The Ecomuseum of Alsace in Ungersheim — the largest open-air village museum (skansen) in France — has opened a new exhibit: a “Jewish house” aimed to evoke typical Jewish daily life in an Alsatian village in the years between World War I and World War II. The inauguration Sunday (Oct. 17) included various workshops and other events dealing with Alsatian Jewish culture.
The “Jewish house” is a modest half-timbered house, built in the late 18th century, that originally stood in the village of Rixheim. According to a press release earlier this year by the Ecomuseum, it was on the verge of being demolished but was acquired by the Museum, which deconstructed it in 2005 and re-erected it as part of its exhibit in 2014.
It has been furnished as if it were the home of a small family in the 1920s and 30s, a couple with a baby — bedroom, kitchen, living are, etc. The furnishings are typical of Alsatian families of the era, but with the added “Jewish” touches — a mezuzah on the door; Shabbat candles; two sets of dishes in the kitchen for meat and dairy; a kiddish cup; tefillin and tallis, prayer book, Hanukkah menorah. There’s even a sewing machine — as if the husband were a tailor.
“The objective is to present the daily life and the traditions that punctuate the life of this community through activities and explanatory material,” the press release says.
The Judeo-Alsatian (language/dialect) will be represented through the broadcasting of recorded conversations. The museographic discourse highlights in particular the fact that the daily life of these families was similar to any other Alsatian family.
Two similar Jewish houses are included in the open-air Ethnographic Museum in Sanok, Poland. They stand on what has been arranged as an evocation of a Galician market square, not far from where the museum officially dedicated a new replica of one of the hundreds of wooden synagogues in eastern Europe that were destroyed during the Shoah — that which stood in Połaniec.
One of the houses was, like the house in Alsace, dismantled and moved from a village to the open-air museum.
The other is the reconstruction of a house where a Jewish family lived in the village of Jacmierz.
The Jewish houses in Sanok are furnished in a similar way to that in Alsace, and on their doors are placed mezuzot. In both of them there is an installation depicting a Shabbos dinner table.
Earlier in October, the Sanok museum hosted a conference on Judaica in open-air skansen museums, to coincide with the official opening of the replica of the Połaniec synagogue.
See a Facebook gallery of pictures about the Alsace skansen Jewish house
Read the full news release about the Jewish house in Alsace
See our article about the replica of the wooden synagogue of Połaniec
2 comments on “France/Poland: a “Jewish house” in an open-air museum (skansen) in Alsace, France joins similar Jewish houses in the open-air museum in Sanok, Poland”
I find that more time and money is allocated to synagogues , which do not have much attending Jews and too little to Cemeteries that have our ancestors berried. I feel that too much is put into tourist that visit nice thing then honoring the once who lived there and build the communities . they have more visitors that are more concern to honors the death. I am waiting over 20 years to see the Rona De Sus in Transylvania restored. It is such a small one. in the meantime much of the stones were stolen and the gate and fences are gone. I repaired my grandfathers head stone 3 time and the work is so poor that it falls again. I am 81 and will not be able to honor a promise I made to my late father to take car of his father’s grave.
sorry for the bitter message, but I see that in some areas allot of graves are taking care of but not in Maramuresh. thank you for reading this.
MY GRANDMOTHER CAME FROM SANOK, DO YOU HAVE MORE INFORMATION ON THE TOWN. THANK YOU SO MUCH ADRIENNE DITNER