2018 was a milestone year for Jewish Heritage Europe in many ways. We totally changed our online look, introduced new features and functionality — not to mention a new logo.
We also revamped the way you can subscribe and receive our regular News Feed and monthly Newsletter — welcome to our many new subscribers! And welcome to our many new Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram followers, too!
Over the past year, JHE Director Ruth Ellen Gruber visited Jewish heritage sites in several countries (and wrote about them on our site) — and she also attended or presented about Jewish Heritage Europe at international conferences held in Poland, France, England, and Hungary.
MOST SHARED POSTS
Over the past year, we posted nearly 200 items in our Jewish Heritage Europe News Feed and Have Your Say op-eds.
As 2018 comes to an end, we thought we would draw attention to the three dozen or so posts that were most shared by our readers this past year (shared directly from the web site, not from the Facebook Page or other social media).
Here they are, in reverse chronological order.….they encompass a remarkably wide range of subjects — and geographical locations. We still can’t figure out what makes these the particular posts that were shared the most — some were shared many hundreds of times — but they truly demonstrate the scope and vitality of Jewish heritage developments across Europe.
NOTE: The list is more or less accurate — but we had some technical issues during the transition to our new web site that affected the share function and did not show shares for a number of posts….
Subscribe to our News Feed to get posts directly into your inbox — you can do so from the Home Page or any of the News pages or posts.
CLICK THE HEADLINES TO ACCESS THE POSTS
New documentary film on synagogues can be viewed on Arte TV
Posted on December 23, 2018
Synagogues: Absence and Presence — a documentary film by Celia Lowenstein
Lithuania: International experts issue Guidelines on Commemorating Vilnius Great Synagogue.
Posted on December 19, 2018
They advise against attempts to rebuild the synagogue but rather to concentrate on conserving and exposing the foundations and other elements of the structure that still exist
Poland reminder: don’t miss the in-depth Jewish Warsaw web site created by the POLIN Museum
Posted December 18, 2018
It’s a richly detailed, multimedia online resource, presenting Warsaw as seen through the history of its Jewish residents, past and present
Moldova: Government will restore, clean up Chisinau Jewish cemetery to anchor Jewish history, heritage, cultural center
Posted December 12, 2018
Work on the clean-up has already begun.
On Jewish gravestones and the stone-carvers who made them: a stone-carver’s thoughts on tradition and symbolism
Posted on December 9, 2018
In Ashkenazi Eastern Europe the carved epitaphs and wealth of carved decoration on Jewish gravestones can be richly sculptural as well as symbolic, but little is known about the people who carved them.
Romania: New Jewish Museum opens in restored Teleki synagogue in Oradea
Posted on December 6, 2018
The new museum includes sections on local Jewish history and on the Holocaust.
Mazel Tov to Tomasz Wiśniewski, winner of the 2018 POLIN Poland Award
Posted on December 6, 2018
A well-deserved award to a pioneer researcher.
Romania: At Hanukkah celebration, the Great Synagogue of Iaşi is rededicated after lengthy restoration
Posted on December 6, 2018
It was a real Hanukkah celebration — the Great Synagogue in Iaşi, Romania, the oldest surviving synagogue in the country, was rededicated December 3 after a dozen years of fitful restoration work.
Ukraine: Progress on restoration of magnificent Great Synagogue in Sharhorod
Posted December 3, 2018
Exciting news about one of the oldest synagogues in Ukraine, believed built in the 16th century.
Happy Hanukkah Photo Essay from JHE!
Posted on December 2, 2018
Our Hanukkah photo essay showcased images of synagogue decoration that remind us on fancy gift-wrap.
Poland: Colorful New Look for Restored Synagogue in Tykocin
Posted on November 26, 2018
The restoration brought back the original wall colors of this 17th century synagogue (now a Jewish museum)
Russia: New near replica synagogue in Kaliningrad/Königsberg now stands on site of synagogue destroyed on Kristallnacht
Posted on November 23, 2018
Exactly 80 years after the grandiose New Synagogue in Kaliningrad, Russia — formerly Königsberg, East Prussia — was destroyed on Kristallnacht, a newly constructed near replica of the great domed building was dedicated on the same spot.
Vanished World 2019 Calendar available for download
Posted on November 22, 2018
Photographer Christian Herrmann’s annual free gift — featuring his photos of Jewish heritage sites in Eastern Europe.
JHE Photo Essay: On the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1, honoring the Jewish soldiers who fell (on all sides)
Posted on November 11, 2018
On the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I we remembered the Jewish soldiers who fell during the conflict — and, in particular, we took a look at the memorials raised in their honor.
JHE Photo Essay: On Kristallnacht, Wonderful surviving — and restored — synagogues to mark the 80th anniversary
Posted on November 9, 2018
By now it’s a JHE tradition. We marked the Kristallnacht anniversary with images of wonderful synagogues that still stand — or were restored — today.
Kaddish in Norway: On the trail of Stolpersteine (Have Your Say essay)
Posted November 8, 2018
The scholars Ruth Mandel and Rachel Lehr, who are carrying out multi-sited ethnographic research about site-specific artists’ responses to the Holocaust, describe their research on Stolpersteine (Stumbling Stones) memorials in Norway.
In Ukraine, a Shehecheyanu moment as a Mezuzah is affixed to the partially restored Great Maharsha Synagogue in Ostroh
Posted on November 4, 2018
A real milestone in a restoration we have been following closely!
Romania: the Moorish-style Memorial Synagogue in Cluj (Kolozsvár) is under restoration
Posted on October 30, 2018
A Jewish cultural and social center will be developed next to it.
Serbia: New stamps honor synagogues
Posted on October 29, 2018
The synagogue in Novi Sad and the newly restored synagogue in Subotica.
Turkey: Matching grant appeal launched to restore Izmir’s historic Etz Hayim synagogue
Posted on October 23, 2018
The Izmir Project has launched an appeal to raise $80,000 in matching funds to guarantee a municipal grant to restore the historic but sadly derelict Etz Hayim Synagogue.
Restored Teleki synagogue in Oradea, Romania rededicated after restoration
Posted on October 11, 2018
(It was rededicated two months later as a Jewish museum)
Greece: New book on Jewish inscriptions in Greece, from ancient times to 15th century
Posted on October 7, 2018
Called Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum Graeciae (CIJG): Corpus of Jewish and Hebrew Inscriptions from Mainland and Island Greece.
Warsaw’s destroyed Great Synagogue, virtually reconstructed
Posted on September 27, 2018
A video of the stunning virtual reconstruction projected onto the blue building to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, on April 19, 2018.
Germany: new interactive web portal to Jewish heritage & life in Germany
Posted on September 12, 2018
The launch of jewish-places.de — a new, interactive web portal to Jewish people, places, and history in Germany. It looks like it will be an extraordinary resource.
Video of the restored synagogue in Drohobycz, Ukraine
Posted on September 9, 2018
A video of the opening of the Choral Synagogue in Drohobych, Ukraine, which was inaugurated in June following a $1 million restoration.
New tourism resource — Visit Jewish Italy web site
Posted on September 6, 2018
A valuable new online resource on Jewish heritage in Italy.
Ukraine: Lviv honors dozens of Jewish heritage activists with 75 “keys to the city”
Posted on September 3, 2018
The city of Lviv held an unprecedented ceremony honoring dozens of Jewish heritage activists for their work in preserving, promoting, and carrying out research and educational work on Jewish heritage in western Ukraine.
The Five Most Beautiful Synagogues in Paris — a Guide
Posted on August 26, 2018
The Paris tourism web site SortirAParis published an online guide to what it describes as the most beautiful synagogues in the French capital.
CZ: Restoration of Great Synagogue in Plzen to begin soon; details
Posted August 23, 2018
Plans are moving forward for the restoration of the monumental twin-towered Great Synagogue and nearby rabbi’s house in Plzeň (Pilsen) in the Czech Republic.
Round-up: Summer time is Jewish cemetery clean-up time
Posted on August 1, 2018
So many Jewish cemetery/Jewish heritage volunteer clean-up operations take place each spring and summer that it’s hard to keep track. Here are just a few that caught our eye.
Lithuania: Archaeologists unearth Bimah of Vilnius Great Synagogue
Posted on July 27, 2018
An international team of archaeologists from the USA, Canada, Lithuania and Israel have revealed the foundations of the Bimah that once anchored the destroyed Great Synagogue in Vilnius
Ukraine: Dozens of matzevot rescued from under L’viv street; had been used as paving
Posted on June 26, 2018
Volunteers from the L’viv Volunteer Center (LVC) of the Hesed Arieh All-Ukrainian Jewish Charitable Foundation worked to remove dozens of Jewish headstones that were found to be paving Barvinok street in downtown L’viv.
Lithuania: high-level ceremony breaks ground for Šeduva Lost Shtetl museum
Posted May 6, 2018
Work to construct the state-of-the-art Lost Shtetl museum in Šeduva, Lithuania got under way, with high-profile ground-breaking.
Serbia: magnificent Subotica synagogue officially reopened
Posted March 27, 2018
High level inauguration ceremony rededicates the synagogue after decades of often stalled renovation.
Lithuania: Mazel tov! Jewish heritage activist receives state honor
Posted February 16, 2018
Sergey Kanovich is honored in Lithuania.
“Makom” in a revived synagogue in Crete: the Role of Nikos Stavroulakis z”l
Posted February
Ionanna Galanaki is completing her PhD at Southampton University, writing about the revival of the Etz Hayyim synagogue and community in the ancient port of Chania, Crete. In this intensely personal essay, she pays homage to the late Nikos Stavroulakis, who was a key figure in her research.
Hungary: Reclaiming a mikveh in a quaint wine-making village whose Jewish community perished in the Shoah
Posted February 11, 2018
Work got under way to reclaim and restore the long-abandoned old mikveh in Erdőbénye, a quaint village in the Tokaj wine region of northeastern Hungary whose Jewish community perished in the Shoah.
Important New Resource on European Synagogues Launched
Posted February 6, 2018
The launch of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage and the web site historicsynagogueseurope.org — which includes an interactive survey map of more than 3,000 synagogues in 48 countries.
Serbia: A visit to the beautiful, restored art nouveau Synagogue in Subotica
Posted on February 5, 2018
JHE Director Ruth Ellen Gruber visited the restored synagogue ahead of its rededication.
First look — restored Subotica synagogue
Posted January 21, 2018
Links to photo galleries of the restored synagogue in Subotica.
2 comments on “Year-ender: See our most shared articles from 2018 and other JHE milestones”
Thiss wonderful work on Jewish hwritage is so important as commemoration for Holocaus tvictims because it is living testament which can be everyday see and odore the magnificient Jewish spirit and culture.
I think that Jewish communities must contribute more- if not with money or funds, but with documentation about their property, testimonies about life, photos etc- there is so many buildings, sinagogues, cemeteries etc all over Eas tEurope in the places where is no more Jews and in short time they can disapeared for ever.
Thanks to great work of JHE Director Ruth Ellen Gruber
Thanks Melita — hope to see you soon!