Published to coincide with the exhibition of the same name, Precious Legacy presents a rare and extraordinary collection of historic Judaica from 1587 to the 1940s.

It celebrates the oldest continuous Jewish community in Europe which flourished at the crossroads of East and West. Between 1941 and 1945, possessions of the 153 Jewish communities throughout Bohemia and Moravia were confiscated by the Nazis. In a heroic action of a spiritual resistance, the curators of the Jewish Museum in Prague persuaded the Nazis to concentrate the confiscated material in Prague. These objects have survived to represent a truly precious legacy.

The collection includes exquisite manuscripts, early Hebrew prints, paintings, etched glass, porcelain, ceremonial silver, richly embroidered synagogue textiles of silk and brocade, and rare folk artefacts.