A new book — Jewish or Common Heritage? Appropriation of Synagogues in East-Central Europe since 1945 — confronts issues relating to the use (and misuse) of synagogue buildings in East-Central Europe in the decades since the Holocaust.
The book, published by Fibre Verlag in English, was edited by Christhardt Henschel, Ruth Leiserowitz, Kamila Lenartowicz, Neele Menter, and Zuzanna Światowy. So far it is only available in hardback but an ebook is planned.
It presents essays drawn from the papers presented at the conference “Jewish or Common Heritage? (Dis-)appropriation of Synagogue Architecture in East-Central Europe since 1945,” which took place at the German Historical Institute and the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw in September 2023.
The conference was organized by a project team of the GHI and Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture at Technische Universität Braunschweig.
JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber was one of the speakers, and her essay on the evolution of Jewish heritage travel “from Dark Tourism to Tourist Attraction,” is included in the book.
“The articles of the volume aim at analyzing the processes of rediscovery in the recent past,” the Introduction states.
They link the historical dimension of the Jewish architectural heritage to current developments in this field. The focus lies on the historical, political and cultural preconditions and current processes of handling the Jewish built heritage. In assessing the global and memory culture trends that have contributed to the interest or disinterest in the respective religious buildings, key actors and decision-makers are also highlighted. In addition, transnational networks that have influenced the preservation of synagogues will be considered, for example in the context of the Polish-German dialogue. […]
The essays do not only discuss examples of a ‘successful rediscovery’ of Jewish architectural monuments. Instead, they aim at drawing conclusions on broader contexts through specific examples in order to identify patterns according to which synagogues, as cultural heritage sites, have been reused to the benefit of various actors or, on the contrary, have failed to be reused. Identifying patterns that indicate the ‘success’ or ‘failure’ of rediscovery may be possible.
See book details on the publisher’s web site
Click to download Table of Contents as PDF
