTA. “Especially when I don’t know how long I’ll need to wait.”

The virtual Prague JCC has launched a popular Czech-language podcast on Judaism, made Jewish-themed videos available to children, arranged online cooking lessons for Jewish recipes and produced a cartoon Haggadah in Czech.

Board member David Hercky said the team was in a rush “to reach not only Jews who are Jewish according to halacha [but] also people with a sentiment for Judaism and Jewish roots”.

He added: “We’re losing people each day. There’s now a closing window during which we need to draw them near to us or lose them forever.”