Jewish Heritage Europe

Calendar

Apr
22
Thu
CAJM Global Conference for Jewish Museums @ Online Zoom event
Apr 22 @ 16:00 – 21:30
CAJM Global Conference for Jewish Museums @ Online Zoom event

CAJM — The Council of American Jewish Museums — is partnering with the Association of European Jewish Museums on a first online Global Conference for Jewish Museums.

Click here to register

See the program lineup in the conference brochure

The conferences will collectively examine the topic of Upheaval – knowing that contemporary issues and forces around the world, including the pandemic, have had a great impact on museums and museum professionals.  At the same time, museums are creating their own upheavals – through innovation, reconfiguration, and new priorities that will reshape their work for years to come.

 

Apr
25
Sun
The Preservation of Jewish Monuments in Eastern Europe @ Online Zoom event
Apr 25 @ 16:00 – 17:00
The Preservation of Jewish Monuments in Eastern Europe @ Online Zoom event

A series of three online talks by Dr. Samuel D. Gruber, president of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments. Part of the Orange County Jewish Community Scholar Program.

Click here to register and find more details

Seventy-five years after the Holocaust, and thirty years after the fall of Communism, how is the Jewish past being preserved and presented in Eastern Europe? In these three illustrated lectures Dr. Samuel Gruber reviews efforts in Eastern Europe by government and private agencies, institutions, and organizations to document, protect, conserve, and maintain Jewish historic and religious sites, especially synagogues, cemeteries, and Holocaust-related sites.  In the decades since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the quantity and quality of this work keeps growing, as well as increased engagement Jewish and non-Jewish communities, and the interest of travelers from around the world. 
Sunday April 11, 2021SAVING SYNAGOGUES – In the world of Jewish “monuments,” synagogues are the big-ticket items. There are always considerable political, financial, and technical challenges in restoring synagogues in Eastern Europe, but the biggest problem is always what will the building be used for. Does it have a Jewish use? Can it retain some Jewish identity? How can saving an old building most effectively do justice to past events and contribute to a better present and future. This talk will look at a range of projects big and small – many of which the speaker has been actively involved – including the restoration of the beautiful Tempel Synagogue in Krakow, Poland and synagogues in Boskovice (Czech Republic), and Plovdiv (Bulgaria). We’ll visit a range of projects in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine.  Some have been successful, some not.
Sunday April 18, 2021PRESERVING CEMETERIES – For Jews, cemeteries are inviolable sacred sites, but Nazi and Communist regimes carried out policies that ruined Jewish cemeteries and often stripped them entirely of their gravestones and even despoiled graves. For decades, the only Jewish cemetery in Eastern Europe that was well known was the Old Cemetery in Prague. Since 1990 enormous strides have been taken in the identification and documentation of thousands Jewish cemeteries in Central and Eastern Europe. Some of these have often stunningly beautiful remaining matzevot (gravestones), but many have been stripped of their stones and have even been paved or built over. Beginning in 1991, as Research Director the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Aboard, Dr. Gruber was a leader in the identification and documentation of thousands of these sites. Since then efforts to protect and preserve these sites have been erratic, but there have been hundreds of successful interventions – ranging from simple cleaning of sites by local school and church groups,  to full-scale restorations of walls and re-erection of gravestones and mausolea by Jewish communities, government agencies and private foundations. Today several organizations are carrying out extensive mapping, fencing and conservation projects.
Sunday April 25, 2021COMMEMORATING HOLOCAUST SITES – In a sense, every place in eastern Europe where Jews once lived but now do not should be considered a Holocaust-related site.  A goal of educators and activists in many countries has been to bring back the history of Jews in a place especially when those communities were irrevocably destroyed. This talk will focus on the commemoration of those destroyed communities and their murdered members and how the places of their suffering – ghettos, deportation centers, concentration, labor and death camps, and mass grave sites are being remembered and identified. Dr. Gruber will discuss key examples of the memorialization process a Holocaust-related sites in Germany, Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic.
Apr
27
Tue
Rediscover Project final wrap-up conference @ Online Zoom event
Apr 27 @ 09:30 – 12:30
Rediscover Project final wrap-up conference @ Online Zoom event

The final, wrap-up conference of the three-year EU-funded Rediscover project, which promoted Jewish heritage and Jewish heritage tourism in nine small cities in eight countries in central Europe’s Danube Region.

Register at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bckZa1xKR5SWOVX6ePH70g

Program highlights:

  • Talk show about “The Plurality of Modern Judaism” with Mirna Funk, Zvika Kfir, Linda Vero Ban and Ana Lebl
  • Presentation and transferability of the INTERREG-project achievements with Martynas Uzpelkis
  • Ideas for the development of your local tourism strategy: Ruth Ellen Gruber and Victor Sorenssen in conversation about the added value of Jewish Community-sourced tourism and the role of public institutions

 

CAJM Global Conference for Jewish Museums @ Online Zoom event
Apr 27 @ 16:00 – 21:30
CAJM Global Conference for Jewish Museums @ Online Zoom event

CAJM — The Council of American Jewish Museums — is partnering with the Association of European Jewish Museums on a first online Global Conference for Jewish Museums.

Click here to register

See the program lineup in the conference brochure

The conferences will collectively examine the topic of Upheaval – knowing that contemporary issues and forces around the world, including the pandemic, have had a great impact on museums and museum professionals.  At the same time, museums are creating their own upheavals – through innovation, reconfiguration, and new priorities that will reshape their work for years to come.

 

Apr
28
Wed
CAJM Global Conference for Jewish Museums @ Online Zoom event
Apr 28 @ 16:00 – 21:30
CAJM Global Conference for Jewish Museums @ Online Zoom event

CAJM — The Council of American Jewish Museums — is partnering with the Association of European Jewish Museums on a first online Global Conference for Jewish Museums.

Click here to register

See the program lineup in the conference brochure

The conferences will collectively examine the topic of Upheaval – knowing that contemporary issues and forces around the world, including the pandemic, have had a great impact on museums and museum professionals.  At the same time, museums are creating their own upheavals – through innovation, reconfiguration, and new priorities that will reshape their work for years to come.

 

May
2
Sun
EUPJ Webinar: Jewish Heritage Hard Talk @ Online Zoom event
May 2 @ 17:00 – 18:00
EUPJ Webinar: Jewish Heritage Hard Talk @ Online Zoom event

Join JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber, the AEPJ’s Victor Sorenssen and the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland Foundation‘s Helise Lieberman for a wide-ranging round-table on the realities of Jewish monuments and heritage sites in Europe – from their destruction during and after the Shoah and the ‘Jewish archaeology’ of their documentation and rediscovery to the multiple challenges and strategies for their preservation and future use for religious purposes, education, tourism, culture, commemoration, and more.

The discussion will be moderated by Bill Echikson, Brussels Director of the European Union for Progressive Judaism.

The catalyst for the conversation is a set of strategic guidelines issued by Sally Berkovic, the CEO of the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe. Called “10 (other) Commandments – for the Care of Jewish Heritage.” They provide a framework to look back at what has happened, assess the current situation, and focus on the future.

Find the article here: https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/have-your-say/10-commandments-of-jewish-heritage/

 

Click here to register — https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SaBXxuFoSkW5w-pcHowMHA

May
5
Wed
Jewish Heritage Preservation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies @ Online webinar
May 5 @ 20:00 – 21:00
Jewish Heritage Preservation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies @ Online webinar
 

Why should Jewish heritage matter? To whom does it belong? Who are the responsible stakeholders in its preservation? How can we ensure its future?

A #TJHTalks program organized in partnership with the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage, and Jewish Heritage Hard Talk.

Click here to register

Four experts will respond to these questions from global, regional, national, and local perspectives. They will discuss achievements thus far and how cooperation and strategic thinking are necessary to overcome the challenges that lie ahead.

The webinar will include a 45-minute discussion, followed by a 15-minute Q&A, in which you can ask questions submitted before or during the broadcast.

Speakers:

Ruth Ellen Gruber, Coordinator, Jewish Heritage Europe

Piotr Puchta, Director, Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland

Victor Sorenssen, Director, The European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage (AEPJ)

moderated by

Helise Lieberman, Director, Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning
 
 
May
11
Tue
Moreshet seminar – adaptive reuse of Jewish religious properties @ Online webinar
May 11 @ 18:00 – May 12 @ 19:30
Moreshet seminar - adaptive reuse of Jewish religious properties @ Online webinar

 

A 1-1/2 day seminar of the Moreshet project, an EU-funded Jewish heritage project linking half a dozen towns and cities in Europe.

Theme of the seminar (which barring COVID would have taken place in Mantova, Italy) is  “Adapt to Reuse”, dealing with aspects related to recovering and reusing of Jewish religious properties. The online event will give the opportunity, through case studies, to learn and identify the possibilities, outline problems and evaluate solutions in the area of Jewish heritage Architecture.

(Our picture shows a Jewish museum in a former synagogue in Trani, Italy.)

The opening session on Tuesday 11 May at 18:00 CET, will be introduced by a narrated concert, music by Salomone Rossi Mantovano, followed by official greetings and a keynote presentation.

The Seminar working session on Wednesday 12 May, is divided into morning and afternoon blocks. At the end of each block  a workshop discussion will be held.

The morning session will concentrate on case studies from Italy, such as: cemeteries, disused synagogues, and an archeological site. The second session will be dedicated to case studies from outside Italy.

Click here to see the program

 

May
19
Wed
Online meeting with Zuzanna Radzik in run-up to the EDJC @ Online webinar
May 19 @ 16:00 – 17:00
Online meeting with Zuzanna Radzik in run-up to the EDJC @ Online webinar

The theme of this year’s European Day of Jewish Culture will be Dialogue. In the run-up to the September EDJC, the AEPJ is hosting a series of online events about dialogue.

This first session will feature  Zuzanna Radzik, Vice President of the Polish NGO Forum for Dialogue. Theologian, author of books. She graduated the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Warsaw and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and specializes in Catholic-Jewish relations. In 2019, she received the Irena Sendler Memorial Award for her work on Polish/Jewish dialogue and the role of women in Catholicism.

Forum for Dialogue is the oldest and largest non-governmental organization in Poland engaging in Polish/Jewish dialogue. Its mission, realized chiefly in small towns and rural areas all across Poland, is to inspire connections between modern Poland and Jews living all over the world.

Its program”Leaders of Dialogue” links dozens of non-Jewish Poles who work in small towns around the country to preserve Jewish heritage — with actions such as cleaning up and maintaining Jewish cemeteries, etc.

Click here to register for the event

 

May
26
Wed
Jewish cemetery Gorizia/Nova Gorica @ Online webinar
May 26 @ 18:00 – 21:00
Jewish cemetery Gorizia/Nova Gorica @ Online webinar

A Zoom seminar about the project to restore the Jewish cemetery of Gorizia, Italy, that now lies across the border outside Nova Gorica, Slovenia. The twin cities will jointly be the European Cultural Capital in 2025, with their shared Jewish heritage playing a role.  In Italian

Click here for details and to register 

Read our 2017 article about the shared Jewish heritage of the towns

Read an Italian perspective about the project

Read a history of the cemetery

Read about the project to restore the cemetery (in English)

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