Jewish Heritage Europe

Calendar

Feb
11
Thu
Virtual Opening of Romaniote Memories: Photos of Vincent Giordano @ Online Zoom event
Feb 11 @ 17:00 – 18:00
Virtual Opening of Romaniote Memories: Photos of Vincent Giordano @ Online Zoom event
The exhibition can be seen at this link: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/romaniote-memories/index
 
In 1999, photographer Vincent Giordano made an unplanned visit to the small Kehila Kedosha Janina (KKJ) synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side. He knew little about Judaism or synagogues, and even less about the Romaniote Jewish tradition of which KKJ, built in 1927, is the lone North American representative. In this he was not alone. Romaniotes are among the least known of Jewish communities. Beginning in 2001 and guided by members of the KKJ community, Giordano documented the synagogue and its religious art of the congregation using film, video, and audio.
 
In 2019 the Giordano family donated the archive of Vincent’s work to Queens College, where it is a major part of the Hellenic American Project and is preserved as part of the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library’s Special Collections and Archives.
 
The exhibition is sponsored by the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, Hellenic American Project, and Center for Jewish Studies at Queens College, in partnership with the International Center for Jewish Monuments, an independent non-profit organization.
 
The exhibition includes more than one hundred photographs, presented in ten thematic sections, accessible here.
 
To register for the exhibition’s opening reception on Zoom, featuring a conversation with curators, distinguished guests, and friends go to:
Feb
16
Tue
Jews of Siberia and their material culture @ Online Zoom event
Feb 16 @ 20:00 – 21:00
Jews of Siberia and their material culture @ Online Zoom event

A series of three online talks by Dr. Anna Berezin and Dr. Vladimir Levin on Jews in Siberia and their material culture. 

The lectures will take place on Tuesdays, 2, 9, and 16 February 2021, at 20:00 Israel time (1 pm EST).

In order to register, please click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1916108823866/WN_lc1OUD4eSmScUFtx8aTt6g

 

 

Jun
10
Thu
Virtual Reconstructions of Synagogues in Germany @ NS Documentation Center
Jun 10 @ 19:00 – 20:00
Virtual Reconstructions of Synagogues in Germany @ NS Documentation Center | Köln | Nordrhein-Westfalen | Germany

The opening of an exhibition of virtual reconstructions of synagogues destroyed by the Nazis.

It is mounted at the the NS Documentation Center in cooperation with the Technical University of Darmstadt.

The exhibition “Synagogues in Germany – A Virtual Reconstruction” runs from from June 11th to September 19th.

The TU Darmstadt has been working on the virtual reconstruction of synagogues that were destroyed in Germany for 25 years. The initial spark for this long-term project was the attack by neo-Nazis on the synagogue in Lübeck in 1994. In 2019, an attack was carried out on the synagogue there in Halle. With this project, the TU Darmstadt shows the cultural loss, the importance of synagogues in the cityscape and the beauty of the architecture. 

The exhibition also shows synagogues that were built in Germany after 1945. 

Read our article about virtual reconstructions

Jun
13
Sun
Synagogue in Gleusdorf opens @ Synagogue in Gleusdorf, Germany
Jun 13 all-day
Synagogue in Gleusdorf opens @ Synagogue in Gleusdorf, Germany | Untermerzbach | Bayern | Germany

The tiny former synagogue in the village of Gleusdorf, out of use for more than a century, opens as an information center about local rural Jewish life and history.

The inauguration ceremony will be a closed event for invited guests because of COVID restrictions.

The synagogue has been owned since 2016 by the Untermerzbach municipality, which sponsored and oversaw the €174,000 project. Funding included a €87,500 grant from the EU’s LEADER funding program for the development of the rural economy. 

The synagogue will be operated in cooperation with the Friends of the Synagogue association in nearby Memmelsdorf, and the preservation concept accords with that of the Memmelsdorf synagogue –“conservation instead of reconstruction” —  that is, not to reconstruct or restore the building, but to conserve it in a way that shows the history of what it has gone through.

Click to read our article about the restoration and project

 

Jul
12
Mon
Görlitz Synagogue reopens @ Synagogue Görlitz
Jul 12 all-day

The former synagogue in Görlitz reopens after  around 30 years of gradual renovation as the “Kulturforum Görlitz Synagogue.” 

The Görlitz synagogue is the only community synagogue in saxony that survived Kristallnacht in 1938.

According to the city administration, the total cost of the renovation was 12.6 million euros.

 The opening had been postponed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

May
12
Thu
Space and Place in the German-Jewish Experience of the 1930s @ Rostock University
May 12 all-day
Space and Place in the German-Jewish Experience of the 1930s @ Rostock University | Rostock | Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | Germany

This workshop explores spatial aspects of the experiences of German-Jews during 1930s, in Germany and in transit. In highlighting the convoluted relations between place and identity—and the essential influence of these relations on the history of emotions, thoughts and culture—the workshop focuses on the spaces that shaped German-Jewish self-perceptions in the face of National Socialism. While the workshop discusses specific locations, it also examines the concepts of space and place as analytical tools to enhance the historical understanding of Jewish life under Nazi rule and Jewish responses to Nazi persecution. In so doing, the workshop seeks to scrutinize and complicate recent trends in the study of German-Jewish history.

The Keynote Lecture will be given by Professor Marion Kaplan, a renowned researcher of German-Jewish history in modern times and one of the first to address questions of place and space in the experience of German Jews under Nazism.

Organisers: David Jünger (Universität Rostock), Ofer Ashkenazi (The Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History), Björn Siegel (Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden) und Katrin Steffen (Sussex Weidenfeld Institut of Jewish Studies)

This workshop takes place IN PERSON. To comply with current regulations to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, please register in advance by contacting Dr. David Jünger (david.juenger@uni-rostock.de).

 

PROGRAM

Thursday, 12 May

12:30–13:00
Introduction

13:00–15:00
1. Creating Spaces of Memory

Gerald Lamprecht (Graz)
Entangled Memories. Jewish and non-Jewish Discourses on the Great War in Interwar Austria

Katrin Steffen (Brighton)
East German-Jewish Spaces in Berlin. Jewish Heritage Societies (Heimatvereine) and their diasporic milieu in the 1930ies

Joachim Schlör (Southampton)
Brückenallee 33, Berlin

15:30-17:30
2. Being In-Between

David Jünger (Rostock)
From Myth to Reality. German Jews Discover Palestine (1933–1938)

Charlie Knight (Southampton)
Mapping your coordinates. Space and Transnationality in Refugee Correspondence

Björn Siegel (Hamburg/Graz)
Ships to Nowhere. A Maritime Space and Its Relevance to Decode Jewish Refugees’ experiences in the 1930s

18:00-19:30
Keynote Lecture

Marion Kaplan (New York)
The Emotional Dissonance of Spaces. German Jewish Refugees in Portugal

Hörsaal 218, Universitätshauptgebäude, Universitätsplatz 1

 

 

Friday 13 May

09:00-11:30
3. Vanishing Jewish Spaces

Guy Miron (Jerusalem)
Synagogues, Cemeteries, Sports facilities. Jewish spaces and places in Nazi Germany

Teresa Walch (Greensboro)
Rendering Germany ‘judenrein’: Space, Ideology, and German Jews in the 1930s

Kim Wünschmann (Hamburg)
Filming the destruction of the Munich Main Synagogue in June 1938. A spatial history-approach to the reading of visual sources

Miriam Rürup (Potsdam)
Dejudaization before Deportation. The removal of Jewish traces in urban topographies of German cities

12:00-14:00
4. Visualizing Jewish Spaces

Robert Mueller-Stahl (Potsdam)
Capturing crisis. German-Jewish private travel photography between the Weimar Republic and Nazism

Sarah Wobick-Segev (Hamburg)
Being and Not Being in Time and Place

Ofer Aschkenazi (Tel Aviv)
The Displacement of the Ordinary. The German-Jewish Home in Photography Narratives of Emigration

14:15-15:30
Round table: Final Discussion
with Sandwich lunch

 

May
14
Sat
Space and Place in the German-Jewish Experience of the 1930s @ Rostock University
May 14 all-day
Space and Place in the German-Jewish Experience of the 1930s @ Rostock University | Rostock | Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | Germany

This workshop explores spatial aspects of the experiences of German-Jews during 1930s, in Germany and in transit. In highlighting the convoluted relations between place and identity—and the essential influence of these relations on the history of emotions, thoughts and culture—the workshop focuses on the spaces that shaped German-Jewish self-perceptions in the face of National Socialism. While the workshop discusses specific locations, it also examines the concepts of space and place as analytical tools to enhance the historical understanding of Jewish life under Nazi rule and Jewish responses to Nazi persecution. In so doing, the workshop seeks to scrutinize and complicate recent trends in the study of German-Jewish history.

The Keynote Lecture will be given by Professor Marion Kaplan, a renowned researcher of German-Jewish history in modern times and one of the first to address questions of place and space in the experience of German Jews under Nazism.

Organisers: David Jünger (Universität Rostock), Ofer Ashkenazi (The Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History), Björn Siegel (Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden) und Katrin Steffen (Sussex Weidenfeld Institut of Jewish Studies)

This workshop takes place IN PERSON. To comply with current regulations to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, please register in advance by contacting Dr. David Jünger (david.juenger@uni-rostock.de).

 

PROGRAM

Thursday, 12 May

12:30–13:00
Introduction

13:00–15:00
1. Creating Spaces of Memory

Gerald Lamprecht (Graz)
Entangled Memories. Jewish and non-Jewish Discourses on the Great War in Interwar Austria

Katrin Steffen (Brighton)
East German-Jewish Spaces in Berlin. Jewish Heritage Societies (Heimatvereine) and their diasporic milieu in the 1930ies

Joachim Schlör (Southampton)
Brückenallee 33, Berlin

15:30-17:30
2. Being In-Between

David Jünger (Rostock)
From Myth to Reality. German Jews Discover Palestine (1933–1938)

Charlie Knight (Southampton)
Mapping your coordinates. Space and Transnationality in Refugee Correspondence

Björn Siegel (Hamburg/Graz)
Ships to Nowhere. A Maritime Space and Its Relevance to Decode Jewish Refugees’ experiences in the 1930s

18:00-19:30
Keynote Lecture

Marion Kaplan (New York)
The Emotional Dissonance of Spaces. German Jewish Refugees in Portugal

Hörsaal 218, Universitätshauptgebäude, Universitätsplatz 1

 

 

Friday 13 May

09:00-11:30
3. Vanishing Jewish Spaces

Guy Miron (Jerusalem)
Synagogues, Cemeteries, Sports facilities. Jewish spaces and places in Nazi Germany

Teresa Walch (Greensboro)
Rendering Germany ‘judenrein’: Space, Ideology, and German Jews in the 1930s

Kim Wünschmann (Hamburg)
Filming the destruction of the Munich Main Synagogue in June 1938. A spatial history-approach to the reading of visual sources

Miriam Rürup (Potsdam)
Dejudaization before Deportation. The removal of Jewish traces in urban topographies of German cities

12:00-14:00
4. Visualizing Jewish Spaces

Robert Mueller-Stahl (Potsdam)
Capturing crisis. German-Jewish private travel photography between the Weimar Republic and Nazism

Sarah Wobick-Segev (Hamburg)
Being and Not Being in Time and Place

Ofer Aschkenazi (Tel Aviv)
The Displacement of the Ordinary. The German-Jewish Home in Photography Narratives of Emigration

14:15-15:30
Round table: Final Discussion
with Sandwich lunch

 

Oct
9
Sun
Jewish Museum of East Prussia tour @ Synagogue, Kaliningrad
Oct 9 @ 14:00 – 15:00
Jewish Museum of East Prussia tour @ Synagogue, Kaliningrad | Kaliningrad | Kaliningradskaya oblast' | Russia

Reception and curators’ tour at the newly opening Jewish Museum in the Kaliningrad Synagogue.

The exhibition “Through Koenigsberg with Jewish Eyes” will be presented to the public. The members of the Jewish Congregation have been able to visit the new museum since mid-September.

 

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.

 

Feb
21
Wed
House of the World to Come: Immortal Jewish Cemeteries @ Parobrod Galeria, Belgrade
Feb 21 – Mar 7 all-day

Photo exhibition by Rudolf Klein, author of the book Metropolitan Jewish Cemeteries — which will be presented at the opening.

The opening takes place February 21, at 7 p.m.

There will be speeches by Klein and others.

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