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<p>Perhaps I shouldn’t nitpick, but for the sake of accuracy I’ll point out that the cemetery in the Kaimierz District of Krakow isn’t nearly that old; Jews didn’t even live in Krakow until the 1300’s, and the cemetery dates back “only” to 1535.</p>
<p>The oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe is the one at Worms, which does date back to the 11th century. There are tombstones in Mainz dating back to the 12th century. And the cemetery in Prague goes back to the early 1400’s. (There are a number of surviving 13th century Jewish tombstones in Berlin – the Jews were there as long as the Germans – but the cemeteries they came from were destroyed centuries ago.)</p>
<p>As some of you may remember, I visited Berlin last summer with my son (who stayed on in Germany for another 6 weeks after I left); it was the first time anyone in my family had been back since my mother’s parents managed to leave in June 1941. This was the long post I wrote about my visit after I returned:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13033106-post14.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/13033106-post14.html</a></p>
<p>And I should emphasize that the museums in Berlin are world-class, certainly at the level of the Metropolitan or the British Museum or the National Gallery (both the one in D.C. and the one in London)! I decided not to visit the Holocaust Memorial, but highly recommend the Jewish Museum. And my son told me that he was very impressed, and affected, by the Berlin Wall Museum.</p>
<p>PS: My son visited Prague during his term abroad in Vienna in the fall of 2010, and wasn’t crazy about it – incredibly touristy, and overrun with cheap souvenir stands. That atmosphere detracted even from the Jewish cemetery, in his opinion.</p>