Jewish Heritage Europe

Calendar

Aug
24
Tue
The Great Synagogue of Vilnius – Finds from the Past and a Vision for the Future @ Both at Lithuanian Jewish Community Center and on Facebook
Aug 24 @ 18:00 – 19:00
The Great Synagogue of Vilnius – Finds from the Past and a Vision for the Future @ Both at Lithuanian Jewish Community Center and on Facebook | Vilnius | Vilniaus apskritis | Lithuania
Lecture by Dr. Jon Seligman – Archaeologist and the Director of the Excavations, Surveys and Research Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Since August 9 team of archaeologists with led by Dr. Seligman continues the works of previous excavation seasons of Vilnius Great Synagogue and this August plan to fully expose the remainder of the Bimah, the Torah Ark/Aron Kodesh, the floor and the southeastern and northwestern walls of the synagogue.

The lecture will be in English.

Place: Lithuanian Jewish community, Pylimo str. 4., III floor.

The project is partially financed by the Good Will Foundation.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/i-the-great-synagogue-of-vilni/267447701552421/

May
3
Tue
A Jewish Europe? Virtual and Real-Life Spaces in the 21st Century @ Gothenburg University
May 3 – May 5 all-day
A Jewish Europe? Virtual and Real-Life Spaces in the 21st Century @ Gothenburg University | Gothenburg | Västra Götaland County | Sweden

The conference aims to explore the development, role, influence and shape of virtual spaces in different forms related to contemporary European Jewry. How are digital practices related to real-life practices and spaces performed and inhabited by Europe’s Jewry? What do virtual spaces reveal about Jewish engagement with the geographical location and the idea of Europe? And, ultimately, what do virtual spaces tell us about the existence and future of a “Jewish Europe”? What do they say about transcending the borders of “Jewish Europe” and fostering membership in a global Jewish presence? 

Announced keynote speakers are JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber and independent scholar Diana Pinto.

The conference is organised by the University of Gothenburg and the Parkes Institute of Southampton University.

Program: 

Tuesday 3 May

09.00 – Welcome and introductions, Joachim Schlör, Maja Hultman and Klas Grinell

09.30 – Keynote: Ruth Ellen Gruber (Jewish Heritage Europe) Life after Life: Shifting Virtualities (and Realities) 20 Years after Virtually Jewish

10.45 – Break and coffee

11.15 – Panel 1: Jewish contribution to Europe – Chair: TBC

  • Itai Apter (University of Haifa) – Jewish Legal-Political WWII Era Scholars in the European International Law Space of the Past and Contemporary Virtual Spaces
  • Marcela Menachem Zoufalá (Charles University Prague) – TBC
  • Vladimir Levin (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) – European Values, Post-Soviet States, and Jewish Heritage

12.45 – Lunch

14.00 – Panel 2: Jewish/non-Jewish Spaces in Europe (J444) – Chair: TBC

  • Susanne Korbel (University of Graz) – Jewish Spaces in Vienna Today: A Relational, Hybrid Approach
  • Magdalena Abraham-Diefenbach (European University Viadrina) – The Legacy of German Jews in Western Poland: Jewish Cemeteries as Places Between “Jewish Space” and “Virtual Jewishness”
  • Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė (Vilnius University) – The Process of Learning About the Jews and Their Heritage: Influence of Challenges in Post-Soviet      Lithuania to the Contemporary Understanding of the Jewish Culture

15.30 – Break and coffee

16.00 – Panel 3: Jewish Europe from Near and Afar (J444) – Chair: TBC

  • Jennifer Cowe (University of British Columbia) – Rootless Nostalgia, Yekke Identity and Intergenerational memory Curation/Creation in Mor Kaplansky’s Café Nagler
  • Libby Langsner (independent researcher) – Nostalgia Networks: The Potential of Built Heritage Digitization in European American Jewish Identity Formation and Social Belonging
  • Judith Vöcker (University of Leicester) – The Muranów District as a Memorial of the Former Jewish Community of Warsaw

18.00 – City walk of Jewish Gothenburg

19.00 – Tour and dinner @ Gothenburg’s Synagogue

Wednesday 4 May

09.00 – Panel 4: Virtual Heritage Spaces of Jewish Europe – Chair: TBC

  • Susanne Urban (University Marburg) – Storytelling in Jewish Spaces: Creating a Bond Between Spaces, History and Present
  • Kyra Schulman (University of Chicago) – Memory Space: Probing the Limits of Holocaust Memorialization Projects on Digital Versus Physical Topographies
  • Kinga Frojimovics and Éva Kovács (Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies) – Tracing the Holocaust in the Kaiserstadt

10.30 – Break and coffee

11.00 – Panel 5: Digital Practices in Today’s Europe – Chair: Klas Grinell

  • Tyson Herberger (University of Southeastern Norway) – Impacts of Norwegian Jewry’s Digital Turn Under Corona
  • Dekel Peretz (Heidelberg University) – Searching for Belonging: Jewish-Muslim Dialogue in Virtual Spaces
  • Alla Marchenko (The Polish Academy of Sciences) – Virtual Representation of Real Jews and Jewishness in Contemporary Poland

12.30 – Lunch

13.45 – Heritage Session: Jewish Spaces in Sweden – Chair: Maja Hultman

  • Yael Fried (Jewish Museum in Stockholm)
  • Anna Grinzweig Jacobsson and Karin Brygger (Judiska salongen)
  • Lukasz Gorniok (Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden and Ivana Koutniková (Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden/Paideia folkhögskola)
  • Tom Shulevitz (Jewish Congregation of Gothenburg)

15.15 – Break and coffee

15.45 – Bus trip Gothenburg-Marstrand

17.00 – Guided tour of Marstrand

19.00 – Dinner @ Grand Tenan

21.30 – Bus trip Marstrand-Gothenburg

Thursday 5 May

09.00 – Panel 6: Being Jewish in Today’s Europe – Chair: TBC

  • Katalin Tóth (Institute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network) – “But We Are Also Here – the Descendants of the Survivors”: Everyday Life of a Synagogue in Budapest for the Past Thirty Years
  • Stanislaw Krajewski (University of Warsaw) – The Concept of De-Assimilation as a Tool to Describe Present-Day European Jews: The Example of Poland
  • Phil Alexander (University of Edinburgh) – “The Most Saving Slum in Glasgow, and the Most Abandoned”: Scotland’s 20th Century Jewish Neighbourhoods as 21st Century Virtual Spaces

10.30 – Break and coffee

11.00 – Virtual Keynote: Diana Pinto (independent researcher) Jewish Spaces in a Topsy Turvy Europe                                      

12.15 – Closing remarks by Joachim Schlör and Maja Hultman

 

May
23
Mon
5th World Litvak Congress @ various
May 23 – May 26 all-day
5th World Litvak Congress @ various | Lithuania

A gathering of Lithuanian Jews and descendants, which includes an academic conference, a cultural fest, guided tours to Jewish heritage in several towns and cities around the country — Vilnius, Kaunas, Panevėžys, Šeduva, Pakruojis — and more.

Click here to see the full program

Pre-registration is required by filling out the following form:

https://forms.gle/VJa9nMHaHjH4t5Lf6

Sep
2
Fri
Shalom in All the World Jewish Culture Festival @ Klaipeda, Lithuania
Sep 2 – Oct 15 all-day
Shalom in All the World Jewish Culture Festival @ Klaipeda, Lithuania | Klaipėda | Klaipėda County | Lithuania

The second Jewish Culture Festival to be held in Klaipeda programs a series of concerts and lectures, and also events anchored by the sites of the built heritage of the Jews of Klaipeda (historically Memel).

These include a “Sound walk in the footsteps of the disappeared synagogues of Klaipėda” on September 24, and guided tours of Jewish Klaipeda in the first week of October. 

 
Aug
4
Fri
𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 (The Echo of the Synagogues) @ various synagogues
Aug 4 – Aug 8 all-day

This festival features concerts in the synagogues of five towns in western Romania:

The repertoire includes new compositions by the violinist and virtuoso Alexander Bălănescu, who also will perform.

PROGRAM:

Bălănescu’s Quartet & Emanuel Pusztai 🎻🎶
🕍 Monday, September 4th, at 7 PM | Neolog Synagogue in Arad
🕍 Tuesday, September 5th, at 7 PM | Cetate Synagogue in Timișoara
𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐚̆𝐥𝐚̆𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐮 (violin), 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 (violoncello) and Emanuel Pusztai (voice) 🎻🎶
🕍 Wednesday, September 6th, at 7 PM | Reșița’s Synagogue
🕍 Thursday, September 7th, at 5 PM | “Beit El” Synagogue in Caransebeș
🕍 Thursday, September 7th, at 8:30 PM | Neolog Synagogue in Lugoj
📌 Admission to the concerts is free, and no prior registration is required.
 
The festival is a project of the Pantograf Association, and a continuation of its previous programs  – Sound of Synagogues, Rhapsodies on Romanian Themes, and Synagogue Stories – “which aimed to document the stories of synagogues, raise awareness about the importance of these places of worship, and integrate them into a regional and national circuit by creating a connection between material and immaterial heritage.”
 
It is part of the national cultural programme “Timișoara – European Capital of Culture in 2023” and is funded through the Grow Timișoara 2023 programme, implemented by the Center for Projects Timișoara, with funds allocated from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of Culture. It also falls under the umbrella of the European Days of Jewish Culture (EDJC).
 
Arad, Romania. Inner dome of the Neolog Synagogue
Sep
2
Sat
Shalom in All the World @ Klaipėda, Švėkšna, and Gargždai, Lithuania.
Sep 2 – Oct 12 all-day
Shalom in All the World @ Klaipėda, Švėkšna, and Gargždai, Lithuania. | Klaipėda | Klaipėda County | Lithuania

This year’s International Jewish Culture Festival „SHALOM IN ALL THE WORLD“ focuses on the Jewish woman, her role and importance in history, culture, traditions, social life.

Events will take place in Klaipėda, and also in Švėkšna and Gargždai, Lithuania.

There will be exhibitions, workshops, lectures, concerts, books presentations, films, and more.

 

 

 

Sep
23
Sat
Romania: Night of open synagogues @ Various synagogues
Sep 23 @ 19:00 – 23:00
Romania: Night of open synagogues @ Various synagogues | Romania

Romania’s annual Night of Open Synagogues takes place in a number of synagogues around the country.

We know of events in synagogues in Bucharest, where four synagogues will be open, in Satu Mare, and in Iasi.

We have not seen a full list, however.

The synagogues are open to visitors after the close of Shabbat, and there are also various events planned in some of them.

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