Jewish Heritage Europe

Calendar

Oct
18
Mon
A World Beyond: Jewish Cemeteries in Turkey 1583-1990 @ online
Oct 18 @ 16:00 – 19:30
A World Beyond: Jewish Cemeteries in Turkey 1583-1990 @ online

An international conference to officially launch the massive website and digital database of Jewish cemeteries in Turkey, A World Beyond: Jewish Cemeteries in Turkey 1583-1990.  

The database and web site are a project of the The Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center of Tel Aviv University. We wrote about it when it first went online last year as a beta version — though the site still says it’s in beta, the kinks that some users experienced appear to have been worked out, and we find it easy to search and use. 

Dedicated to the memory of  the oriental studies scholar Bernard Lewis, who died in 2018, the database is the culmination of decades of research by Prof. Minna Rozen (and others) and comprises digital images and detailed textual content of more than 61,000 Jewish gravestones from a variety of communities in Turkey from 1583 until 1990. Rozen’s onsite documentation of the cemeteries was carried out in 1988-1990. The material was digitized in the 1990s but until the web site was uploaded, it had not been publicly accessible.

Nov
4
Thu
Jewish Identity Engraved on Stones @ Zulfaris synagogue
Nov 4 – Nov 21 all-day
Jewish Identity Engraved on Stones @ Zulfaris synagogue | İstanbul | Turkey

The exhibition focuses on the archaeological findings that demonstrate a Jewish presence in what is now Turkey that goes back more than  2,500 years.

The exhibit includes photos, diagrams, information panels, a 3D reconstruction, and a video that document archaeological finds including inscriptions, gravestones, and the remains of ancient synagogues.

Orphaned legacy. Jewish cemeteries on both sides of the Oder River @ Berlin City Library - Berlin Room
Nov 4 @ 19:00 – 21:00
Orphaned legacy. Jewish cemeteries on both sides of the Oder River @ Berlin City Library - Berlin Room | Berlin | Berlin | Germany

A conference looking at  the handling of Jewish cemeteries on both sides of the border between Germany and Poland — both in communist East Germany and Poland after WW2 and since 1989 in post-reunification Germany and post-communist Poland. Register by November 2.

Program

Welcome: Dr. Peter Bahl, State Historical Association for the Mark Brandenburg eV, and Dr. Magdalena Gebala, German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe eV

Introductory presentation On the situation of the Jewish cemeteries in the Soviet Zone and the GDR, Dr. Monika Schmidt, Berlin

Presentation of the project Jewish cemeteries in Poland in the areas of the former province of Brandenburg, Dr. Magdalena Abraham-Diefenbach and Dr. des. Anke Geißler-Grünberg, both Frankfurt (Oder)

Documentary film Jewish cemeteries in Poland , director: Dietmar Barsig, 2009, 4:05 min., Broadcast in Kulturzeit on November 18, 2009; with the kind permission of ZDF

Followed by a panel discussion with Dr. Magdalena Abraham-Diefenbach, Dr. des. Anke Geißler-Grünberg, Dr. Monika Schmidt and Andrzej Kirmiel, director of the Museum of the Meseritzer Land, Międzyrzecz / Meseritz

Moderation: Dr. Peter Bahl

The event will be held in German and Polish and will be interpreted.

Important NOTE

Limited places. To participate in the event, a confirmed registration up to and including Tuesday, November 2, 2021 by email to ger.wei@web.de (preferred) or on the telephone number (030) 413 82 19 (with AB) is necessary. Proof of COVID vaccination is required to enter. A minimum distance of 1.5 m must be maintained. Wearing an OP or FFP2 mask is mandatory for all participants.

A cooperative event between the Chair for Monument Studies at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), the Chair for Modern History (German-Jewish History) at the University of Potsdam , the State Historical Association for the Mark Brandenburg eV and the German Cultural Forum Eastern Europe eV

The picture shows: Broken tombstone in the Jewish cemetery in Drossen / Ośno Lubuskie, 2021, © Peggy Lohse

 

May
5
Thu
Hungarian synagogues @ Honorary Consulate of Hungary in Flanders
May 5 – May 20 all-day
Hungarian synagogues @ Honorary Consulate of Hungary in Flanders | Antwerpen | Vlaams Gewest | Belgium

Exhibition: Let Them Make Me a Sanctuary! Synagogues of Hungarian Communities

The exhibition introduces the sacral architecture of the Hungarian Jewry by presenting individual synagogue buildings. The authors have selected works spanning nearly a millennium in order to present the characteristics of synagogue architecture, the communities that built them and their history. After the medieval synagogues of Sopron, the baroque synagogues of Mád and the neoclassical synagogues of Óbuda, the synagogues of Pest, the jewels of romantic architecture, will also be presented. These buildings, together with the domed synagogues built at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (Győr, Oradea, Szeged, Subotica, Novi Sad), were important milestones in the emancipation of the Jews. The sacral buildings of the Jewish community of Kassa (Kosice), which were built to complement the Slovakian stops in the exhibition, are also shown on separate tables, and are gems of Romantic and 20th century modern architecture.

Visit only on reservation: 32 2 209 0750 / info@bmki.be

The exhibition is a joint project of the Hungarian Academy of Arts and the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and Documentation Centre for Historic Monument Protection.

Curator: dr. Ágnes Ivett Oszkó, art historian, MÉM MDK
Project Manager: Ágnes Komlóssy, Head of the International and Transnational Affairs Department of the MMA

 

May
23
Mon
5th World Litvak Congress @ various
May 23 – May 26 all-day
5th World Litvak Congress @ various | Lithuania

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:

https://forms.gle/VJa9nMHaHjH4t5Lf6

Apr
13
Thu
Mapping Memories: Judengasse Extended @ Judengasse museum
Apr 13 – Apr 30 all-day
Mapping Memories: Judengasse Extended @ Judengasse museum | Frankfurt am Main | Hessen | Germany

The multi-day event “Mapping Memories” revolves around the violently suppressed traces of Frankfurt’s Judengasse from public space. At its center is a pop-up exhibition in the Museum Judengasse with archaeological finds from the time of Europe’s oldest Jewish ghetto; also an artistic intervention in the current form of the historic site.

The exhibition, with archaeological finds that were recovered from Börneplatz – formerly the southern part of the Judengasse ghetto – in 1987, will be held in the atrium of the Museum Judengasse.

It opens at 18:00 on April 13 — to attend, register with anmeldung@metahubfrankfurt.de

The exhibition is a cooperation with the Archaeological Museum Frankfurt.

It shows archaeological finds that were recovered in 1987 at Börneplatz, at the place where they were found at the time. It presents ongoing research and new insights into the everyday culture of Jews in early modern Frankfurt. The archaeological finds come both from the cellars of the Judengasse and from ditches for water supply and disposal.

 

Jun
4
Sun
AEJM Annual Conference @ Berlin Jewish Museum
Jun 4 – Jun 6 all-day
AEJM Annual Conference @ Berlin Jewish Museum | Berlin | Berlin | Germany

The annual conference of the Association of European Jewish Museums.

 

Oct
9
Mon
Eleventh Annual Conference of the Society for Sephardic Studies @ several synagogues
Oct 9 – Oct 13 all-day
Eleventh Annual Conference of the Society for Sephardic Studies @ several synagogues | İzmir | Türkiye

The Conference will focus on Sephardic Jews, between Messianism and Modernity

The conference gathers some 70 international  researchers of Sephardic social, cultural, and art history, languages, and literature from before and after the Expulsion of 1492.

There will be papers on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim attitudes toward Jewish messianism as reflected in the scholars’ particular areas of interest. In addition, the Conference will focus on the overlooked Sephardic embracement of modernity and Virtual Sepharad’s gradual yet unwavering secularization, whether in the expanse’s south—the ex-Ottoman realms—or its northern extremities – Holland, England, and the Americas.

 

Jan
19
Fri
Sephardic Bucharest @ Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research, Venice
Jan 19 – Jan 27 all-day
Sephardic Bucharest @ Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research, Venice

A photographic exhibit highlighting the Sephardic Jewish presence in Bucharest, curated by Felicia Waldman and Anca Tudorancea.

Photos depict synagogues, Jewish communal buildings, private buildings, and shops, etc,  as well as personalities such as professionals, doctors, merchants, artisans, doctors, cultural figures, etc.

 

Mar
1
Fri
Hideouts. The Architecture of Survival @ Jewish Museum Frankfufrt
Mar 1 – Sep 1 all-day
Hideouts. The Architecture of Survival @ Jewish Museum Frankfufrt | Frankfurt am Main | Hessen | Germany

A multimedia exhibition by the artist, architect and historian Natalia Romik dedicated to the creativity of Polish Jews seeking to survive the Shoah in hiding.

In Poland and Ukraine during World War II, approximately 50,000 people survived persecution by the German occupying forces in hiding. The majority of them were Jewish. They found refuge in tree hollows, closets, basements, sewers, empty graves, and other precarious locations. Natalia Romik’s exhibition “Hideouts. The Architecture of Survival” pays tribute to these fragile places of refuge and explores their physicality. The show poses basic questions about the relationship between architecture, private life, and the public sphere: it addresses the protective function of spaces and emphasizes the creativity those in hiding brought to bear in their attempt to survive.

In a research project extending over several years, Natalia Romik and an interdisciplinary team of researchers consulted oral histories to identify several hiding places, which they explored using forensic methods. The multimedia exhibition “Hideouts. The Architecture of Survival” presents the results of this research. It consists of sculptures bearing a direct connection to the sites and includes documentary films, forensic recordings, photos, documents, and objects found in the hiding places.

“Hideouts: The Architecture of Survival” is presented in cooperation with the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw and the TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art in Szczecin. On the occasion of the show at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, a catalogue will be published in German and English editions by Hatje Cantz Verlag.

The exhibition was curated by Kuba Szreder and Stanisław Ruksza with the help of Aleksandra Janus (scientific collaboration). For the presentation in Frankfurt, Katja Janitschek, curator of the Judengasse Museum, was responsible for the curatorial project management. We would like to thank the Evonik Foundation for their generous support.

 

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