Dei’ahveDibur:

A few days after Pesach a siyum took place in the Altneushul of Prague. Avrohom Yehuda Sohn, a talmid of the Yeshiva Gedoloh section of Gateshead’s Yeshiva Letze’irim, travelled as part of a group of yeshiva bochurim to Prague. After staying up most of the night he was able to complete maseches Kiddushin within the same walls which had once heard the Maharal’s and Shloh Hakodosh’s deep divrei Torah. The Altneushul is probably the oldest standing shul in the world, dating to the 13th century. Its walls have withstood the ravages of numerous fires and pogroms. Other shuls in Vienna, Regensburg and Worms, which were built at the same time, fell prey to pogroms, fires or Kristallnacht. The survival of the Altneushul throughout the centuries is truly astonishing. The Siyum was part of a packed program undertaken by about a minyan of boys from Gateshead Yeshiva Gedoloh, Sunderland Yeshiva and the kibbutz of Gateshead Yeshiva Letze’irim under the leadership of Rav M. D. Spiro. They had decided to spend their post-Pesach Bein Hazmanim touring Jewish Prague.