For some 800 years most if not all of the Jews living in Prague lived in The Jewish Quarter, originally called V Zidech, later known as the Ghetto, and then as Josefov. Until the end of the 18th century they had little choice but to live there, as the law demanded that all Jews live in the Ghetto. On a few occasions, however, royal decree declared quite the opposite: that all Jews were to be expelled from Prague, including the Ghetto. Adding to their difficulties were the many laws and regulations about what Jews could and couldn't do (had to wear a yellow star when outside the Ghetto, couldn't farm, couldn't own land, couldn't practice a craft outside the Ghetto, etc.) and, of course, the occasional pogrom. In spite of these pressures, Prague's Ghetto was one of the great centers of European Jewish culture, and a number of great writers, scientists, and Talmudic scholars resided there.

By the time Kafka was born, most of the Jewish residents had taken advantage of the more liberal laws and moved out of Josefov, and the former ghetto had become the poor district of town. Its conspicuous poverty was deemed unacceptable in the heart of a growing and increasingly prosperous city, so between 1896 and 1906 all but a few buildings of the Ghetto were demolished and the area rebuilt. The job was done so thoroughly that it is difficult to imagine the Ghetto from what still remains, so only a few carefully arranged perspectives can serve as a reminder.