Jewish Heritage Europe

Calendar

Apr
28
Sun
Clean-up Jewish cemetery @ Jewish cemetery, Tuzla
Apr 28 @ 13:00 – 18:00

On the local Day of the Mosque, young people from a local Islamic organization, led by local Imams, are cleaning up the Jewish cemetery in Tuzla, Bosnia Herzegovina.

Click here to see local media article

Jun
13
Thu
Reinauguration Hârlâu synagogue @ Hârlâu synagogue
Jun 13 all-day
Reinauguration Hârlâu synagogue @ Hârlâu synagogue | Hârlău | Județul Iași | Romania

The synagogue in Hârlâu, Romania will be rededicated following restoration.

A day-long program of events starts at 10:30 a.m. (See photo)

 

 

 

Dec
17
Tue
Jewish itineraries in Romania film @ Bucharest, Romanian National History Museum
Dec 17 @ 18:00 – 19:00
Jewish itineraries in Romania film @ Bucharest, Romanian National History Museum | București | Municipiul București | Romania

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.

Feb
23
Tue
Legacy of the Shtetl: Investigating Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands @ Online Zoom event
Feb 23 @ 18:00 – 19:00
Legacy of the Shtetl: Investigating Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands @ Online Zoom event | Bentonville | Arkansas | United States
The Legacy of the Shtetl: Investigating Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands
with Dr Magdalena Waligórska, and Dr Natalia Romik, respondent, and with Prof François Guesnet, Chair 
 
Co-organized by the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies and  the UCL Institute of Jewish Studies
 
Magdalena Waligórska takes us on a journey to the post-1945 Polish-Ukrainian-Belorusian borderlands where she explores small towns which had a predominantly Jewish population before the Second World War and the Holocaust. Here, Jewish property both entirely fell under the control of the new ethnic majority and remained a “disinherited heritage” that continues to cause dissonance and psychological discomfort to its current “heirs.”
 
The unsettling presence of Jewish ruins, resurfacing human remains, walled-in objects, collapsing cellars, and the recycled tombstones constitutes an “intrusion of the past into the present” that, decades after the war, still demands action and results in different local responses.
 
The respondent, Natalia Romik, is an artist, urban historian, and architect from Warsaw who has undertaken similar but different explorations of the Jewish heritage in small Polish towns.
 
Jun
28
Mon
Belarus Jewish heritage conference @ Minsk and online
Jun 28 – Jun 30 all-day
Belarus Jewish heritage conference @ Minsk and online

The Belarusian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Center and The Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton are organizing the first international conference on ‘The history, culture and heritage of Jews in Belarus across the ages.’

The aim of the conference is to discuss the latest findings on all aspects of the history, culture and heritage of Jews in Belarus, including the emergence of a distinctive Belarusian-Jewish identity.

NOTE: The conference will be ‘hybrid’, allowing participants and audience to attend either on site if they can go to Minsk, or remotely, through the conference platform.

The conference will bring together specialists from Eastern Europe and other parts of the world to discuss the latest findings on all aspects of the history, culture and heritage of Jews in Belarus. 

There will be panels on art, pre-revolutionary history, ethnography, heritage, Holocaust, interwar period, language and literature. The keynote speakers are Professor Mikhail Krutikov and Dr Inna Gerasimova. There will also be round-tables about heritage and national identities in contemporary Belarus.

Click here for the conference web page

 

Oct
10
Sun
Zoymen 2021 @ Online
Oct 10 all-day
Zoymen 2021 @ Online

An online conference on two Sundays about Jewish identity and cultural heritage in Belarus, organized by TheTogether Plan within the context of the European Days of Jewish Culture. The Together Plan is engaged in various Jewish communal, heritage, and identity projects in Belarus, including organising a Jewish heritage route.

It calls Belarus “the unexplored and unknown root of modern day Ashkenazi Jewry.”

The conference “will be exploring hidden history, overcoming severe challenges and taking a look at modern day solutions.”

Click here to register, buy ticket, and see program

 

Oct
17
Sun
Zoymen 2021 @ Online
Oct 17 all-day
Zoymen 2021 @ Online

An online conference on two Sundays about Jewish identity and cultural heritage in Belarus, organized by TheTogether Plan within the context of the European Days of Jewish Culture. The Together Plan is engaged in various Jewish communal, heritage, and identity projects in Belarus, including organising a Jewish heritage route.

It calls Belarus “the unexplored and unknown root of modern day Ashkenazi Jewry.”

The conference “will be exploring hidden history, overcoming severe challenges and taking a look at modern day solutions.”

Click here to register, buy ticket, and see program

 

Nov
27
Sat
Extermination – Great Synagogue Grodno @ online - zoom, and on-site
Nov 27 @ 18:00 – 20:30
Extermination - Great Synagogue Grodno @ online - zoom, and on-site | Vilnius | Vilniaus apskritis | Lithuania

European Humanities University (EHU) and the Center for Belarusian Community and Culture in Vilnius will host a premiere presentation of “Extermination” — an audiovisual installation about the Great Synagogue of Grodno, which was constructed in the 16th century and was rebuilt many times after devastating fires. 

Kseniya Shtalenkova (lecturer in the Academic Department of Humanities and Arts at EHU, Philosophy PhD candidate) is the project curator and Viktoryia Bahdanovich (fourth-year student of the BA program in Visual Design) is the project production designer and executive producer.

 The “Extermination” audiovisual installation is a monologue on the history of the place as well as an individual experience of a person in time and space.

The installation has been created as a part of the project on “Preservation and Actualization of Former Synagogues in Belarus for the Benefit of Local Communities” by Stsiapan Stureika, Professor of Humanities and Arts at EHU. Project research conducted for the work on the installation was conducted with the participation of EHU students.

The presentation will be delivered in Russian with subtitles in English. 

Register by November 26.

Click here to register on Zoom (or for in-person attendance)

The event will be also streamed online via EHU’s Facebook page.

NOTE: you can attend the event physically at the Belarusian House (Vilniaus g. 20) by pre-registration at the same link to register on Zoom

Aug
4
Fri
𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐫 (The Echo of the Synagogues) @ various synagogues
Aug 4 – Aug 8 all-day

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:

Bălănescu’s Quartet & Emanuel Pusztai 🎻🎶
🕍 Monday, September 4th, at 7 PM | Neolog Synagogue in Arad
🕍 Tuesday, September 5th, at 7 PM | Cetate Synagogue in Timișoara
𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐚̆𝐥𝐚̆𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐮 (violin), 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 (violoncello) and Emanuel Pusztai (voice) 🎻🎶
🕍 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.
 
The festival is a project of the Pantograf Association, and a continuation of its previous programs  – Sound of Synagogues, Rhapsodies on Romanian Themes, and Synagogue Stories – “which aimed to document the stories of synagogues, raise awareness about the importance of these places of worship, and integrate them into a regional and national circuit by creating a connection between material and immaterial heritage.”
 
It is part of the national cultural programme “Timișoara – European Capital of Culture in 2023” and is funded through the Grow Timișoara 2023 programme, implemented by the Center for Projects Timișoara, with funds allocated from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of Culture. It also falls under the umbrella of the European Days of Jewish Culture (EDJC).
 
Arad, Romania. Inner dome of the Neolog Synagogue
Jan
14
Sun
Restoring Legacy: reclaiming the Brest-Litovsk Jewish cemetery @ online
Jan 14 @ 19:00 – 20:00
Restoring Legacy: reclaiming the Brest-Litovsk Jewish cemetery @ online

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

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