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.
Willesden Jewish Cemetery: 150 years of Heritage 1873 – 2023 Guided Walk
As part of the year long celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Willesden Jewish Cemetery, this guided walk will tell the story of the establishment of the cemetery, highlighting the early years of the United Synagogue, the people who made it happen and their role in the community.
The Willesden Jewish cemetery celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.
This will be one of the main events. The cemetery says:
View our new exhibition of archives in the Heritage Centre
• Have a look at the display in the historic grade II listed portico, highlighting some key stories of those buried here
• Enjoy the permanent exhibition and introductory film in the Heritage Centre
• Take a stroll in our transformed historic gardens with a new emphasis on biodiversity!
• Join us on a new free guided walk at 2.30 pm when we will reveal the early history of this unique Cemetery and the people behind its creation
This is a special occasion for our community to celebrate this important milestone. Throughout the afternoon our volunteers will be on hand to share their knowledge of Willesden Jewish Cemetery, Jewish traditions and culture.
Presenting a selection of nearly 150 pieces from various sources, this photographic exhibition recreates the history of Salonika (today Thessaloniki) Greece from the second half of the 19th century to the end of the First World War. Men and women are captured in their traditional costumes: modest artisans, porters, traders, members of the local “aristocracy;” society is revealed. Urban modernization is also shown: the quays and the White Tower, cafes, restaurants and entertainment venues; the Countryside sector where the notables established their residence; deprived areas, where emerging industries were established.
But also, in the now Greek city, the great fire of August 1917, an authentic trauma for the Jews who saw their historic neighborhoods, the municipal archives and more than thirty synagogues swept away by the flames, before the geopolitical upheavals caused by the First War worldwide.
Barnet Libraries presents: The History and Residents of Willesden Jewish Cemetery.
The cemetery is a designated Heritage Site and celebrated its 150th anniversary in June this year.
Many of the people who are buried there were prominent in the fields of industry, commerce, science and the arts.
It is hoped that this talk will be a catalyst to people visiting the grounds and seeing the work delivered by the cemetery’s small team and dedicated volunteers.
More than 80 years ago, the headstones that once stood in the Brest-Litovsk Jewish cemetery, in the south of Belarus, were desecrated and used for other purposes. More than 1200 headstones have been discovered over the last 20 years. They will be used to create a stunning memorial.
The Together Plan’s January 14th event will focus on this project.
How did the cemetery disappear?
What happened to the matzevot?
How did The Together Plan become involved?
What has been done so far and what are the plans for the future?
Where are the 1249 salvaged headstones at the moment?
How does this memorial play a pivotal role in Jewish history?
How will this support the functioning Jewish community in Brest today?
Click here to find the link to register
USA 11:00 PT / 14:00 ET / UK 19:00 / Israel 21:00
The Centre for Religion and Heritage of the University of Groningen will host a half-day public symposium to launch the Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe. This event will also inaugurate a new European project on minority religious heritage.
The event takes place in person and also online. Click HERE to register
The organizers state:
The Handbook provides a state-of-the-art guide by leading international scholars, policy makers and heritage practitioners. With 46 chapters, we cannot address all the contributions, thus we have chosen to concentrate on those which examine how religious communities are using their rich heritage to make new meanings for themselves in Europe. Our focus will be on Jewish, Muslim and Christian heritage. We want to think together about the challenges facing these communities, as they grapple with being Jewish or Muslim minorities in a historically Christian landscape, or with being a minority of practicing Christians in the highly secularized society, such as that of Northern Netherlands. Reflecting on these questions together with our Handbook authors will aid the start of a new project in the Erasmus Plus program called European Pathways to Minority Religious Heritage (Miretage). Over three years we are exploring how minority religious heritage can be taught as a co-creative activity between heritage institutions, creative organizations and minority communities. On hand to participate in the symposium are partners from Storytelling Center Amsterdam, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Moslim Archief Rotterdam, KU Leuven, Future for Religious
Click here to see the program for the January 23 event
The latest edition of the exhibit Neviditelné Synagogy — Invisible Synagogues, photographs by Štěpán Bartoš.
Bartoš photographs the blank spaces in the Czech Republic where destroyed synagogues once stood and adds a ghostly silhouette of the destroyed synagogue to the exhibition photos of the places where they once stood.
On the Invisible Synagogues project web site (which is in German and Czech) you can see galleries of his photos, without the added silhouette, arranged according to region. They include sites in big cities, small towns, and tiny villages; there are fields and rural spaces as well as modern buildings, crowded city streets, and even artificial lakes.
Read our November 2021 post about his Invisible Synagogues project.
For 1,000 years, the teachings of the Jewish scholar and innovative commentator Rashi of Troyes have shaped our humanist, moral and legal values. There is now an initiative to have Rashi and the wider region where he was active in France recognized by the European Heritage Label.
A Public Interest Group has been constituted by the State, the City of Troyes, the Department of Aube, the Region Grand-Est and the Central Consistoire of France to prepare the candidacy for the European Heritage Label designation. The originality of this project to connect the local and regional level where the lack of material artefacts has favored artistic creation and the development of new educational resources and environmentally sustainable tourist networks, with national and international initiatives.
Delphine Yagüe, the Director, and Professor Josef Konvitz, coordinator of the scientific advisory committee for the GIP project, will describe some of the current and planned innovative activities which highlight the European dimension of the site, attracting youth, contributing to the fight against antisemitism, and connecting with the activities of other European Heritage Label sites.
Program 18.00-19:30 CET
18:00: Introduction: Dr. Susanne Urban & Tomasz Wlodarski
18:10: Rashi and Troyes: Memory and Place in 21st Century Europe:
Delphine Yagüe & Prof. Josef Konvitz
19:00: Discussion
19:25: Wrap Up by Michael Mail
Please register for the event here (link to the Google Form) –
https://forms.gle/Wt3Ykc8mDLnvzwBY9
The Zoom link will be sent just prior to the event.
Since 2007, forensic archaeological investigations have revealed new evidence of the crimes undertaken at the notorious Treblinka Extermination Camp in Poland.
In this talk, Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls will outline some of the key findings of this research and discuss the ways they have inspired Holocaust survivors and their descendants based in the UK to undertake their own journeys to commemorate their loved ones.
Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls’ pioneering research focuses on the application of interdisciplinary approaches to the investigation of Holocaust landscapes. She conducted the first forensic archaeological investigations at Treblinka Extermination and Labour Camps, the results of which will be presented in her forthcoming book Finding Treblinka. She is also the author of several other books including Holocaust Archaeologies: Approaches and Future Directions (2015), the Handbook on Missing Persons (2016) and ‘Adolf Island: The Nazi Occupation of Alderney (2022).
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