Jewish Heritage Europe

Calendar

Feb
5
Wed
The Search for Jewish Architecture @ University of Miami
Feb 5 @ 12:30 – 14:00
The Search for Jewish Architecture @ University of Miami | Coral Gables | Florida | United States

Lecture by Dr. Vladimir Levin, Director of the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Levin will discuss the research and collections of the Center, including on-site missions and the Historic Synagogues of Europe web site.

 

Feb
18
Tue
Jewish Brick and Mortar in the Russian Capital @ YIVO
Feb 18 @ 15:00 – 16:30
Jewish Brick and Mortar in the Russian Capital @ YIVO | New York | New York | United States

The Architectural Dialogue between the St. Petersburg Jewish Community and the Tsarist Metropolis

Max Weinreich Fellowship Lecture in Eastern European Jewish Studies

In this lecture, Dr. Vladimir Levin will consider the uneasy relationship between the architectural oeuvre of the Jewish community and the capital city of the Russian Empire. Although concentrating on St. Petersburg, the talk will address questions and problems that many Jewish communities in European and American cities had to wrangle with. Every Jewish community that settled in a large or small city had to decide how to represent itself vis-à-vis that city, how prominent and visible should their representation should be; what are the ways to express Jewishness in the general cityscape and which means should be employed toward achieving this goal. The lecture will discuss how the Jews of St. Petersburg and their non-Jewish allies looked for a style that was best suited for marking their presence in the city, and how a unique convergence of architecture and manuscript illuminations was created to that end. 


About the Speaker

Dr. Vladimir Levin is the Director of the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Born in St. Petersburg, he holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University. He authored From Revolution to War: Jewish Politics in Russia, 1907-1914 (in Hebrew, 2016) and co-edited Synagogues in Lithuania: A Catalogue (2010-2012). In 2017 he co-authored with Sergey Kravtsov the book Synagogue in Ukraine: Volhynia, and currently works on the book of Jewish heritage in Siberia with Anna Berezin. He also published 120 articles and essays about social and political aspects of modern Jewish history in Eastern Europe, synagogue architecture and ritual objects, Jewish religious Orthodoxy, Jewish-Muslim relations, Jews and Jewish politics in Lithuania, Russian architecture in the Holy Land, history of East-European Jewish communities etc.

Dr. Levin headed numerous research expeditions to documents synagogues and other monuments of Jewish material culture in eastern and central Europe and lead several research projects in the field of Jewish Art, the most important of which is the creation of the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art – the world’s largest digital depository of Jewish heritage.

Mar
1
Sun
Guided tour @ Great Synagogue Beth Yaacov, Geneva
Mar 1 @ 10:30 – 12:00

On the first Sunday of each month, there is a guided tour of the synagogue, an imposing domed building designed in predominantly Moorish style  by the Swiss architect Jean-Henri Bachofen and built in 1857-59.

 

Click for further information

 

Mar
21
Sat
The Duomo & The Great Synagogue: An Evening of Italian Culture @ JCC Los Gatos, California
Mar 21 @ 18:30 – 22:00
The Duomo & The Great Synagogue: An Evening of Italian Culture @ JCC Los Gatos, California | Los Gatos | California | United States

The Duomo & The Great Synagogue: An Evening of Italian Culture

An evening of Jewish and Florentine architecture, culture, music, and food.

• Informal talks about the history and architecture of two of Florence, Italy’s grandest and most iconic structures — the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (the Duomo) and the Great Synagogue — by  Ross King, author of the national bestseller Brunelleschi’s Dome, and noted scholar Professor Francesco Spagnolo, Curator of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley.

• Q&A session moderated by Gail Price, former Executive Director of The American Institute of Architects Santa Clara Valley Chapter.

•The San Jose Chamber players with Cantor Sharon Bernstein presenting both Jewish and Italian songs.

• Italian appetizers and ice cream.

Sep
6
Sun
Guided tour @ Jewish Cemetery of Haguenau
Sep 6 @ 14:00 – 18:00

The Jewish Cemetery of Haguenau is one of the oldest cemeteries in Alsace and has 3,200 graves, some  dating from the 17th century. 
The cemetery was enlarged in 1766 and 1872. During World War II, its walls and doors were gutted, and graves were also destroyed.

Two guided tours of the cemetery are organized as part of the European Day of Jewish Culture.

Places are limited, registration is required.

Sep
13
Sun
Guided tour @ Jewish Cemetery of Haguenau
Sep 13 @ 14:00 – 18:00

The Jewish Cemetery of Haguenau is one of the oldest cemeteries in Alsace and has 3,200 graves, some  dating from the 17th century. 
The cemetery was enlarged in 1766 and 1872. During World War II, its walls and doors were gutted, and graves were also destroyed.

Two guided tours of the cemetery are organized as part of the European Day of Jewish Culture.

Places are limited, registration is required.

Feb
1
Mon
Dehumanizing the Dead: The destruction of the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki
Feb 1 @ 20:00 – 21:00
Dehumanizing the Dead: The destruction of the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki @ Cary | North Carolina | United States

Online lecture by Leon Saltiel on his research on the destruction of the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki (Salonika), Greece.

The lecture is sponsored by the @UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center.

 

Jun
2
Wed
The Architecture of Greek Synagogues @ Online Zoom event
Jun 2 @ 19:00 – 20:15
Nov
30
Wed
“Unsettled Heritage” event @ online
Nov 30 @ 20:00 – 21:30
"Unsettled Heritage" event @ online

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.

Jan
12
Thu
The Architecture of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam @ Online
Jan 12 @ 12:00 – 13:00
The Architecture of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam @ Online

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.

Click to register.

 

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