The Štetl Fest in Brno, Czech Republic includes several guided tours of Jewish heritage sites around town, including the synagogue, as well as other events such as concerts, exhibits, theatrical performances, lectures, etc. It is the largest Jewish culture festival in the Czech Republic.
“The main theme of ŠTETL FEST 2022 is related to the project “The Library of Stolen Hopes”, which is currently being developed by the Jewish Community of Brno. It is about the rescue of a unique collection of twelve thousand liturgical books confiscated in Theresienstadt and other concentration camps. The aim of the project is to return the books, based on personal notes, to the descendants of the original owners who did not survive the Holocaust.”
The ŠTETL FEST festival is held under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, the Ambassador of the State of Israel, the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Mayor of the Statutory City of Brno, the President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, the Governor of the South Moravian Region and the Rector of Masaryk University.
The latest edition of the exhibit Neviditelné Synagogy — Invisible Synagogues, photographs by Štěpán Bartoš. The vernissage is November 23 at 17:00.
Bartoš photographs the blank spaces in the Czech Republic where destroyed synagogues once stood and adds a ghostly silhouette of the destroyed synagogue to the exhibition photos of the places where they once stood.
On the Invisible Synagogues project web site (which is in German and Czech) you can see galleries of his photos, without the added silhouette, arranged according to region. They include sites in big cities, small towns, and tiny villages; there are fields and rural spaces as well as modern buildings, crowded city streets, and even artificial lakes.
Read our November 2021 post about his Invisible Synagogues project.
Jewish Country Houses and the Holocaust In History and Memory
This conference will investigate the fate in the Holocaust of Jewish country houses and the people who inhabited them. It will explore memory cultures that emerged afterwards and the Cold War context that shaped them. The conference will address and support curatorial, artistic, and narrative practices telling the difficult stories of genocide linked to these properties. As it does so, it will bring together academic historians, heritage professionals, and artists over three days at the Methodological Centre of Modern Architecture at the Villa Stiassni in Brno, Czech Republic. The built heritage of the Villa Stiassni, visits to the nearby villas Tugendhat and Löw-Beer, and an exploration of the experiences and memories of the Czech Jewish industrialist families who inhabited and fled from them will be an integral part of the conference.
This international conference aims to explore the Jewish experience in Sommerfrische (Summer holiday) destinations, summer resorts, and spas, focusing on the particular urban processes that led to their emergence and the factors that transformed them into spaces of possibility in a rural or small-town context.
JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber will speak about “Those Who Stayed (and One Who Came Back” about Jewish cemeteries in health resort towns, focusing on Merano/Merano, Italy.
The annual Day of Jewish Monuments in the Czech Republic, sponsored by the Prague Jewish Community, the Federation of Jewish Communities and others.
Click to see the preliminary program
The second edition of Štetl Fest centers on the theme of trains.
Trains served as a means of transport for Jewish emigres as well as connection among families and businesses. They also served as escape for Jewish and other refugees seeking freedom from the gradually occupied territories under Nazis control. But tragically, the infamous death trains transported thousands of Jews to death camps and concentration camps. However, trains also carried survivors home and to this day continue to aid those fleeing the ongoing war in Ukraine.
As part of the festival, a memorial dedicated to the deported Jews will be unveiled at Platform 5 of the Brno Main Train Station.
There will also be concerts, talks, and guided tours of the Brno Jewish cemetery and Jewish architectural heritage (some tours in English).
The ŠTETL FEST festival is held under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, the Ambassador of the State of Israel, the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Mayor of the Statutory City of Brno, the President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, the Governor of the South Moravian Region and the Rector of Masaryk University.
Click here to see the full program,
The latest edition of the exhibit Neviditelné Synagogy — Invisible Synagogues, photographs by Štěpán Bartoš.
Bartoš photographs the blank spaces in the Czech Republic where destroyed synagogues once stood and adds a ghostly silhouette of the destroyed synagogue to the exhibition photos of the places where they once stood.
On the Invisible Synagogues project web site (which is in German and Czech) you can see galleries of his photos, without the added silhouette, arranged according to region. They include sites in big cities, small towns, and tiny villages; there are fields and rural spaces as well as modern buildings, crowded city streets, and even artificial lakes.
Read our November 2021 post about his Invisible Synagogues project.
Jewish cemetery clean-up, organised by the oPŘISe, z. s. NGO
Work will entail removal of ivy from gravestones and other necessary activities. Bring your own tools (sickles, scissors, machetes). Men need to wear head covering. Refreshments will be provided.
After many decades, the synagogue and rabbinical house in Žatec will be ceremonially opened. Both monuments have undergone complete reconstruction in recent years and will now serve as a museum and cultural space.
The celebrations will include performances by the Žatec Occasional Choir and the Camerata children’s choir at the ZUŠ in Žatec.
Long empty and in deteriorating condition, the synagogue and rabbi’s house were bought in 2013 by Daniel Černý, who from 2019 oversaw a full-scale renovation of the buildings that was completed in 2022. Most of the €2 million costs of the project were covered with grants from the state and the EU.
The rescue and restoration of the synagogue won the Patrimonium pro futuro Award in the Monument Protection category.
NOTE: The program on March 22 will begin at 5 p.m.
After many decades, the synagogue and rabbinical house in Žatec will be ceremonially opened. Both monuments have undergone complete reconstruction in recent years and will now serve as a museum and cultural space.
The celebrations will include performances by the Žatec Occasional Choir and the Camerata children’s choir at the ZUŠ in Žatec.
Long empty and in deteriorating condition, the synagogue and rabbi’s house were bought in 2013 by Daniel Černý, who from 2019 oversaw a full-scale renovation of the buildings that was completed in 2022. Most of the €2 million costs of the project were covered with grants from the state and the EU.
The rescue and restoration of the synagogue won the Patrimonium pro futuro Award in the Monument Protection category.
NOTE: The program on March 22 will begin at 5 p.m.
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