Jewish Topographies: Major Online Conference on Jewish Architecture March 28-31

The contributions ranges from macro studies to cross-region networks of Jewish communities or Jewish institutions and people (eg commercial networks), to locations and facilities of the individual communities (e. g., Judengassen ( Jews’ Lanes), eruvim, DP-Camps), to micro studies of residential areas or individual facilities and buildings. Topographies of forced housing (such as ghettoes, concentration camps, and Judenhäuser (Jewish houses)) will also be discussed.

The conference offers different methodologic approaches to the subject, such as religious and profane places and objects, synchronous and diachronic perspectives. The focus of the conference is on developments after the Middle Ages. It also asks for symbolic, religious, and literary topographies and for ideas on how Jewish topographies can be appropriately researched, represented and later conveyed.

PROGRAM

March 28, 2022
Opening 5:30–6:30 p. m. (CET)
Greetings
Dr.-Ing. Christina Krafczyk, President of the Nds. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (NLD)
Prof. Dr. Urike Fauerbach, Acting Director of Bet Tfila/Chair in Building History, TU Braunschweig

PD Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Knufinke, Bet Tfila/Nds. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (NLD):
Introduction to the Conference

Keynote

Prof. Dr. Annette Weber, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg:
The Influence of Rituals on the Topography of Ashkenazic Communities of the Middle Ages and Beyond

break

Panel 1: Mapping Jewish Topographies 
7:00–8:30 p. m. (CET) 
Chair: Prof. Joachim Schlör, University of Southampton

Dr. Dr. Federico Dal Bo, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg
The Eruv of Venice. From Fragmentation to Unity. On Ben Schachter’s Eruv Maps and its Talmudic-Philosophical Value

Birgit Nelissen, Nds. Landesamt für Denkmalpflege
Jewish Cemeteries in Lower-Saxony

Samuel D. Gruber PhD, Syracuse, New York
The City as Memorial Landscape

 

March 29, 2022
Panel 2: Jewish Places. Micro-Studies
5:00–6:30 p. m. (CET)
Chair: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander von Kienlin, Chair of Building History, Build. Archaeology and Conservation, TU Munich

PD Dr.-Ing. Barbara Perlich, TU Berlin 
The Topography of the Erfurt Jewish Community. Methods and Findings

Mirko Przystawik, Bet Tfila/Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, Hamburg
Hornburg. Topography of a Rural Jewish Community

Prof. Dr. Eva Maria Ulmer-Otto, Edgar Bönisch PhD, and Birgit Seemann PhD, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Frankfurt/Main
A Jewish Space in the Eastend of Frankfurt am Main. Roederbergweg

break

Panel 3: Jewish Places. Micro-Studies
7:00–8:30 p. m. (CET)
Chair: Dr. Kim Wünschmann, Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, Hamburg

Prof. Dr. Rudolf Klein, Szent Istvan University, Budapest
Jewish Topography of Oradea and Subotica. Architectural Consequences

Hagit Hadaya, Ottawa
Jewish Quarters in Canada. The Main in Montreal

Pergabriele Mancuso PhD, Florence
Archival Research, Virtual Reality and 3D-Modelling. Strategies and Tools to Reconstruct the Economic-demographic and Architectural Features of the Florentine Ghetto

 

March 30, 2022
Panel 4: Jewish Places and NS-Terror
5:00–6:30 p. m. (CET)
The Case of Breslau (Wrocław)
Chair: Dr. Eleonora Bergman, Warsaw

Daniel Ljunggren, Malmö/TU Dresden
Jewish Architecture in Breslau During Nazi Reign. The Example of the Brothers Hadda

Dr. Annelies Augustyns, Univ. of Antwerp/Vrije Univ. Brussel
Jewish Topographies in Autobiographical Literature from Breslau

Maria Luft, TU Dresden
“Judenhäuser” in Breslau – Topographies of Forced Housing

break

Panel 5: Jewish Landscapes
7:00–9:00 p. m. (CET)
Chair: PD Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Knufinke, Bet Tfila/NLD

Dr. Anna Berezin, Center for Jewish Art, Jerusalem
Jewish Siberia

Brett L. Levi, New York University
Between Enchantment and Estrangement. Haredi Tourism and the Construction of Jewish Space in the Swiss and Austrian Alps

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Piotr Kuroczyński, Karolina Jara, University of Applied Sciences, Mainz
New Synagogue Breslau in the Light of the Semantic Web – Construction of Digital Memorial Landscapes

Dr.-Ing. Katrin Keßler, Bet Tfila/Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, Hamburg 
300 Years of Relocation and Continuity. The Jewish Topography of Berlin

 

March 31, 2022
Panel 6: Jewish Art and Its Topographies
5:00–6:30 p. m. (CET)
Chair: Dr. Vladimir Levin, Center for Jewish Art, Jerusalem

William Katin PhD, California State Univ. San Bernardino
Jewish West Meets Judaic East. The Confluence of Berlin Lectures & Kaunas Theater in Memel’s Inclusive Topographies of the 1920s

Prof. Dr. Thomas C. Hubka, University of Oregon
The Central Ukrainian Heartland of a Jewish Liturgical Art. The Wall-Paintings of the East European Synagogues

MC Koch PhD, State University of New York at Buffalo
Isaachar Ber Ryback’s and Marc Chagall’s Synagogues. Transfiguring Jewish Topographies in Avant-Garde Art and Theater (1916–1921)

break

Panel 7: Jewish Topogr. in Non-Christian Surroundings
7:00–8:30 p. m. (CET) 
Chair: PD Dr. Andreas Brämer, Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, Hamburg 

Tobiáš Smolík, Prague, National Heritage Institute (NPÚ), Czech Republic
South. Morocco Between Folklore and Fakelore. Dislocated and Imagined Jewish Communities in Draa-Tafilalet Region

Narciss M. Sohrabi PhD, Paris Nanterre University
The Question of the Tehran Synagogue. The Problem of Architecture and Socio-Historical Typology

Dr. Rivka Geron Schild, Vienna
The Jewish Topography of Istanbul. A Conservation Challenge

Conclusion 8:30–9:00 p. m. (CET) 
Chair: Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Knufinke