A wide-ranging conference organized by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, the German Historical Institute in Paris and the Museum of Art and History of Judaism, 12 years after an earlier conference on “Archaeology of Judaism in France and Europe.”
Experts will evaluate of the progress of archaeological research on European Judaism from antiquity to the 20th century, reporting on the most recent significant discoveries across the continent.
The symposium will offer summaries and case studies on places of worship (synagogues, ritual baths, etc.), the topography of medieval Jewry and modern ghettos, funerary spaces, sites of the Shoah, new methodological approaches and the heritage of the sites studied.
Click for further information, to see the program, and to register
Bridging Divides. Rupture and Continuity in Polish Jewish History
In Honor of the 80th anniversary of the “Aktion Reinhard” and the 75th anniversary of the Jewish Historical Institute
Watch the conference on YouTube:
Opening ceremony: https://youtu.be/J3Hx6eh6cng
Day 2: https://youtu.be/D29zQRijkqM
Day 3: https://youtu.be/Xyonp03JUfk
Closing discussion: https://youtu.be/Gk0pqyRJIo0
PROGRAM
MONDAY, May 23rd
Opening – 17:00 CET
Welcome – Glenn Dynner, Monika Krawczyk, Katarzyna Person
Opening keynote – Samuel Kassow
TUESDAY, May 24th
Session 1 – 9:00 – 10:30 CET
Evolving Traditions: Polish Jewish Spirituality Chair and Respondent: Glenn Dynner
Alison B. Curry (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
The Last Honor: Jewish Ritual and the Cemetery in the Warsaw Region Between the Interwar Period and the Second World War
Samuel Glauber-Zimra (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
The Séance in Polish Jewish Life: A Case Study of Rupture and Continuity
Gabriella Licskó (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Alexander Hasidism before and after the Holocaust
Session 2 – 10:45 – 12:15 CET
Women in Polish Jewish Religious Life Chair and Respondent: Daniel Reiser
Tzipora Weinberg (New York University)
Still Small Voices: Female Prevalence in Polish Rabbinic Literature, 1900-1945
Elly Moseson (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research)
Mar’in bishin: The Sexual Nightmare of Eastern European Jewish Women
Glenn Dynner (Sarah Lawrence College)
The Polish Hasidah: Beyond Masculine Definitions of Hasidism Partners: Part of the program:
Session 3 – 13:15 – 14:45 CET
Polish Jewry in Literature and Film Chair and Respondent: Karolina Szymaniak
Daniel Bouskila (Yeshiva University)
Asonovski, Szibucz and Buczacz: SY Agnon’s Theological Meditations on the Plight of Eastern European Jewry
Sarah Ellen Zarrow (Western Washington University)
Jewish Life in Poland as Documented on Film: Continuities and Ruptures
Aleksandra Kremer (Harvard University)
Holocaust Poems in Polish-Language Journals before 1950
Session 4 – 15:00 – 16:00 CET
Panel on Archives and Museums Chair and Respondent: Stephen Naron
Jonathan Brent (Executive Director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research)
The oldest Jewish archival institution
Monika Krawczyk (Director of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute)
Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw: ‘Mother’ of All Jewish Museums in Poland
Albert Stankowski (Director of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum)
Challenges for New Warsaw Ghetto Museum
Zygmunt Stępiński (Director of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews)
POLIN Museum – Shrine for History of Polish Jews
16:15 CET – Guided tour of the Jewish Historical Institute’s permanent exhibition: What we were unable to shout out to the world
19:30 CET – Screening of Who Will Write Our History in Kino Muranów
WEDNESDAY, May 25th
Session 1 – 9:00 – 11:00 CET
Writing the Polish Jewish Self Chair and Respondent: Francois Guesnet
Maria Ferenc (Jewish Historical Institute) Partners: Part of the program:
Life and what comes after. Study of biography and memory of Mordechai Anielewicz as a challenge to historiographical divides
Yaron Nir Freisager (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Josef Zelkowicz and the Circle of Intellectuals in the Lodz Ghetto
Lidia Zessin-Jurek (Czech Academy of Sciences)
“Three times a refugee” – exile as a leading motif in the memoirs of Polish Jews
Ula Madej-Krupitski (McGill University)
Polish Jewish émigrés and the ‘old country’
Session 2 – 10:45 – 12:45 CET
Reframing Antisemitism and the Holocaust Chair and Respondent: Katarzyna Person
Ania Switzer (University of British Columbia)
Antisemitism as a cultural code in Poland
Jan Burzlaff (Harvard University)
Surviving as a Social Process
Alicja Podbielska (Yale University)
“Our feelings toward Jews have not changed”: Polish underground press on help and rescue
Lea Ganor (Bar-Ilan University)
Life Stories of Holocaust Survivors with Polish and European roots who served as Air Crew Members in the Israeli Air Force
Session 3 – 13:45 – 14:45 CET
Polish Jewish Philanthropic Networks Chair and Respondent: Anna Cichopek-Gajraj
Karolina Kołpak (Yale University)
The history of the Warsaw Kolonie Letnie Society, 1882-1939
Samir Saadi (University of Warsaw)
The HIAS in Poland in the II Republic and after the Holocaust (until 1949): comparative approach
Dikla Yogev (University of Toronto)
The Bais Yaakov Network – A Case Study of the Multiple Dimensions of Orthodox Community
Session 4 – 15:00 – 16:15 CET
Presentation on Jewish Historical Institute’s resources Chair and respondent: Andrzej Żbikowski Partners: Part of the program: Library – Marzena Zawanowska
Heritage Documentation Department – Alicja Mroczkowska
Archive – Michał Czajka
Art Department – Michał Krasicki
16:30 CET – Keynote by Naomi Seidman
19:00 CET – Zisl Slepovitch Ensemble outdoor concert in Krasiński Garden
The Songs from Testimonies project collects and records songs and poems discovered in the accounts found in the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. The musician-in-residence, Zisl Slepovitch, took the songs, conducted research about their origins, then arranged and recorded versions with his ensemble, featuring Sashe Lurje.
The performers:
Joshua Camp – accordion, piano, additional vocals
Dmitry Ishenko – contrabass, additional vocals
Craig Judelman – violin, additional vocals
Sasha Lurje – leading vocals
D. Zisl Slepovitch – composer, clarinet, vocals
THURSDAY, May 26th
Guided tour of Jewish Warsaw – 9:00 CET
The overwhelming presence of the Warsaw Ghetto
Guide: Olga Szymańska, Education Department
Closing of the Conference – 11:30 CET
Concluding Remarks and State of the Field discussion
Are you in southwest Poland?
You can volunteer to help clean up the New Jewish Cemetery on ul. Lotniczej in Wroclaw.
Gala ceremony to mark the 200th anniversary of the synagogue in Ingwiller.
The “Zoom in on the Forum” series of webinars by the School of Dialogue, presents a discussion about the restoration work at the Bagnowka Jewish cemetery in Bialystok Poland — we have posted a number of times about the project.
Amy Degen and Heidi M. Szpek will share their work as members of the Bialystok Cemetery Restoration project (BCRP). Both have been involved in salvaging, documenting, and restoring headstones in the cemetery as well as raising awareness about Jewish history of Bialystok.
This summer, the BCRP carried out work at the cemetery for the first time since the pandemic began.
Among other things, more than 100 headstones dating from the early 19th century and originally located in the destroyed Rabbinical cemetery, were unearthed and rescued from under a mound of earth where they had been buried during communist times, when the cemetery was turned into a park.
A series of events in November and December celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Grande Synagogue. The series kicks off November 9 with an official ceremony.
See the program below:
A conversation with Yechiel Weizman on his book
Unsettled Heritage: Living Next to Poland’s Material Jewish Traces after the Holocaust (Ithaca, 2022)
In Unsettled Heritage, Yechiel Weizman explores what happened to the thousands of abandoned Jewish cemeteries and places of worship that remained in Poland after the Holocaust. He asks how postwar Polish society in small, provincial towns perceived, experienced, and interacted with the physical traces of former Jewish neighbors. Combining archival research into hitherto unexamined sources and anthropological field work, the book uncovers the concrete and symbolic fate of Poland’s material Jewish remnants and shows how their presence became the main vehicle through which Polish society was confronted with the memory of the Jews and their annihilation. Leading the conversation with Weizman will be Monika Rice, and joining them will be Alon Confino and Amos Goldberg.
This event will be held via ZOOM Webinar.
Registration is required, register in advance here.
A number of events are marking the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, including a conference, exhibit, monument dedication, at the POLIN Museum, Warsaw’s Okopowa Jewish cemetery, and elsewhere.
Volunteer to help clean up the old Jewish cemetery in Gliwice
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:
Monday, September 4th, at 7 PM | Neolog Synagogue in Arad Tuesday, September 5th, at 7 PM | Cetate Synagogue in Timișoara 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.
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