Jewish Heritage Europe

Calendar

Feb
23
Tue
Returning To The Town Known As Auschwitz @ Online Zoom event
Feb 23 @ 23:00 – Feb 24 @ 00:00
Returning To The Town Known As Auschwitz @ Online Zoom event | Dallas | Texas | United States

As part of events marking the 20th anniversary of the Auschwtiz Jewish Center in Oswiecim, Poland, this web event will explore the Center’s commemoration efforts in Oświęcim and their impact on descendants of the town’s Jewish residents.

The Auschwitz Jewish Center (AJC) is a branch of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, in New York.

The program will feature Barbara Posner, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor from Oświęcim, and Shlomi Shaked, the grandson of another survivor from Oświęcim, who have both reconnected with the town over the past two decades.

The organizer ask that attendees please consider making a $20 contribution in recognition of the Auschwitz Jewish Center’s 20th anniversary and in support of its next 20 years.
 
Register at this link — https://mjhnyc.org/events/returning-to-the-town-known-as-auschwitz/
Apr
19
Mon
Swedish Synagogue Architecture @ Online Zoom event
Apr 19 all-day
Swedish Synagogue Architecture @ Online Zoom event

The Symposium on Swedish Synagogue Architecture (1795–1870) and the Cultural Milieu of the Early Jewish Immigrants to Sweden will take place on Zoom, on April 19, 2021.

It is organized by the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University, the University of Potsdam, and the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, with the support of the Stockholm Jewish Museum.

To attend, click this link to register: 

The opening presentation will be of particular interest, an overview by Daniel Leviathan of his PhD dissertation project, “Jewish Sacred Architecture in the Nordic Countries 1684-1939.” 

Besides Leviathan, speakers will include Vladimir Levin and Sergey Kravtsov, of the Center for Jewish Art in Jerusalem; Ilia Rodov of Bar Ilan University; Maja Hultman, of the Centre for European Research and Department of Historical Studies at University of Gothenburg Centre for Business History in Stockholm; Mirko Przystawik, of Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture in Europe, Technische Universität Braunschweig; Yael Fried, of The Jewish Museum of Stockholm; and Carl Henrik Carlsson, of The Hugo Valentin Centre, Department of History, Uppsala University.

Click here to see the full program, with abstracts of talks 

Jun
12
Sat
Preserving Memory 2021 award ceremony @ Online event
Jun 12 @ 12:00 – 13:00
Preserving Memory 2021 award ceremony @ Online event

Ten non-Jewish Poles who preserve, protect, and maintain Jewish cultural heritage in Poland will be honored at the 24th edition of the Preserving Memory awards, honors that were established by Michael Traison in 1998.

The ceremony will take place at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow but will also be live streamed via Zoom and Facebook.

Register for the Zoom feed at the following link:

 
 
 
 
Jul
1
Thu
Polish Jewish cemeteries webinar @ Online webinar
Jul 1 @ 16:00 – 18:00
Polish Jewish cemeteries webinar @ Online webinar

The Task Ahead: a two-hour webinar on preserving Jewish cemeteries in Poland, to be held online July 1.

Confirmed keynote speakers include :

  • Michał Laszczkowski, President of the Coalition of Guardians of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland
  • Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress

The webinar is sponsored by the Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland, The Matzevah Foundation, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, the World Jewish Restitution Organization, and the Chief Rabbinate of Poland.

It is a follow-up to a webinar held in August 2020.

Click for the conference web page, with registration form

Sep
26
Sun
I-Tal-Ya Jewish books presentation @ Meis museum (and online streaming)
Sep 26 @ 11:30 – 12:30
I-Tal-Ya Jewish books presentation @ Meis museum (and online streaming) | Ferrara | Emilia-Romagna | Italy

I-Tal-Ya is a collaborative effort to identify and catalogue every Hebrew book in Italy. It is being carried out by the Union of Jewish Communities in Italy (UCEI), the Rome National Central Library (BNCR), and the National Library of Israel (NLI) in Jerusalem, with the support of the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe.

The project includes cataloguing an estimated 35,000 volumes from 14 Jewish communities and 25 state institutions and will take approximately three years to complete. 

The event is held within the program of Ferrara’s annual Jewish Book Festival.

 

Oct
3
Sun
“What’s New, What’s Next? Innovative Methods, New Sources, and Paradigm Shifts in Jewish Studies” @ Online conference
Oct 3 – Oct 7 all-day
"What’s New, What’s Next? Innovative Methods, New Sources, and Paradigm Shifts in Jewish Studies" @ Online conference

An interdisciplinary online conference (on the Gridaly platform) that will bring together scholars in a wide range of fields: anthropology, sociology, history, memory studies, museology, art history, and political science, among others; organized by the POLIN museum in Warsaw.

It will explore new directions in the study of East and Central European Jews.

Several specific questions will be raised: What constitutes Jewish studies today and in which direction should we be heading? Which paradigms are guiding the field today? How are theoretical and methodological developments in the humanities and social sciences shaping Jewish studies? How are scholars working in a broad range of disciplines – history, social sciences, literature, visual and performing arts, and other disciplines – contributing to the field? What are interdisciplinary approaches contributing to the field? What is the impact of studies of Jewish life in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on a wider understanding of world history?

4 Keynotes

  • François Guesnet, “The Narcissism of Small Differences? Reflections on Jewish Studies and Jewish Area Studies”
  • Havi Dreifuss, “Beyond traditional methods: Five Thoughts of what is New and What is Next in Jewish Studies”
  • Marcin Wodziński, “What’s Next in Jewish Studies: Prospects and Challenges”
  • Gerben Zaagsma, “Exploring Jewish History in the Digital Age”

21 Panels

  • Theory 
  • Paradigms, methodologies, and sources 
  • Issues, emphases, and gaps 
  • Digital resources and methods
  • Ethics and politics
  • Academic and cultural institutions 
  • Legacies 

1 Poster session

  • PhD candidates will present methodological, theoretical, and source issues related to their dissertations. 

2 Roundtables

  • “Creating a Legacy: The Impact of Jewish Studies in Poland”
  • “The Future of Museum Architecture”
Oct
7
Thu
Judaica in open-air museums conference; official opening of replica of wooden synagogue of Połaniec @ Ethnographic Museum in Sanok, Poland
Oct 7 – Oct 8 all-day
Judaica in open-air museums conference; official opening of replica of wooden synagogue of Połaniec @ Ethnographic Museum in Sanok, Poland | Sanok | Podkarpackie | Poland

The full-scale replica of the wooden synagogue of Połaniec one of the hundreds of East European wooden synagogues destroyed during WW2, will be formally opened — it has been installed at Poland’s largest open-air ethnographic museum, or skansen, the Folk Architecture Museum in Sanok, in the far southeast corner of Poland.

Click here to see our September 13 article and photos about the synagogue and replica.

The two-day opening event includes the inauguration on-site on October 7, plus an excursion to the masonry synagogue and historic Jewish cemetery in nearby Lesko.

The day-long conference takes place October 8, at another location in Sanok, the Jan Grodek State Vocational Academy —  ul. Mickiewicza 21.

Click here to see the full program

Oct
18
Mon
A World Beyond: Jewish Cemeteries in Turkey 1583-1990 @ online
Oct 18 @ 16:00 – 19:30
A World Beyond: Jewish Cemeteries in Turkey 1583-1990 @ online

An international conference to officially launch the massive website and digital database of Jewish cemeteries in Turkey, A World Beyond: Jewish Cemeteries in Turkey 1583-1990.  

The database and web site are a project of the The Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center of Tel Aviv University. We wrote about it when it first went online last year as a beta version — though the site still says it’s in beta, the kinks that some users experienced appear to have been worked out, and we find it easy to search and use. 

Dedicated to the memory of  the oriental studies scholar Bernard Lewis, who died in 2018, the database is the culmination of decades of research by Prof. Minna Rozen (and others) and comprises digital images and detailed textual content of more than 61,000 Jewish gravestones from a variety of communities in Turkey from 1583 until 1990. Rozen’s onsite documentation of the cemeteries was carried out in 1988-1990. The material was digitized in the 1990s but until the web site was uploaded, it had not been publicly accessible.

Nov
4
Thu
Orphaned legacy. Jewish cemeteries on both sides of the Oder River @ Berlin City Library - Berlin Room
Nov 4 @ 19:00 – 21:00
Orphaned legacy. Jewish cemeteries on both sides of the Oder River @ Berlin City Library - Berlin Room | Berlin | Berlin | Germany

A conference looking at  the handling of Jewish cemeteries on both sides of the border between Germany and Poland — both in communist East Germany and Poland after WW2 and since 1989 in post-reunification Germany and post-communist Poland. Register by November 2.

Program

Welcome: Dr. Peter Bahl, State Historical Association for the Mark Brandenburg eV, and Dr. Magdalena Gebala, German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe eV

Introductory presentation On the situation of the Jewish cemeteries in the Soviet Zone and the GDR, Dr. Monika Schmidt, Berlin

Presentation of the project Jewish cemeteries in Poland in the areas of the former province of Brandenburg, Dr. Magdalena Abraham-Diefenbach and Dr. des. Anke Geißler-Grünberg, both Frankfurt (Oder)

Documentary film Jewish cemeteries in Poland , director: Dietmar Barsig, 2009, 4:05 min., Broadcast in Kulturzeit on November 18, 2009; with the kind permission of ZDF

Followed by a panel discussion with Dr. Magdalena Abraham-Diefenbach, Dr. des. Anke Geißler-Grünberg, Dr. Monika Schmidt and Andrzej Kirmiel, director of the Museum of the Meseritzer Land, Międzyrzecz / Meseritz

Moderation: Dr. Peter Bahl

The event will be held in German and Polish and will be interpreted.

Important NOTE

Limited places. To participate in the event, a confirmed registration up to and including Tuesday, November 2, 2021 by email to ger.wei@web.de (preferred) or on the telephone number (030) 413 82 19 (with AB) is necessary. Proof of COVID vaccination is required to enter. A minimum distance of 1.5 m must be maintained. Wearing an OP or FFP2 mask is mandatory for all participants.

A cooperative event between the Chair for Monument Studies at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), the Chair for Modern History (German-Jewish History) at the University of Potsdam , the State Historical Association for the Mark Brandenburg eV and the German Cultural Forum Eastern Europe eV

The picture shows: Broken tombstone in the Jewish cemetery in Drossen / Ośno Lubuskie, 2021, © Peggy Lohse

 

Apr
26
Tue
Installation Ceremony of Information signboard for Nowogród Jewish @ Jewish cemetery
Apr 26 @ 12:00 – 13:00
Installation Ceremony of Information signboard for Nowogród Jewish @ Jewish cemetery | Nowogród | Podlaskie | Poland

There will be a ceremony to install an information signboard at the Jewish cemetery in  Nowogród, Poland.

The signboard was created thanks to the support provided to Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland by the actress Gwyneth Paltrow, a descendant of 19th century Rabbi Hersz Pelterowicz, rabbi of the Nowogród synagogue district.

Archival research was contributed by Professor Glenn Dynner of Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York and Gniewomir Zajączkowski of FODZ.

Click here for the Facebook event

Click here to see the text on the signboard

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