Nová obřadní síň u Starého židovského hřbitova v Praze-Josefově Museum

The New Ceremony Hall stands in Prague's Josefov near the Old Jewish Cemetery, right next to the Klausen Synagogue. Together with the cemetery, it is protected as a national cultural monument.

The building was constructed between 1906 and 1908 on the site of an older structure belonging to the burial brotherhood, which served the same purpose. It was designed by architect Gerstel and built by Gabriel. The entire building is held in the Romanesque Revival style, right down to details such as the bases and capitals of columns, wrought iron grille, or oak doors. The walls are built of opuka stone. At the same time as the ceremony hall, a new entrance to the cemetery was created between it and the Klausen Synagogue.

The hall served as a place of final service for deceased members of the Jewish community, and each floor had its own function. In the basement was the mortuary. On the first floor was a room for the ritual washing of the dead. This main hall had a mosaic floor, walls lined with marble, and was decorated with murals. The second floor belonged to the assembly room of the burial brotherhood.

However, the building served its original purpose only until the First World War. After that, the brotherhood stopped using it, and in 1926 it rented it to the Jewish Museum in Prague. The museum opened its very first exhibition here, and the building has served it continuously ever since. It was restored in 1997. The exhibition that was held here until 2024 returned to the hall's original purpose. It was devoted to Jewish rituals surrounding the dying and the dead, the Old Jewish Cemetery, other Jewish cemeteries in the Czech lands, and the burial brotherhood. It thus complemented the exhibition in the neighboring Klausen Synagogue about important threshold moments of human life in Judaism. The building is now undergoing reconstruction. It is to regain its original appearance and offer new exhibitions.

A valuable cycle of fifteen paintings is also connected to the history of the burial brotherhood. It captures the customs and rituals that the brotherhood performed. It was painted by an unknown artist around 1772 on commission from the leadership of the association. In the paintings, the tradition of Baroque painting is still evident, but their creation was apparently prompted by the Age of Enlightenment. In keeping with its ideas, they were meant to show what an important role the brotherhood had played in society over the centuries. The paintings also capture the final period of burials at the Old Jewish Cemetery, and for this reason they are also valuable as a historical source.