Jewish Heritage Europe

Calendar

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
26
Wed
Jewish cemetery Gorizia/Nova Gorica @ Online webinar
May 26 @ 18:00 – 21:00
Jewish cemetery Gorizia/Nova Gorica @ Online webinar

A Zoom seminar about the project to restore the Jewish cemetery of Gorizia, Italy, that now lies across the border outside Nova Gorica, Slovenia. The twin cities will jointly be the European Cultural Capital in 2025, with their shared Jewish heritage playing a role.  In Italian

Click here for details and to register 

Read our 2017 article about the shared Jewish heritage of the towns

Read an Italian perspective about the project

Read a history of the cemetery

Read about the project to restore the cemetery (in English)

Jul
22
Thu
Jewish Crossroads: Between Italy and Eastern Europe @ Online webinar
Jul 22 all-day
Jewish Crossroads: Between Italy and Eastern Europe @ Online webinar

A one-day international online conference called “Jewish Crossroads: Between Italy and Eastern Europe” organized by the Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy and the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The close contacts between Italy and eastern Europe have evolved over the centuries and Jews have been an integral part of this relationship.

The most known examples of Italian influences on eastern European Jews are the construction of synagogues in Poland and Lithuania by Italian architects; Jewish medics from Italy practicing in noble east European courts; or the selling of Hebrew books printed in Italy.

The interaction obviously was in the opposite direction: many Polish and Lithuanian rabbis moved to Italy or transferred their texts to be published there; the Council of the Four Lands sent emissaries to Rome; and many eastern European Jewish artists spent years in Italy.

The conference is planned to concentrate on those contacts and interactions, during the Early Modern and Modern periods.

The conference will be conducted in English. The keynote lecture will be given by Prof. Ilia Rodov of Bar-Ilan University.

 

Click here for details

 

Aug
25
Wed
Architecture of Devotion – The Plans of Lipót Baumhorn for the Szeged New Synagogue @ Pava utca synagogue
Aug 25 2021 @ 16:30 – Jan 20 2022 @ 16:30

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.

Baumhorn letter with drawing of Szeged synagogue. Photo: Szeged Jewish community/Rediscover

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.

New Synagogue, Szeged

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

Apr
1
Fri
Sharing the Catacombs @ Online and in person at the Swiss Institute
Apr 1 @ 17:00 – 19:30

Sharing the catacombs. Religious interactions in funeral spaces of Rome, 3rd-4th centuries CE

A round-table of interational scholars, in Italian and English, about Jewish and Christian catacombs in Rome.

To register for Zoom attendance, go to https://www.istitutosvizzero.it/it/tavola-rotonda/19933/

Program:

H17:00-17:15 – Caroline Bridel, Introduzione

H17:15-17:45 – Giandomenico Spinola (Musei Vaticani), La necropoli vaticana della via Triumphalis: tra religione e superstizione

H17:45-18:15 – Giancarlo Lacerenza (Università di Napoli L’Orientale), Ebraico e aramaico negli epitaffi delle catacombe ebraiche di Roma: segni di plurilinguismo o marcatori identitari?  

H18:15-18:30 – Pausa

H18:30-19:00 – Norbert Zimmermann (Deutsche Archäologisches Institut), Space, tombs, images: Experiencing Christian Catacombs of Rome

H19:00-19:30 – Discussione moderata da Caroline Bridel

Nov
6
Sun
Rededication of Alessandria synagogue @ Alessandria synagogue
Nov 6 @ 16:00 – 18:00
Rededication of Alessandria synagogue @ Alessandria synagogue | Alessandria | Piemonte | Italy

Following a full-scale renovation, there will be an official public rededication ceremony for the synagogue in Alessandria, Italy. 

Click here to read our post about the synagogue’s restoration

May
14
Sun
Exhibit in Padova @ Jewish Museum Padova
May 14 @ 11:00 – 12:30
Exhibit in Padova @ Jewish Museum Padova | Padova | Veneto | Italy

An exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of the torching of the Sinagoga Tedesca by local fascist squads. The synagogue now houses the Jewish Museum in Padova.

The exhibit will feature historic photographs and archival documents, and there will be explanatory talks at the opening.

The even is free, but please reserve here – museo@padovaebraica.it or Tel. 049661267 – Whatsapp 3756347243

 

 

Jun
8
Thu
200th anniversary Kővágóörs synagogue @ Erzsébetváros Jewish History Museum Csanyi 5
Jun 8 @ 18:00 – 19:30
200th anniversary Kővágóörs synagogue @ Erzsébetváros Jewish History Museum Csanyi 5 | Budapest | Hungary

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.

 

Jun
22
Thu
Webinar: Italian Synagogues and Jewish Cemeteries @ Online
Jun 22 @ 17:00 – 18:00
Webinar: Italian Synagogues and Jewish Cemeteries @ Online

A Zoom webinar in English introducing the current temporary exhibition at MEIS — the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara— Houses of Life; Synagogues and Jewish Cemeteries in Italy.

The exhibition mainly features plans and architectural drawings of synagogues, as well as gravestones, tombs, and other architecture features, through the ages.

A historic ark and other Judaica are also featured.

Speakers in the webinar include the two curators of the exhibition, Andrea Morpurgo and MEIS director Amadeo Spagnoletto, as well as Dr. Jessica Del Russo.

Click here to receive the Zoom link

 

May
2
Thu
Le sinagoghe in eta’ contemporanea: tra memoria e innovazione. @ Online or Biblioteca Nazionale dell’Ebraismo Italiano “Tullia Zevi”
May 2 @ 18:00 – 19:00
Le sinagoghe in eta’ contemporanea: tra memoria e innovazione. @ Online or Biblioteca Nazionale dell’Ebraismo Italiano “Tullia Zevi” | Roma | Lazio | Italy

For Italian speakers — a meeting with architect and historian Andrea Morpurgo who last year curated a major exhibition on synagogues and Jewish cemeteries at the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara.

You can attend in person or via streaming:

In presenza:
Biblioteca Nazionale dell’Ebraismo Italiano “Tullia Zevi” – Lungotevere Sanzio 5, Roma

In streaming:
Facebook e YouTube della Fondazione per i Beni Culturali Ebraici in Italia
Webtv dell’Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane

 

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