Calendar

House of Life opens @ Willesden Jewish Cemetery, London

Sep 7 all-day

Willesden Jewish Cemetery reopens as multifaceted place of public heritage — the House of Life: an example of how Jewish cemeteries can be integrated into tourism while respecting the sanctity of the place

If offers guided tours, lectures, an exhibit in a new visitors’ center, and other public programming.

It respects its sanctity as a burial site but enables visitors to explore Jewish history and heritage, as well as learn about the lives of the many Jewish personalities buried there and engage with issues related to death, funeral traditions, and funerary art.

See cemetery web site for more details — http://www.willesdenjewishcemetery.org.uk

Click to read our article about it

Categories: Opening Tags: England UK

Feb

Thu

Virtual Opening of Romaniote Memories: Photos of Vincent Giordano @ Online Zoom event

Tickets

Feb 11 @ 17:00 – 18:00

The exhibition can be seen at this link: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/romaniote-memories/index

In 1999, photographer Vincent Giordano made an unplanned visit to the small Kehila Kedosha Janina (KKJ) synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side. He knew little about Judaism or synagogues, and even less about the Romaniote Jewish tradition of which KKJ, built in 1927, is the lone North American representative. In this he was not alone. Romaniotes are among the least known of Jewish communities. Beginning in 2001 and guided by members of the KKJ community, Giordano documented the synagogue and its religious art of the congregation using film, video, and audio.

In 2019 the Giordano family donated the archive of Vincent’s work to Queens College, where it is a major part of the Hellenic American Project and is preserved as part of the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library’s Special Collections and Archives.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, Hellenic American Project, and Center for Jewish Studies at Queens College, in partnership with the International Center for Jewish Monuments, an independent non-profit organization.

The exhibition includes more than one hundred photographs, presented in ten thematic sections, accessible here.

To register for the exhibition’s opening reception on Zoom, featuring a conversation with curators, distinguished guests, and friends go to:

https://qc-cuny.libcal.com/event/7496075

Categories: Exhibition Opening Tags: Greece USA

Jan

Thu

The Architecture of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam @ Online

Tickets

Jan 12 @ 12:00 – 13:00

Dr. Pieter Vlaardingerbroek will present an illustrated talk live from Amsterdam on the architecture and interior of the 1675 Portuguese Synagogue (the Esnoga) in Amsterdam and the synagogue’s direct influence on the architecture of the 1763 Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island.

Pieter Vlaardingerbroek, Ph.D., is a leading expert on Dutch architecture and material culture. He is an architectural historian for the City of Amsterdam, having served in a similar position for the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. He is an Assistant Professor of Architectural History and Conservation at the University of Utrecht. Professor Vlaardingerbroek is the author of many articles and books and served as editor for the definitive volume on the Portuguese Sephardic synagogue, The Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, published by the City of Amsterdam in 2013.

There is no fee to participate, but reservations are required to receive the Zoom login information.

Click to register.