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
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.
An exhibition presenting the construction history of the Szeged New Synagogue. The opening event is at 16:30 on August 25 (see the picture for the program).
The Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Center (MÉM MDK), in cooperation with the Jewish Community of Szeged and the Holocaust Memorial Center, is commemorating Lipót Baumhorn and the 120 year-old synagogue in Szeged with an exhibition.
The exhibition on the ground floor of the Páva Street Synagogue, which is part of the Holocaust Memorial Center, focuses on the New Synagogue in Szeged, built between 1900 and 1903. In addition to the construction plans and the documents on the building created at the time of its construction, the sacred textiles made for the inauguration of the synagogue, including the Torah Ark curtain (parochet) and the Torah mantel will also be on display. The Jewish Community of Szeged has had the richly embroidered silk objects restored for this occasion.
Besides these objects, rich photographic material also illustrates the oeuvre of Lipót Baumhorn, who was born 160 years ago. The exhibits will not only present the twenty-six synagogues he designed, but visitors will also be able to see examples of his secular architectural work, as interpreted by the photographer Krisztina Bélavári. The synagogue that houses the exhibition was also designed by Lipót Baumhorn, so he is being commemorated in a worthy setting.
Curator: Ágnes Ivett Oszkó, Ph.D., art historian of the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Center
Director of the restoration project for the Jewish Community of Szeged: Dóra Pataricza, Ph.D., historian
Professional consultants: Vera Ábrahám, head of the Archives of the Szeged Jewish Community; Dr. Rudolf Klein, Head of Department, University of Óbuda Ybl Miklós Faculty of Architecture; Pál Ritoók, art historian, head of the Museum Department of the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Monument Protection Documentation Center
Join a volunteer clean up at Budapest’s monumental Salgotarjani ut Jewish cemetery, organized as a “Mitzvah Day” project by the Hungarian Maccabi sports organization.
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
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
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.
A ceremony and reception mark the 100th anniversary of the synagogue on Nagyfuvaros street in Budapest.
A two-day event celebrates the 120th anniversary of the New Synagogue in Szeged, Hungary, the masterpiece of prolific synagogue architect Lipot Baumhorn. The synagogue was inaugurated on May 19, 1903.
There will be a talk about the synagogue’s history and architecture, and that of the Old Synagogue, and also other presentations, including about the noted rabbis Lipot and Immanual Löw, as well as a talk by the Szeged mayor about the synagogue’s role in the city.
See the program here:
Opening of an exhibition of photographs by Daniella Grinberg to mark the 200th anniversary of the synagogue in the village of Kővágóörs, near the north shore of Hungary’s Lake Balaton. The exhibit runs until June 30.
Long abandoned and ruined, the synagogue is now under the care of a foundation that purchased the building and is working to restore it for use as both a synagogue and a cultural center. It already hosts cultural events there.
The Synagogue of Káli-valley Foundation (in Hungarian, Káli-medence Zsinagógája Alapítvány) officially acquired the building in October, 2020 after a year and a half of discussions, from a Canadian businessman of Hungarian origin, who had owned the synagogue since 2013.
Comments are closed.