As we close out a second year marked by the pandemic and more forward into 2022, we look back at the most popular news, views, and insights we have posted on Jewish Heritage Europe over the past 12 months.
The Coronavirus pandemic has continued to keep many of us at home — and online, and we welcomed hundreds of new users, followers, and subscribers; to our regular News Feed and monthly Newsletter, as well as to our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds and to our two JHE Facebook groups — in Italian and English.
Please sign up to get the RSS News Feed and/or the monthly Newsletter directly in your inbox (from the sign-up panes at the top right corner of every page on the web site) — and join or follow our social media platforms!
MOST POPULAR POSTS
Over the past year, we posted more than 210 items in our Jewish Heritage Europe News Feed and Have Your Say op-eds.
As 2021 comes to an end, we draw attention to some of the articles that were most popular, either by being shared or liked on social media or by being visited our web site (or a combination of both….).
Here are the Top 25-plus — in no particular order.
They truly demonstrate the scope and vitality of Jewish heritage developments across Europe. Sadly, they also include the obituaries of well-loved Jewish heritage activists who passed away this year.
CLICK THE HEADLINES TO ACCESS THE POSTS
Poland: New Holocaust memorial in Gorlice is shaped like a Star of David
March 21, 2021
The stunning new memorial incorporates rescued matzevot — with translation of their epitaphs.
Germany: 18 Medieval Jewish gravestones discovered in Mainz
January 29, 2021
They were used in construction along the Rhine, 500 years or more ago
Ukraine: Experts decry the destruction of the ancient Jewish cemetery in Sataniv by a Haredi group claiming to restore it
August 17, 2021
One of several articles on this contentious issue, including a Have Your Say op-ed by the scholar Boris Khaimovich called The Jewish Cemetery in Sataniv: a Destroyed Monument of Jewish Culture. Vandalism and Desecration Disguised as “Care”, which also was among our top articles
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
October 18, 2021
Replicas/reconstructions of typical Jewish villages houses in open air museums (seasons) in France and Poland
Poland: Unique collection of more than 65,000 burial cards from the Łódź Jewish cemetery will be digitized, indexed and uploaded online
March 17, 2021
The collection is owned by the Jewish Community in Łódź, and the project is being undertaken thanks to the cooperation between the Jewish Community, the State Archives in Łódź and the Cultural Heritage Foundation.
- Lodz, Poland — gravestone showing broken candles and a charity box
Slovakia: Exciting discovery of hundreds of centuries-old matzevot from the Old Jewish Cemetery in Bratislava, demolished nearly 80 years ago.
April 5, 2021
They had long been presumed lost or destroyed.
Lithuania: Archaeologists announce exciting discoveries at site of destroyed Vilna Great Synagogue, including Bimah, Ark, and silver Yad
August 26, 2021
The archaeologists, sponsored by a number of international institutions, have been excavating at the site each summer since 2016, after first preparing the way with group-penetrating radar scans. In addition to the Ark and the Bimah, major finds have included the discovery of two ritual baths (mikvehs).
Portugal: Holocaust Museum in Porto has opened, the first on the Iberian peninsula
February 9, 2021
Created by the local Jewish community, some of whose members lost family in the Shoah, the Holocaust Museum of Porto depicts in detail the history, development, and aftermath of the Holocaust, including the story of the Jewish refugees who arrived in Porto between 1940 and 1941 hoping to flee to the Americas.
Hungary: Actress Jamie Lee Curtis to help raise funds to restore the abandoned synagogue in Mátészalka, where her grandparents came from
June 7, 2021
Curtis, who had been filming in Budapest, made the announcement in a Facebook and Instagram post after visiting Mátészalka, where she met with Mayor Peter Hanusi and toured a new memorial museum dedicated to her father, the actor Tony Curtis, which was about to open in the town.
- Johannes Reiss points out a QR code sticker attached to a gravestone in the older Jewish cemetery in Eisenstadt
Austria: Using QR Codes to provide information on Jewish gravestones and the people they commemorate. A significant — and painstaking — project
August 29, 2021
The vast, complex — and unique — project is the work of Johannes Reiss, the director of the Austrian Jewish Museum in Eisenstadt.
Poland: Full-scale replica of the destroyed Połaniec wooden synagogue is installed at the open air ethnographic museum in Sanok
September 13, 2021
The replica of the synagogue of Połaniec now forms part of a Galician Market Square, which is part of the Folk Architecture Museum in Sanok, in the far southeast corner of Poland.
Poland: Jan Jagielski (1937-2021) Farewell to a Jewish heritage pioneer, mentor — and mensch
February 17, 2021
In failing health for some time, he died in Warsaw February 17, aged 83. “Jan was everyone’s teacher and mentor in showing us the way to preserve Jewish cemeteries and memory,” Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich wrote on Facebook, in one of the many tributes that poured in on the announcement of his death. “We will miss him but we will carry on his work.”
Ukraine: Restoration underway at the 18th century synagogue in Vil’khivtsi. It will become a Jewish heritage museum and Holocaust memorial
January 17, 2021
Preservationists working on the building estimate that it dates from the the early 18th century, around 1705, which would make it the oldest surviving synagogue in the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine.
Russia: Jewish heritage along the Volga River — the preliminary report from a 4,000-km research trip by the Center for Jewish Art is available online
July 30, 221
Researchers from the Center for Jewish Art carried out a more than 4,000-kilometer journey along the Volga River researching Jewish material heritage. The preliminary, 63-page report from the trip is now available online.
- A tourist in the Jewish cemetery, Lutowiska, Poland
Poland: App launched to help volunteers (including tourists) document “forgotten cemeteries” (of all denominations) in Poland
August 6, 2021
It was launched by Poland’s Cultural Heritage Foundation, in cooperation with technology company Laboratorium EE, to encourage (and enable) the volunteer documentation of abandoned, neglected, and/or remote Jewish and other cemeteries in Poland and elsewhere — by tourists and other visitors.
Russia: Take a look at a preview of the Jewish museum under development in the rebuilt synagogue in Kaliningrad
October 15, 2021
The Jews in East Prussia History and Culture Association is preparing a museum of local Jewish history to be hosted in the rebuilt New Synagogue in Kaliningrad, Russia (formerly Königsberg, East Prussia).
Hungary: Mourning architect Anna Perczel 1942-2021, passionate Jewish heritage researcher and activist
June 15, 2021
Anna was an architect, urban planner, and activist who researched and fought to preserve the historic buildings of Budapest’s pre-war downtown Jewish neighborhoods. She died in Budapest June 13, aged 79.
France: Historic Synagogue in Benfeld, Alsace is undergoing fullscale renovation. The first stage was recently completed.
January 19, 2021
Total costs for the restoration are estimated at €1.2 million, according to the Jewish administrative umbrella Consistoire of Bas-Rhin, to be covered by financial support from the Consistoire itself, along with contributions from the region, the state, and the national Heritage Foundation.
Romania: a new Jewish Timisoara virtual museum is launched
June 25, 2021
The virtual museum was created by the Municipality of Timisoara in partnership with the local Jewish Community, as part of the EU-funded REDISCOVER project, a 3-year project aimed at promoting the little-known Jewish heritage in nine cities in eight countries of the EU’s Danube region.
Italy: Restoration of the Dome of the Synagogue in Trieste is Completed
March 15, 2021
The restoration work, which began around New Years, was aimed at renovating the external structure, including restoring its original grey-beige coloring.
Italy: Restoration is completed of a rare, 400-year-old Ark in Vercelli.
March 8, 2021
It’s the latest in a number of Jewish heritage projects coordinated by the Jewish community
Happy birthday(s) synagogues! A selection of synagogue buildings in several countries that are marking significant anniversaries this year and a summary of celebratory events
September 30, 2021
We listed some of the synagogue buildings that in 2021 celebrated a significant anniversary of their dedication with public ceremonies, lectures, and talks — in-person or online, and with guided tours, temporary exhibitions, concerts, and also, in some cases, with renovations or other construction work. The anniversaries ranged from 50 to 200 years — and we know this list is incomplete!
-
The synagogue in Targu Mures, Romania, which celebrated 120 years
Hungary: A grand new outdoor mural in Szeged celebrates local Jewish cultural heritage — and the stained glass artist Manó Róth
April 29, 2021
The mural, by local artists Ákos Marton and Leó Vinkó, extends for some 150-200 square meters on the firewall of a building near Szeged’s grandiose New Synagogue. It combines images from two of the synagogue’s spectacular stained glass windows, depicting both the silhouette of the synagogue and a palm tree bordered by stylized fruit and floral motifs.
Austria: Former Synagogue in St. Pölten to undergo €4 million restoration and redevelopment as a Jewish cultural center
April 13, 2021
The plan results from an agreement between the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (Vienna Jewish community) as owner and the Lower Austria Museums Holding, an umbrella for several regional museums.
Slovakia: Archaeologists working on the project to restore the grand synagogue in Trenčín discover foundations of the original 18th century synagogue beneath the floor of the sanctuary
September 13, 2021
The restoration project web site reports that the archaeological research inside the synagogue’s sanctuary, down to 2.5 metres under the floor, also uncovered a 16th-century wall that was part of the city fortifications.
UK: Archaeological excavations at the historic Bevis Marks synagogue in London uncover relics dating back to ancient Roman times
August 13, 2021
The excavations, mainly under the annex of the synagogue, are part of a project to improve access to the synagogue, built in 1701 and the oldest synagogue in the UK, and establish a heritage center and exhibition on its more than 300-year history.