A new online portal opens the doors to eight ornate synagogues and the Jewish experience in five towns and cities in western Romania: Reșița, Caransebeș, Lugoj, Timișoara, and Arad.
The portal, “Stories of the Synagogues,” includes stunning 3D digital tours of the synagogues, as well as excerpts from more than 80 “testimonies” by Jews from the towns, recalling Jewish life in these places as well as reflecting on the challenges facing their sharply dwindling Jewish communities today. All the material is in both English and Romanian.
Stories of the Synagogues, which also has an active Facebook page, is a project of Pantograf, an association aimed at supporting “the cultural and creative industries by developing diverse audiences from varying economic, social, ethnic and confessional backgrounds, and by supporting the artistic production and the international cultural exchange with Romania.”
Besides the new digital platform, its goals include
— Creating a cultural route of the synagogues of western Romania’s Banat and Crișana regions in order to stimulate regional cultural tourism, particularly in small and medium–sized cities
— Organizing an international music festival “in synergy with the spirit of the synagogues”
— Raising awareness about the value of the Jewish heritage and the need to preserve it, together with the immaterial heritage of the Jewish community
It launched its projects in 2021 with Sound of the Synagogues, a series of concerts in synagogues, with a repertoire rooted in Central European and Sefardi musical tradition. Project partners were the Jewish communities from the cities involved, the Center for Jewish Studies (West University Timișoara), and the French Cultural Institute Timișoara
“During our travels in the regions of Banat and Crisana, in the Western part of Romania, we were impressed by the beauty of the synagogues,” Pantograf’s co-founder and President Ovidiu Dajbog–Miron told JHE.
Since all the members of the team have a considerable experience in conceiving and organizing cultural events, we immediately imagined a music festival in which the music would be deeply rooted in the specificity and the history of these places of worship and encounter. After a first season of concerts in 2021, we realized that the general audience, and, in some places, the authorities, were not aware of the richness of this heritage, yet reacted very enthusiastically to our initiative.
Watch French-Romanian violinist Clara Cernat perform in the Fabric Synagogue
Dajbog–Miron said the Pantograf team was deeply moved — and concerned — at the situation of the synagogues, particularly, for example, that of the Fabric Synagogue in Timișoara. Designed by the prolific Budapest-based architect Lipot Baumhorn and built between 1897 and 1899, the Fabric Synagogue has long been derelict and this year was put on the 2022 World Monuments Watch: a list compiled by the World Monuments Fund of 25 heritage sites around the world deemed at particularly high risk.
“We think that [caring for and preserving Jewish heritage] is the responsibility of us all, as a society, not only that of the Jewish community,” Dajbog–Miron said.
In the future, we believe that the only way these places will be saved is by turning them into cultural centers or places of memory, that would carry on the memory of the Jewish communities that have disappeared because of the calamities of the history.
We want to create an emotional bond between the local communities and these monuments, between the younger generations and the Jewish heritage that is part of our eclectic identity. Our intention is to continue with this initiative in a format that will see concerts every two years, and projects related to memory in the years in between.
The Pantograf portal’s digital tours take users to the synagogues listed below. In addition to the digital tours, there is also historic and architectural information about the synagogue and local Jewish community, as well as photographs and other videos, which situate each synagogue within the urban fabric of the town.
— the Orthodox and Neolog synagogues in Arad
— the “Beth-El” synagogue in Caransebeș
— the Fabric, Cetate, and Iosefin synagogues in Timișoara
— the Neolog synagogue in Lugoj
— the synagogue in Reșița
Click here to access the Stories of the Synagogues portal
Click here to access the digital tours
Click here to access the project’s Facebook page, which also posts the digital tours
Read our Have Your Say essay about the Fabric Synagogue