Jewish Heritage Europe

Calendar

Feb
23
Tue
Legacy of the Shtetl: Investigating Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands @ Online Zoom event
Feb 23 @ 18:00 – 19:00
Legacy of the Shtetl: Investigating Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands @ Online Zoom event | Bentonville | Arkansas | United States
The Legacy of the Shtetl: Investigating Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands
with Dr Magdalena Waligórska, and Dr Natalia Romik, respondent, and with Prof François Guesnet, Chair 
 
Co-organized by the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies and  the UCL Institute of Jewish Studies
 
Magdalena Waligórska takes us on a journey to the post-1945 Polish-Ukrainian-Belorusian borderlands where she explores small towns which had a predominantly Jewish population before the Second World War and the Holocaust. Here, Jewish property both entirely fell under the control of the new ethnic majority and remained a “disinherited heritage” that continues to cause dissonance and psychological discomfort to its current “heirs.”
 
The unsettling presence of Jewish ruins, resurfacing human remains, walled-in objects, collapsing cellars, and the recycled tombstones constitutes an “intrusion of the past into the present” that, decades after the war, still demands action and results in different local responses.
 
The respondent, Natalia Romik, is an artist, urban historian, and architect from Warsaw who has undertaken similar but different explorations of the Jewish heritage in small Polish towns.
 
Returning To The Town Known As Auschwitz @ Online Zoom event
Feb 23 @ 23:00 – Feb 24 @ 00:00
Returning To The Town Known As Auschwitz @ Online Zoom event | Dallas | Texas | United States

As part of events marking the 20th anniversary of the Auschwtiz Jewish Center in Oswiecim, Poland, this web event will explore the Center’s commemoration efforts in Oświęcim and their impact on descendants of the town’s Jewish residents.

The Auschwitz Jewish Center (AJC) is a branch of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, in New York.

The program will feature Barbara Posner, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor from Oświęcim, and Shlomi Shaked, the grandson of another survivor from Oświęcim, who have both reconnected with the town over the past two decades.

The organizer ask that attendees please consider making a $20 contribution in recognition of the Auschwitz Jewish Center’s 20th anniversary and in support of its next 20 years.
 
Register at this link — https://mjhnyc.org/events/returning-to-the-town-known-as-auschwitz/
Apr
20
Tue
“Judapest”: Austria-Hungary and its Jews at the Fin-de-Siècle @ Online Zoom event
Apr 20 @ 18:00 – 19:30
"Judapest": Austria-Hungary and its Jews at the Fin-de-Siècle @ Online Zoom event

Lecture by Michael Miller, of CEU

Budapest is sometimes called the “Paris of the East,” but in the 1890s, it acquired a new, less flattering nickname: “Judapest.” Karl Lueger, the antisemitic mayor of Vienna – who hated Hungarians more than he hated Jews – is often credited with coining this derogatory nickname for a city that he thought had become more “Jewish” than “Hungarian.”  Budapest was Europe’s fastest-growing city at the time, with a flurry of cultural and commercial activity that fascinated — and sometimes appalled — contemporary residents and visitors. This talk will examine the image of Budapest in the decades before and after the First World War, exploring the ways in which Hungary’s capital city was imagined by Jews and non-Jews alike as a quintessentially Jewish metropolis.

The evening will be chaired by Professor Mark E. Smith, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton. It will be hosted by Professor Mark Cornwall (University of Southampton, Parkes Institute)

The event will be held on Zoom. Please register by Monday 19th April 16:00 here:

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/parkes/news/events/2021/04/20-parkes-lecture-2021.page

Speaker biography: Michael L. Miller is Associate Professor in the Nationalism Studies Program at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and co-founder of the university’s Jewish Studies program. He received his PhD in History from Columbia University, where he specialized in Jewish and Central European History. Michael’s research focuses on the impact of nationality conflicts on the religious, cultural, and political development of Central European Jewry in the long nineteenth century. His articles have appeared in Slavic Review, Austrian History Yearbook, Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook, Múlt és Jövő , The Jewish Quarterly Review and AJS Review. Miller’s book, Rabbis and Revolution: The Jews of Moravia in the Age of Emancipation, was published by Stanford University Press in 2011. It appeared in Czech translation as Moravští Židé v době emancipace (Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2015). He is currently working on a history of Hungarian Jewry, titled Manovill: A Tale of Two Hungarys.

May
5
Wed
Jewish Heritage Preservation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies @ Online webinar
May 5 @ 20:00 – 21:00
Jewish Heritage Preservation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategies @ Online webinar
 

Why should Jewish heritage matter? To whom does it belong? Who are the responsible stakeholders in its preservation? How can we ensure its future?

A #TJHTalks program organized in partnership with the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage, and Jewish Heritage Hard Talk.

Click here to register

Four experts will respond to these questions from global, regional, national, and local perspectives. They will discuss achievements thus far and how cooperation and strategic thinking are necessary to overcome the challenges that lie ahead.

The webinar will include a 45-minute discussion, followed by a 15-minute Q&A, in which you can ask questions submitted before or during the broadcast.

Speakers:

Ruth Ellen Gruber, Coordinator, Jewish Heritage Europe

Piotr Puchta, Director, Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland

Victor Sorenssen, Director, The European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage (AEPJ)

moderated by

Helise Lieberman, Director, Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning
 
 
Jun
25
Fri
Krakow Jewish Culture Festival @ Online event also on-site
Jun 25 – Jul 4 all-day
Krakow Jewish Culture Festival @ Online event also on-site | Kraków | Małopolskie | Poland

The 30th Krakow Jewish Culture Festival will take place on-site and also on-line.

Live-streamed events can be accessed on the new website: 30.jewishfestival.pl

They include the events held in the JCF Tent, concerts organized in the Museum of Urban Engineering, Collegium Maius and the Tempel synagogue.

After the end of the live stream, they will be able to be accessed in the event archives.

Click here to see the Festival program

Jul
1
Thu
Polish Jewish cemeteries webinar @ Online webinar
Jul 1 @ 16:00 – 18:00
Polish Jewish cemeteries webinar @ Online webinar

The Task Ahead: a two-hour webinar on preserving Jewish cemeteries in Poland, to be held online July 1.

Confirmed keynote speakers include :

  • Michał Laszczkowski, President of the Coalition of Guardians of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland
  • Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress

The webinar is sponsored by the Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland, The Matzevah Foundation, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, the World Jewish Restitution Organization, and the Chief Rabbinate of Poland.

It is a follow-up to a webinar held in August 2020.

Click for the conference web page, with registration form

Aug
29
Sun
“Restoring the Memory of Jewish Communities of Upper Silesia” @ online
Aug 29 @ 19:00 – 20:00
“Restoring the Memory of Jewish Communities of Upper Silesia” @ online
“RESTORING THE MEMORY OF JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF UPPER SILESIA”
 
31 year old Sławek Pastuszka is the grandchild of two Holocaust survivors. He is the new head of the Katowice Chevrah Kadisha (burial society). Sławek is doctoral student in Judaic Studies at Jagiellonian University, a cemetery guardian/preservationist and a prolific author of books and articles on Jewish history and Jewish cemeteries.
 
Most recently, Sławek was instrumental in retrieving dozens of tombstones that were vandalized many years ago from the Sosnowiec cemetery. The talk will be in English.
Here is the Zoom link:
Meeting ID: 892 5998 5966
Passcode: HLK4Wh
Nov
22
Mon
Synagogues: Historic Buildings – on their cultural and educational potential @ online
Nov 22 @ 19:00 – 20:00
Synagogues: Historic Buildings – on their cultural and educational potential @ online

A conversation with Helise Lieberman (Executive Director of the Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning Foundation ) and Dr. Glenn Kurtz (author of Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film). 

The Webinar is part of the Synagogues in Poland project of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland.

 

 

Register here — https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7lcg5DifQNWwuVVd2gXKLQ

 

 

Dec
7
Tue
Webinar – preservation, prospects, challenges, approaches to Jewish heritage @ online
Dec 7 @ 19:00 – 20:00
Webinar - preservation, prospects, challenges, approaches to Jewish heritage @ online

Join JHE’s Ruth Ellen Gruber; the architect, artist and designer, Natalia Romik; the director of the Okopowa Jewish cemetery in Warsaw, Witold Wrzosiński; and the CEO of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ) Piotr Puchta for a wide-ranging Webinar centering on Jewish heritage preservation, future prospects, challenges, and possible approaches.

This Webinar is the third and final Webinar in a series that has been part of the project “Virtual Connections to Material Jewish Heritage in Poland” carried out by FODZ,  aimed at fostering public awareness of synagogues, cemeteries and other Jewish built heritage via digital models and detailed virtual tours of selected buildings.

Please register for the webinar here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_YsMCMndzQ1SbllwVPi0X_A

Click to access the project web site and the virtual tours of selected Jewish historical sites in Kraśnik, Łęczna, ŁancutOlsztyn, OrlaPrzysucha, Sejny, and Zamość

 

May
23
Mon
Bridging Divides. Rupture and Continuity in Polish Jewish History @ Jewish Historical Institute Warsaw
May 23 – May 26 all-day
Bridging Divides. Rupture and Continuity in Polish Jewish History @ Jewish Historical Institute Warsaw | Warszawa | Mazowieckie | Poland

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

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