Jewish Heritage Europe

Kristallnacht: Wonderful surviving — and restored — synagogues to mark the 80th anniversary

  By now it’s a JHE tradition. The night of November 9-10 marks the  80th anniversary of the so-called Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, when the Nazis launched coordinated violent attacks on Jews, Jewish property and Jewish places of worship all … continue reading →

Simchat Torah! Rejoicing with Images of Arks

  Simchat Torah — Rejoicing in the Torah, the Jewish festival that celebrates the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings (and beginning of the new cycle), falls on Monday-Tuesday. To mark the occasion, here are some images of the Aron ha Kodesh, or … continue reading →

Faces of Time in the Belgrade Jewish cemetery: a crowded “House of the Living”

Jewish gravestones are personalized in specific ways: through names and dates; through epitaphs; through symbolic carved imagery; through, sometimes, family history timelines. From the latter part of the 19th century, gravestones in a number of Jewish cemeteries also (as was … continue reading →