We highlighted the book Virtual and Real-Life Spaces of Jewish Europe in the 21st Century back in December after its publication.
We now recommend the new podcast episode about the book. In it, the co-editors, Joachim Schloer and Maja Hultman carry out a fascinating and engaging discussion with the moderator, anthropologist Shawn C. Rowlands, of a range of issues regarding virtual and “real life” Jewish heritage.
Among other things, they explore “how Jewish Europe is being reshaped across physical and digital spaces in the 21st century. How do virtual environments change the way heritage is preserved and shared? Can digital reconstructions and online communities sustain cultural identity? What happens when these spaces are affected by rising antisemitism, shifting politics, and changing public visibility—against a longer history of loss and reconstruction?”
Listen here on YouTube — or find it on your podcatcher of choice (Apple Podcasts, Overcast, etc)>
This volume grew out of the presentations at a conference held in 2022 in Gothenburg, Sweden. JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber gave a keynote at the conference and has one of the introductory essays, titled: “Life after Life: Shifting Virtualities (and Realities) 20 Years after Virtually Jewish.”
The whole book is accessible via Open Access.
Click here to access the book and download the chapters
About the book:
The first decades of the 21stcentury have presented numerous challenges for European Jewry: far-right movements and a rise of antisemitism, a global pandemic, and a war on European soil. At the same time, heritage sites commemorating the Jewish past and the use of digital platforms to create new forms of communication and cultural co-construction are growing. Using a variety of spaces – heritage sites, museums, digital practices, urban topography, and communal activities – as case studies, this collective volume analyses whether they might serve as a reminder that despite moments of crisis, Jewish life in Europe persists.
The spatial analysis offered by the volume uses the concept of “virtuality” as a starting point, thereby engaging anew with spatial concepts laid out by scholars in the 1990s. Now, 30 years later, prompted by today’s political, social, and cultural European landscape, as well as the increasing role of digitization, the authors discuss the meaning of “virtuality” and how it relates to notions of “authenticity” and “reality” in Jewish culture and in Jewish/non-Jewish relations. As such, the book provides a fresh take on and a new way forward for the conceptualizations and applications of “space”, which together offer particularly useful avenues to access power relations, identity (re-)constructions, and performative aspects of the European Jewish experience.