Lecture by Joanna Beata Michlic.
Since the fall of Communism, Łódź, the third-largest city of Poland, has embarked on a process of cultural reorientation. This process aims at reshaping it into a forward-looking twenty-first century European city. A close look at this process reveals that the reinvention of the city depends on what might be called an archaeological project of rediscovering the local pre-1939 multi-ethnic and multicultural heritage. In this lecture, Dr. Michlic examines the dynamics of the rediscovery of the Jewish heritage in Łódź from the perspective of mutual relations between a physical space and various social agents. She focuses on how the city draws on, reworks and articulates the forgotten Jewish heritage.
At Lag B’Omer, a training seminar for tour guides on Hasidic history and heritage will be held — in English, sponsored by several institutions and organizations in cooperation with local Jewish bodies and Bar Ilan University.
The aims are:
- to improve knowledge about Hasidism, especially Seer of Lublin and his students
- to improve guiding and storytelling skills
- to visit sites most important for the history of Hasidism in eastern Poland
- to meet people from all over Poland, Israel and abroad
The seminar will include:
- Study Groups Relating to “The Seer of Lublin” and His Hasidic Court: Historical and Theological Background
- Lectures of Israeli and Polish experts
- Hasidic Tales and Music
- Lag Baomer Celebration
- Study tours in: Lublin – Leżajsk – Łańcut – Kock
Registration is open till March 31, 2019.
For more information and registration:
Agata Radkowska-Parka : agata@rootkatours.com
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Click here to find full details, program, and application process
Click here for a pdf leaflet about the seminar
Click here for full program PDF
Lecture by Rudolf Klein, based on his recent book.
This lecture, in English, deals with metropolitan Jewish cemeteries in Central and Eastern Europe, from the aspects of art history, architecture and planning, landscaping, Jewish history, Jewish-Christian/Moslem dialogue, the influence between different European regions, including the impact of the Reform Movement and the Ashkenazi-Sephardi dialogue.
Its subject comprises the entirety of elements of 19th and 20th century Jewish cemeteries: urban location, morphology of cemeteries, gravestone typology, stylistic analysis, symbols and inscriptions – language, content, typography – tahara and ceremonial halls, wells, benches, pergolas, row- and section-markers, etc.
Rudolf Klein is professor of history of architecture at the Architecture and Civil Engineering Department of Szent István University. He specializes in history and theory of the 19th- and 20th-century architecture and its impact on religious identity. He is author of many books on history of architecture, including one dedicated to the synagogues in Hungary from late 18th c. to early 20th century, and one about Jewish cemeteries.
The opening of a photo exhibition by Rudolf Klein that presents a brief survey of synagogues converted into museums and galleries in Hungary, Austria, Bosnia‐Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. The exhibit runs until January 16, 2020.
The opening includes talks (in English) by Klein, Polish researcher Natalia Romik, and Professor Thomas Gergely.
Prior registration is required. Click here
The event is organized in collaboration with the Great Synagogue of Europe, the Balassi Institute, the Polish Institute and the Austrian Cultural Forum.
WEBINAR via ZOOM
Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the Ronald S. Lauder Chief Curator of the Core Exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in discussion with Zygmunt Stępiński, the Director of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
The conversation will include a 45-minute discussion, followed by a 15-minute Q&A session where you can ask questions submitted before or during the broadcast.
More than 1,000 fragments of Jewish headstones that the Communist authorities removed in the 1960s from the Jewish cemetery on Zagorska Street and used to build a railway station platform will be exhibited to the public.
Excavations have been going on for six months to recover them, and they will eventually used to create a memorial.
At 5 pm, at the Muzeum Cafe Jerozolima, there will be a presentation about the history of the cemetery.
A conversation with Yechiel Weizman on his book
Unsettled Heritage: Living Next to Poland’s Material Jewish Traces after the Holocaust (Ithaca, 2022)
In Unsettled Heritage, Yechiel Weizman explores what happened to the thousands of abandoned Jewish cemeteries and places of worship that remained in Poland after the Holocaust. He asks how postwar Polish society in small, provincial towns perceived, experienced, and interacted with the physical traces of former Jewish neighbors. Combining archival research into hitherto unexamined sources and anthropological field work, the book uncovers the concrete and symbolic fate of Poland’s material Jewish remnants and shows how their presence became the main vehicle through which Polish society was confronted with the memory of the Jews and their annihilation. Leading the conversation with Weizman will be Monika Rice, and joining them will be Alon Confino and Amos Goldberg.
This event will be held via ZOOM Webinar.
Registration is required, register in advance here.
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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