After a five year break for restoration and revamping, the Museum of the History and Culture of Jews in Romania is reopening, also with the dedication of new art gallery.
The museum was founded in 1978, at the initiative of then Romanian Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen in the former Holy Union synagogue, built in 1836 as a place of worship for the local tailors’ craft union.
The synagogue in Hârlâu, Romania will be rededicated following restoration.
A day-long program of events starts at 10:30 a.m. (See photo)
Launch of the book “In the Footsteps of Jewish Timisoara,” by Getta Neumann.
The Romanian-language guide includes tourist trails, information on history and tradition, as well as about synagogues and the Jewish cemetery, personalities, and more.
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.
Screening of the film Jewish Routes in Romania, a documentary about Jewish heritage sites in the country.
According to a press release:
Jewish itineraries in Romania is a documentary film that captures a small part of the traces left by the Jewish communities in Romania. From Săpânţa to Ştefăneşti, from Bacău to Siret, the film crew tried to recover the atmosphere in the visited cemeteries and synagogues. Hard to locate, remaining outside the tourist circuit of many localities in Romania, the Jewish cemeteries are in an accelerated process of degradation, although they represent an invaluable heritage. And in the few synagogues that remained functional in Romania, only a handful of people celebrate the old beliefs.
For over 40 minutes, the viewer can admire unique funeral stones or synagogues painted in an impressive manner. Botoşani, Bucureşti, Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Fălticeni, Săpânţa, Ştefăneşti, Suceava, Dorohoi, Piatra Neamt, Sighetu Marmaiei, Simleu Silvaniei, Buhuşi, Târgu Neamţ, Sighet, Siret, Rădăuţi and Bacău, are the following localities: they revealed a flourishing world, a Jewish world that used to call Romania’s territory home.
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.
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.
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:
Monday, September 4th, at 7 PM | Neolog Synagogue in Arad Tuesday, September 5th, at 7 PM | Cetate Synagogue in Timișoara 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.
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.
A photographic exhibit highlighting the Sephardic Jewish presence in Bucharest, curated by Felicia Waldman and Anca Tudorancea.
Photos depict synagogues, Jewish communal buildings, private buildings, and shops, etc, as well as personalities such as professionals, doctors, merchants, artisans, doctors, cultural figures, etc.
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