Join JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber; the architect, artist and designer, Natalia Romik; the director of the Okopowa Jewish cemetery in Warsaw, Witold Wrzosiński; and the CEO of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ) Piotr Puchta for a wide-ranging Webinar centering on Jewish heritage preservation, future prospects, challenges, and possible approaches.
This Webinar is the third and final Webinar in a series that has been part of the project “Virtual Connections to Material Jewish Heritage in Poland” carried out by FODZ, aimed at fostering public awareness of synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish built heritage via digital models and detailed virtual tours of selected buildings.
Please register for the webinar here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_YsMCMndzQ1SbllwVPi0X_A
Click to access the project web site and the virtual tours of selected Jewish historical sites in Kraśnik, Łęczna, Łancut, Olsztyn, Orla, Przysucha, Sejny, and Zamość.
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:
The long-derelict 19th century synagogue in Kőszeg, western Hungary, is reopening to the public after a full-scale renovation that took place over the past two years. The synagogue, which is owned by the state, will become a cultural centre but also will be able to be used for religious services.
JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber is on the program of its first public event, Sunday August 28-29 — the opening of an exhibition about Philip (Fülöp) Schey (1798-1881), a Jewish philanthropist born in Kőszeg (known in German as Güns), who had grown rich as a textile merchant and later became a banker for the Hapsburgs. In 1859, Emperor Franz Joseph raised Schey to the Hungarian nobility — he was the first Jew to receive this honor and took the title Philip Schey von Koromla.
The exhibit is called “A Kőszeg Success Story: the Schey Family,” and it presents Philip Schey’s family, life and work: his economic and philanthropic activities, as well as his founding of institutions.
It begins at 3 p.m. and is organized by iAsk — the Institute of Advanced Studies in Kőszeg, which has played a role in the restoration of the building.
The opening is part of a two-day series of events, “Synagogue Week in Kőszeg,” including concerts, lectures, guided tours, and book presentations.
The “Zoom in on the Forum” series of webinars by the School of Dialogue, presents a discussion about the restoration work at the Bagnowka Jewish cemetery in Bialystok Poland — we have posted a number of times about the project.
Amy Degen and Heidi M. Szpek will share their work as members of the Bialystok Cemetery Restoration project (BCRP). Both have been involved in salvaging, documenting, and restoring headstones in the cemetery as well as raising awareness about Jewish history of Bialystok.
This summer, the BCRP carried out work at the cemetery for the first time since the pandemic began.
Among other things, more than 100 headstones dating from the early 19th century and originally located in the destroyed Rabbinical cemetery, were unearthed and rescued from under a mound of earth where they had been buried during communist times, when the cemetery was turned into a park.
A round-table discussion, plus optional walking tours through the “invisible” medieval Jewish history of Winchester. The Roundtable is free, the walking tours — at 10:30-11:30am or 11:30-12:30pm, cost £5.
The event event focuses on Licoricia of Winchester and the heritage and memory of medieval Anglo-Jewry.
The bronze statue of the remarkable Anglo-Jewish woman, Licoricia, was unveiled in Winchester in 2021. This is the most prominent heritage work carried out relating to medieval Anglo- Jewry.
The event, through a walking tour (£5) and free round table discussion, will consider the achievements of the Licoricia project, and the challenges of creating heritage in the absence of the built heritage that directly reflects the presence of medieval Winchester Jewry. It will also consider the public and educational issues raised when dealing with questions such as the Jewish role in medieval finance and hostile representations of Jews from the period based on religious bigotry. Addressing the key aims of the Licoricia project, participants will explore the potential of such commemoration to consider the roots of prejudice and discrimination, using this to promote tolerance, diversity, and female empowerment.
Please note that if you wish to attend both the walking tour and the roundtable event, you will need to register for each event separately.
Click here for booking and other details
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.
JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber, the author of travel books and articles on Jewish heritage in Europe, will be in conversation — “A Journey between Islamic and Jewish Europe” — with the British Muslim writer Tharik Hussain, the author of travel literature on Islamic heritage in Europe, as part of a three day series of meetings called “Invitation to the Voyage.” The conversation will be led by Prof. Shaul Bassi.
The meetings are held in collaboration between the Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro and the Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, and on the occasion of the last days of the ‘Nicolò Manucci. the Marco Polo of India’ exhibition.
The venue is the drawing room of Palazzo Vendramin Grimani.
The meetings will be open to the public, free of charge upon reservation. Simultaneous translation into Italian will be available for each meeting.
Click here for full information and program and to reserve a place
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
Book launch of “Zohar: A Photographic Journey through the Places of Italian Jewish Culture,” with the author Francesco Maria Colombo, Ferruccio de Bortoli, President of the Shoah Memorial Foundation, and Sandro Parmiggiani, editor of the book.
The book is under the patronage of the Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy and is enriched by contributions from Sandro Parmiggiani, Adachiara Zevi, Alberto Manguel, and Dario Disegni.
Free admission with reservation.
The book “Slovak Synagogues on Old Postcards” will be launched in Bratislava.
The book includes more than 270 old postcards of Jewish places of worship.
Opposite each postcard is a brief history of the Jewish community and synagogue of a particular city or village.
The book is written in English and Slovak. Historical settlement names appear in both Hungarian and German.
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If you plan to attend the launch, please confirm your arrival to the contacts in the booking as the number of places is limited.
You can buy the publication directly on the spot, or ordered via the following email address:
jdesbook@gmail.com
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