Jewish Heritage Travel

Slovakia -- in the Presov Synagogue, a musician deals with a cellphone interruption

2012-01-23T10:16:00.001+01:00

Presov synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This is too good not to post..... at a concert last year in the magnificent synagogue in Presov, in eastern Slovakia, a young violinist (or violist), Lukas Kmit, deals with consummate class with a cellphone interruption..... there have been suggestions that this might be a viral ad for Nokia -- but it looks and sounds real to me! (You can hear the concert audience).

Czech Republic -- vandalism at Puklice Jewish cemetery

2012-01-17T10:28:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Vandals have damaged or toppled about 10 gravestones in the centuries-old Jewish cemetery in Puklice, near Jihlava. The cemetery is listed as a national cultural monument and had recently undergone restoration. Police are investigating the vandalism, which was discovered in the first week of January.

The Puklice cemetery, which includes about 100 gravestones, is one of the oldest in the Czech Republic, probably founded in the 15th century. The oldest legible gravestone dates from 1699. The small Jewish quarter in the village itself is largely intact, with the remains of a mikvah and a former synagogue/school (now a residence).

Jaroslav Klenovsky, who oversees Jewish heritage in Moravia for the Federation of Jewish communities, told Czech media that the vandalism was likely not a specifically anti-semitic attack, but the work of "young offenders."

You can see a video of the damage HERE.

Ukraine -- Shtetl trippin'

2012-01-13T12:49:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The JTA's young correspondent Alex Weisler, who just finished a 6-month stint roving in Europe, has written a pair of stories about his whirlwind visit to his ancestral shtetl, Shatsk, in Ukraine, as well as on Jewish heritage travel in Ukraine in general -- from the perspective of a non-Jewish guide, Alex Dunai.

For me and my family, Shatsk has always seemed like an impossibly exotic travel destination. I found it hard to believe that, as the Ukrainian census informed me, about 6,000 people lived there. Or that it had a nightclub called Sinatra and several ATMs.

But somehow, you can drive to Shatsk -- and you don't even need a souped-up DeLorean. After just four hours on roads whose quality varied from poor to middling to dear-God-is-this-a-road, my mother, our guide and I had traded the comparatively cosmopolitan Lviv -- which was feverishly preparing for the 2012 European soccer championship -- for the dusty roads of Shatsk, which lay dormant in the absence of summer's rush of tourists. [...]

For 22 years, I had wondered what Shatsk meant for me. Was it a living, breathing place? Or just the graveyard of my family's past? Was it some hell my family had escaped from? Or the bucolic paradise they spent decades in America pining after?

I'm aware of the challenges that come with heritage tourism. I spent 36 hours in Shatsk. Who is to say I've learned anything substantive about a place to which I parachute in, hunt around for some information and snap a few photos? How can I be sure that my newfound connection to Ukraine and my long-lost relatives is something more than fetishizing the past and longing for an idealized Shatsk that may have never existed?

But if heritage tourism is an imperfect science, it's an important one. As a Jew in New York, it's easy to lose sight of history -- to view the past as a neat arc that started at Ellis Island, paused on a stoop in Brooklyn and triumphantly culminated in the green pastures of Westchester County or Long Island. If we consider the Old Country at all, it’s of a sanitized variety: Pop "Fiddler on the Roof" in the DVD player, rinse and repeat.

It reminds me of the article I wrote for UPI many years ago when I first visited my own ancestral town on my father's side, Radauti.

My first visit to Radauti, at the grave of my great-grandmother

And of the various other such stories I've written for other publications, including a JTA story on a more recent visit to Radauti. Here's the of the story I wrote for JTA about visiting Kalvarija, my ancestral town on my mother's side....

December 16, 1999
Ten Years After the Wall
Memories of lost family are conjured when walking in footsteps of the past

By Ruth E. Gruber

On a frosty November morning, I walked around the two massive, ruined synagogues that form a unique surviving Jewish complex in Kalvarija, a small, sleepy town in southern Lithuania near the border with Poland.

One of the synagogues was built in the early 18th century. Its roof had fallen in and its bottom windows were bricked up, but it was possible to see arches and other architectural detail and decoration.

The other, built in about 1803, was more or less intact, but crumbling. Between the two stood a red brick building, a former rabbi's house and a cheder, or Jewish school, with a big Star of David above the door.

As I have done in hundreds of other cities, towns and villages in more than a dozen countries, I took pictures of the synagogues from every angle.

With my eye focused through my camera, I didn't watch where I was walking. Suddenly, I tripped over a broken brick, half buried in the uneven yard, and went crashing to the ground.

Trying to save my cameras, I ended up twisting my ankle so that I could hardly walk.

The injury took weeks to heal fully, but everyone told me that my spill was beshert -- fated -- and maybe it was.

Kalvarija is the town from which my great-grandfather, Pesach Susnitsky, emigrated some 120 years ago, ending up in the small town of Brenham, Texas.

In Brenham, Pesach became Philip. He was the patriarch of a huge family of children, including my grandmother, who was born in Brenham, and a pious pillar of the Jewish community.

In Brenham, he helped found a Jewish congregation. The little wooden synagogue that was built in 1894 still stands.

When he left Kalvarija in about 1880, Jews made up more than 80 percent of the town's population. By 1939, it had dropped to about 25 percent, but still about 1,000 Jews lived in the town.

No Jews live there today, and I must say that given the depressing and bloody history of the town and region during World Wars I and II, and decades of later Soviet domination, I am enormously thankful that my great-grandfather had the courage to leave when he did.

Still, the buildings I was photographing were not just fascinating sites of Jewish heritage in general: they were the places where my ancestors worshiped and studied.

The streets of the town, with their small, mainly low wooden houses, and the central square dominated by a big, white church with two ornate towers, were the streets and square where my ancestors walked.

I had driven there with a friend after spending the night near the Polish town of Suwalki, about 20 miles to the south. Until a few years ago, such a day trip from Poland to Kalvarija would have been difficult if not impossible.

For one thing, American citizens today do not need a visa to enter Lithuania. While Kalvarija is the first town in Lithuania across the border from Poland, the border crossing-point was opened only four years ago.

I didn't have a real genealogical agenda for my visit -- I just wanted to see the town. But I had hoped to spend much of the day walking through the quiet streets, poking into corners and possibly talking to local people.

My injured ankle cramped my capabilities, though -- and here's where beshert comes in.

An old woman told us where the Jewish cemetery was located, on the other side of the little Sheshupa River that winds through the town, and my friend and I decided to drive straight there.

Pesach Susnitsky died in Texas in 1939 at the age of 83. Several years ago, I visited his grave in the Jewish cemetery in Brenham.

I had little hope of finding any Susnitsky graves in Kalvarija, but I was eager to visit the cemetery just to see it.

We found a small, fenced-in, triangular plot of ground right in front of a huge electric grid, which contained several dozen simple tombstones, some of them toppled.

Hobbling, I starting photographing the site. Just then an old man came by, wheeling a bicycle.

"I know everything, everything," he smiled. All his teeth were capped in gold. "I remember everything how it was."

He propped up his bike and began to talk. He described how the cemetery used to extend much, much further, stone after stone, all the way down to the river, but the Germans destroyed it, and most remaining stones were stolen.

Now on top of the area, there are ugly, poor barracks where people live -- with no indoor plumbing, they have to walk 50 yards or so to toilets. Pigs and dogs frolic around. A man passed by leading a cow.

Of the remaining graves, the only mausoleum, he said, was that of a certain Menashe who was a "millionaire."

I asked the old man if he remembered the Susnitsky family -- and he did.

"Of course! There were a lot of Susnitskys here, a lot." Particularly, he said, before the war, there were two Susnitsky brothers in town, Alter and Yankel, who must have been nephews or great-nephews of Pesach. "Alter was a big, tall man," he said. "Yankel was small, curved over and had a hunch back." He demonstrated, scooping out his own body.

The brothers lived together in a big house on a hill, he said -- and then he led us there to see it. Indeed, it was one of the most imposing wooden houses in the village. Undergoing some renovation, it even sported a satellite dish.

Both brothers were killed when the Germans deported the Jews to nearby Mariampole during World War II, he told us.

The old man said all the houses on this street were occupied by Jews, and that Jews lived all over the town. "So many, so many!" He gestured forlornly.

He was clearly nostalgic for past times -- and the disappearance of the Jewish community represented for him a change for the worse. Nonetheless, in describing the Jews in town, he used the Polish term Zydek or "little Jew" -- a term Jews regard as pejorative.

The Jews in Kalvarija were "good people," and "wealthy," the man said, they took care of each other and everyone got on with everyone.

"They were called Yankele, Alterke, Menashe, Meyshke," he recalled. "They would say, 'Oy vey, oy vey.'"

Way off geographic topic but relevant: lost synagogues in New York

2012-01-07T10:20:00.001+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I -- and others -- have written much about and, hey, even taken part in, the process of seeking out, rediscovering and documenting former synagogues that have been transformed for other use in Europe.....Here's a fascinating story by Benjamin Kabin Weitzenkorn from the local newspaper the Queens Chronicle about a woman's search for "lost synagogues" in outer districts of New York City.

On her birthday in 1999, Ellen Levitt decided to look for her mother’s former synagogue in Flatbush. The building was still there, but the congregation was gone, replaced by a Pentecostal Christian one. The news dismayed her mother, but for Levitt, it sparked an idea: to find and document other former synagogues, and to create a record so others could find them as well.

In 2009, her project became a book called “The Lost Synagogues of Brooklyn,” and this past November, Levitt released her latest installment, “The Lost Synagogues of the Bronx and Queens.”

As the project grew, Levitt discovered that synagogues that had not been burned or torn down were adapted for other uses. Some became private homes, one is a correctional facility, another is used for city maintenance and one is even a mosque — but most are now churches. Read more

In New York, these transformations usually came about because of normal demographic changes that saw Jews moving from one neighborhood to another (often from small towns to cities or from to urban centers and suburbs), while in post-World War II Europe synagogues were most often orphaned by the murder of their community in the Holocaust, suppression by post-war communist regimes, or emigration of survivors. In Bulgaria, for example, whose Jews survived the Shoah, synagogues were left abandoned when almost all Jews moved to Israel.

Levitt found that many of the former Jewish sites still -- as in Europe -- often retained evidence of their original function.

The former Corona Hebrew School on 53rd Avenue, for example, boasts large stars of David on either side of its gate. Names written in Hebrew are displayed on pillars and walls on the porch. After the Jewish congregation left, the building became a private residence and music studio, and was home to Madonna, pre-fame, in the late 1970s.

Another great example is the former Young Israel of Laurelton on 228th Street. It’s a boxy 1956 building that displays a cornerstone with the Hebrew and secular dates. But its most intriguing feature is the huge window above the main entrance in the shape of a Jewish star, an emblem that the Jamaica-Queens Wesleyan Church has kept as is.

Read full article

Poland/Lithuania -- Cooperation between Jewish cultural institutions

2012-01-05T15:40:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

At the end of December, three key Jewish cultural institutes in Poland and Lithuania signed a cooperation agreement that will enhance and expand the Virtual Shtetl portal, an excellent and up-to-date news source for Jewish heritage and culture events and issues in Poland.

Virtual Shtetl reports:

The co-operation agreement concluded between the Jewish Historical Institute Association, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Center for Jewish Culture and Information in Vilnius governs the co-operation with regard to the administration of the ‘Virtual Shtetl’ portal.

Under this international agreement, the Lithuanian version of the ‘Virtual Shtetl’ portal will be created. The Center for Jewish Culture and Information in Vilnius, together with the teams from the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Jewish Historial Institute Association, will research the history of Jewish communities that lived in the territory of contemporary Lithuania and will promote the knowledge about Jewish cultural monuments in Lithuania on the ‘Virtual Shtetl’ portal.

It is the beginning of a very promising co-operation and it will be the first time that a foreign organization contributes so extensively to the development and administration of the ‘Virtual Shtetl’ portal. The concluded agreement paves the way to international research and cultural projects on the history of Jews in Eastern and Central Europe.

Serbia -- Concern at condition of historic Nis Jewish cemetery

2011-12-29T17:22:00.003+01:00

Vandalized tomb in Nis Cemetery, Dec. 22, 2011. Photo courtesy of Jasna Ciric

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

More than seven years after a well-publicized clean-up campaign, the historic Jewish cemetery in Nis, Serbia appears to be once again under threat.

The Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia issued a statement on Wednesday protesting “catastrophic” conditions in the cemetery and urging authorities to take action.

It said that on a recent inspection visitors found “destroyed and broken monuments, scattered bones, human waste and garbage.” It said that the cemetery was at the mercy of private entrepreneurs who have destroyed one-third of the site by building factories, restaurants and warehouses, while another third of the area is inhabited by Roma families who have built a makeshift village over the graves.

Long abandoned and partially built over and destroyed, the cemetery, which dates back to the 17th century and in 2007 was listed as a national cultural monument, was cleaned up in 2004 in an effort that involved the JDC, Serbian soldiers, and the local Roma community.

Pictures taken Dec. 22 showed much of the area cleared of undergrowth and the grave markers visible. But Jasna Ciric, the president of the Jewish community in Nis, told me that the situation today was "a horror" and that in some ways was worse than it was in 2004. "Grave monuments have been smashed with hammers," she said.

She said that on a previous inspection of the cemetery in September, things had been fine and it had been cleaned up.

Now, she said, a telephone line, sewage drains and water pipes have been introduced in the midst of the cemetery.

"All the established safeguards of the Jewish cemetery in Nis, which under the Law on Cultural Property, have remained only on paper and without respect for the Jewish cemetery or the Jews who are buried there," she said. "Our cemetery is systematically destroyed, all of our long-time efforts and the money invested toward saving this cemetery are in vain, the city authorities do not understand this issue."

The Federation appealed to the Mayor of Nis, the Ministry of Culture, the Nis Institute for Monuments Protection and other authorities to “once and for all put an end to this vandalism.”

Pictures from Dec. 22, 2011 showing homes and other structures encroaching on the Nis Jewish cemetery. Photos courtesy Jasna Ciric

Netherlands -- In Amsterdam, the Dutch Queen attends reopening of the Portuguese synagogue after restoration

2011-12-25T16:00:00.001+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands attended the dedication ceremony in Amsterdam Dec. 20 of the Portuguese Synagogue -- or "Esnoga" -- which was reopened after renovation. She also attended the the first presentation of the synagogue's treasure rooms with many special ceremonial objects.

The synagogue's web site called the occasion "an important moment in the history of this monumental complex."

In January 2010 the current restoration project began. This restoration was necessary because the annexes were in very poor condition and had never previously been restored from the foundations. The aim of the restoration and provision of access was to maintain the Synagogue's authenticity.

Renovation of and rearrangement to ensure easy access to the Portuguese Synagogue is a wonderful and unique addition to the city's cultural features. It will reinforce the cultural and economic infrastructure and make the city and region more attractive for residents and visitors. This heritage is unique, in that it remains a lively building with an equally vibrant community that uses it to this day.

The Esnoga is a pearl for Amsterdam and the Netherlands. In use for centuries, it is now literally opening its doors to the general public. Visitors will be able to view the art treasures, which are maintained according to museum preservation standards, in their natural context. The functional areas will also be made visible and accessible to visitors, who will thus feel like guests in the community. Visiting this historic complex is like taking a stroll through the past and present of a community that has been celebrating its religion and culture for three centuries within these walls.

To see specifics of the restoration, click on the following links:

Photo from: www.portugesesynagoge.nl

The "Esnoga" and annexes

The main building has undergone quality restoration to the gables, the roofs, the cast-iron windows and the sandstone ornaments. The interior of the synagogue, however, has remained in its original state following the restoration. The building will continue to be lit by nearly one thousand candles in the copper chandeliers.

Treasure chambers

Special climate-controlled spaces will accommodate the valuables of the Portuguese Synagogue. In the future, the concealed treasures will be on public display here.

Jewish and "Jewish" Festivals......Shelly Salamensky's Take

2011-12-24T18:51:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

My friend Shelley Salamensky muses on three Jewish -- or "Jewish" -- festivals: Krakow, Birobidzhan and Hervas, Spain, in the New York Review of Books blog.

The commercial aspects of Hervás’s festival—funded by the village’s chamber of commerce as a boon to local business—are hardly unique. Birobidzhan’s cultural renaissance, has, similarly, garnered it development grants from Moscow; while on the fringes of the Kraków festival, stands sell hook-nosed “Jew” figurines. Yet much more is at stake in both places than profit. In Kraków, with its rich, traumatic history, the festival is an attempt to confront the still relatively fresh loss of what was once the world’s largest Jewish population, as well as the question of Polish complicity with Nazis in the war, communist suppression of Holocaust history, and continuing European intolerance; it’s also a chance for Poles to reflect on their country’s future as a conservative, culturally monolithic nation in a changing, diversifying Europe. Birobizhan’s Jewish cultural revival appears primarily to enliven an isolated, poor, rather bleak place unremarkable but for its unique history. Despite some silliness and confusion, the more sober efforts to teach Yiddish and Jewish history ensure that important legacies are preserved. And perhaps even theme-park-style memorialization is more salutary than the more common case in places from which vital cultures have more or less vanished: sheer oblivion.

In Hervas, the evocation of a Jewish past is so perfunctory and historically fanciful as to border on the offensive. Stars of David adorn street signs, window grates, and even, for no clear reason, the church. There is a Judería Tavern and a Hotel Sinagoga: the former, on inspection, specializing in ham, the latter indistinguishable from a Holiday Inn. On arrival, I was amused by the kitsch; but by my last day, I felt vaguely sick. The empty symbolism cruelly underscored all that Europe has lost.

Very off geographical topic -- synagogue in Mumbai celebrates 150th anniversary

2011-12-22T12:15:00.000+01:00

A ceremony Tuesday celebrated the 150th birthday of the Magen David synagogue in Mumbai, India. The synagogue, which underwent restoration last year, was built in 1861 by the philanthropist David Sassoon at a time when hundreds of Baghdadi Jews were migrating to India to escape religious persecution.

“This is probably the largest synagogue in India and, if you exclude those in Israel, probably the largest in Asia,” Solomon Sopher, chairman and managing trustee of the Sir Jacob Sassoon Charity and Allied Trusts, told India's Daily News & Analysis news agency.

He told the Mumbai Mirror (which also publishes a picture of the ceremony): “The Magen David synagogue is easily the biggest in India. Its beauty has been enhanced after the second renovation last year, at the cost of Rs 70 lakh.” He said the first renovation of the synagogue was done in 1910 by David Sasoon’s grandson Jacob.

Slovakia -- New Jewish Guidebook

2011-12-11T17:46:00.001+01:00

Synagogue in Stupava. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Mazel tov to Maros Borsky on the publication of his valuable new bilingual Slovak-English guidebook to Jewish Monuments in western Slovakia. Zidovske pamiatky zapadneho Slovenska/Jewish Monuments of Western Slovakia was launched last week in Bratislava and Trnava.

A slim paperback illustrated with full-color pictures of each site, the book provides details -- including GPS coordinates -- for Jewish heritage sites in more than two dozen other towns in Slovak regions of Bratislava and Trnava, giving basic history and current details.

Most of these sites are off the beaten track and not included on the Slovak Jewish Heritage Route, a network of 25 key sites around the country.

Amsterdam -- slice of history

2011-12-11T11:56:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Nir Hasson reports in Ha'aretz how the discovery of a 25-year-old book in Israel reveals a fascinating slice of the Jewish history of Amsterdam -- as well as a clutch of mysteries.

Friday June 3, 1768, was an exciting day in the sizable Jewish community of Amsterdam. That day, the Stadtholder (chief executive) of Holland, William V of the House of Orange, arrived for a rare visit to the Jewish quarter and the synagogue, accompanied by his wife, Wilhelmina of Prussia. "Their Highnesses sat on the bench of the community elders, the other ministers and dignitaries were seated on two velvet benches on the north and south sides of the synagogue. As they entered the synagogue, the Holy Ark was opened, the cantors and vocalists had begun to sing 'Baruch Haba' [Welcome]" [...].

Stefan Litt, an archivist at the National Library in Jerusalem, found this description in the course of his research into the registries of the Ashkenazi communities (pinkassei kahal ) in the 17th and 18th centuries. The registry goes on to note that a community elder, Gumpel Klev, bestowed on the royal couple a keepsake from the community: "Two books printed on white satin, the cover pages beautifully ornamented with their insignia."

Two weeks ago, Litt located one of these two books, which were printed on cloth nearly 250 years ago, in the storerooms of the National Library in Jerusalem. Did the Stadtholder leave the book on his seat when he got up to leave? What was scribbled in Dutch on the last page? And why was this scribble erased? Why are there traces of one of the pages being singed? How did the book make its way to the National Library? All of these matters are still shrouded in mystery.

Read the article on Ha'aretz

Poland -- Aleksander Hassidim

2011-12-09T10:11:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

An article in the Jerusalem Post by Levi Cooper gives fascinating background on the Aleksandrow Hassidim, who still make pilgrimages to the small town of Aleksandrow Lodzki to visit the grave of the founding Aleksander rebbe, Rabbi Yehiel Dancyger (1828-1894), and his sons. In January 2010, more than 300 Aleksander Hassidim traveled to the town to mark the 100th anniversary of Yehiel's son, Rabbi Yerahmiel Yisroel Yitzhok. The only physical traces left in the town are the cemetery and the former residence of Yehiel's grandson, Rabbi Yitzhak Menahem Dancyger (1879-1942), who was killed in Treblinka.

Rabbi Yehiel requested not to be accorded any rabbinic title and asked his followers not to place notes with requests on his grave as is traditionally done with a hassidic master. Aleksander Hassidim, therefore, bring such notes to the grave, read them out and then, in accordance with the wishes of Rabbi Yehiel, they do not place them on the grave. Rather, they place them on the nearby grave of Rabbi Heynech.

The article traces the complex history of the dynasty and describes the situation today, with centers in Israel and the U.S.

Read full story HERE

UK -- More on London's East End

2011-12-03T17:33:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Here's another detailed travel story (in Jewish Week) about London's former Jewish quarter, the East End. The author, Stephen Burstin, conducts Jewish themed tours. For more information, click HERE

The oldest surviving synagogue in England, Bevis Marks, today straddles the border between the East End and the city’s financial district. Founded in 1701 primarily by Dutch Jews whose descendants had fled the Spanish Inquisition, it is Sephardic. Its original interior is perfectly intact, including the beautiful Renaissance-style ark.

Bevis Marks boasts several famous sons, most notably the 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, whose father turned his back on Judaism and converted the family to Christianity when Benjamin was 12. This did not stop an Irish member of Parliament from later insulting the young politician’s Jewish roots. But Disraeli famously retorted: “Yes, I am a Jew. But while the right honourable gentleman’s ancestors were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the Temple of Solomon.”

Many sites in the East End continue to provide reminders of the neighborhood’s rich Jewish heritage; at one time Jews made up 95 percent of the population. There’s the soup kitchen that served 5,000 meals a day during the Depression years; now, paradoxically, its retained ornate facade provides a frontage to luxury apartments. Across Commercial Street in revitalized Spitalfields, $1.5 million homes vie with each other to maintain the best-kept Jewish secrets from unknowing passers-by.

Poland -- Restoration Work Completed on pre-war Private Synagogue in Bedzin

2011-12-02T18:02:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Restoration work has been completed on a richly decorated private Jewish prayer room in Bedzin, in southern Poland. The so-called Mizrachi synagogue, believed to date from the mid-1920s, is located in a building at ul. Potocki 3 in the former Jewish quarter. It was used by the members of the Mizrachi religious Zionist organization. The founder was probably the owner of the entire building, a man named Wiener, who was active in the movement.

The prayer room will be opened to the public in the spring.

The Bedzin town web site has a slide show of pictures showing the completed work -- you can view it HERE

There are also a lot of pictures on Wiki commons of the "before" condition

Photo (c) Leszek Maszczyk

The photographer Jono David has also posted four dozen pictures documenting the poor state of the synagogue when renovation began and then the painstaking process of restoration. You can see them HERE

It is the second private prayer house in Bedzin to be restored recently. The other is under the care of a private organization called Cukierman's Gate. I have posted about them in the past HERE.

Kosovo -- Jewish cemetery vandalized

2011-12-02T10:15:00.000+01:00

Photo from http://www.kurir-info.rs

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Vandals have descerated the recently restored Jewish cemetery in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, by scrawling anti-Semtic slogans and swastikas on the tombs. Officials condemned the desecration, and police are investigating.

The Associated Press reports:

In June, a group of students from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and their peers from the American University in Kosovo restored the neglected cemetery by clearing debris from around the graves and cutting overgrown grass.

Rabbi Edward S. Boraz of the college's Roth Center for Jewish Life held a dedication ceremony at the memorial site, with students taking turns to read out the names of Jewish families from the region who perished during World War II.

On Thursday the hate graffiti "Jud Raus" — a misspelling of the German "Juden Raus," which means "Jews out" — could still be seen at the foot of a memorial.

President Atifete Jahjaga and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci condemned the act.

"The damaging of cemeteries presents an act in complete contradiction with the traditions and values of the people of Kosovo, based on tolerance and full respect for all the dead and all the monuments," Jahjaga said in a statement.

Thaci described the desecration as "a cowardly act."

Read full article HERE

Prague -- Pinkas synagogue to be open tomorrow to commemorate deportations to Terezin

2011-11-26T19:26:00.001+01:00

Monument at Terezin. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

As part of commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of the first deportations of Czech Jews to Terezin, the garrison town north of Prague used as a ghetto-concentration camp, the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague -- now a memorial to nearly 80,000 Holocaust victims in Bohemia and Moravia, will all names inscribed on its walls -- will be open free to the public on Sunday Nov. 27.

Czech Republic -- a Zionist take on touring Jewish Prague

2011-11-26T10:36:00.000+01:00

Inside the Jubilee Synagogue, Prague. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

There's a detailed travel story in the Jerusalem Post by Stewart Weiss about his visit to Jewish Prague. Prague has been visited and toured and written about so much that it's really hard to find a way to say anything new, or really to express any new emotion about it, its Jewish history, the impact of visiting Jewish sites and remembering both pogroms and the Holocaust.....I packed a lot of it in in my chapter on Prague in my 1994 book Upon the Doorposts of Thy House, including a critique of mass tourism....

Weiss article goes over much of the same material. He is ever-skeptical at the tour guide spin (though as a tour leader himself, he must know how to keep his audience.....).

The first stop on our trip is the ancient Jewish cemetery in the heart of Josefov, the Jewish Quarter. Because the land allotted to the Jews was woefully insufficient to bury their dead, there are at least seven layers of graves lying deep beneath the surface, where as many as 100,000 people are buried. But while the graves are invisible, the tombstones are ubiquitous, and stretch as far as the eye can see. They stand as silent, solemn witnesses to the past 1,000 years, from the time Jewish settlers first came to Bohemia, and they testify to a nation within a nation that included every conceivable vocation, from salesman to seamstress to scholar.

The greatest of these scholars was Rabbi Yehuda Loew, the famed Maharal of Prague (1525-1609). In lesser intellectual circles – and certainly among the tour guides peddling fantasy to wide-eyed visitors seeking same – he was the progenitor of the Golem, a clay figure brought to life in order to protect the downtrodden disciples of the Maharal.

It is strange to me, though, that in what he calls "four days of walking with ghosts" he seems to have totally missed the lively local Jewish community and local Jewish life -- writing only that Chabad "struggles valiantly to provide a working synagogue."

Read full story HERE

Art -- Sotheby's auctions Chagall (and Moyse) paintings of synagogue interiors

2011-11-19T13:31:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

In its upcoming auction Dec. 14 of Israeli and International art, Sotheby's will be auctioning three rare large oil paintings from 1931-35 by Marc Chagall showing interiors of synagogues, and also two paintings showing synagogue interiors by the 19th century French painter Edouard Moyse. The paintings all come from the collection of a descendant of the art collector Max Cottin who acquired the Chagalls in 1945.

Chagall's paintings include a 1935 oil on canvas work showing the interior of the now-destroyed Kloyz of the Vilna Gaon in Vilnius, as well as two paintings of synagogues in Israel.

Chagall's 1935 oil of the Kloyz synagogue in Vilna. Photo courtesy of Sotheby's.

as well as

Slovenia -- Exhibit in Maribor About Jewish WWI soldiers

2011-11-18T19:16:00.000+01:00

World War I Military Cemetery, Stanjel. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Back in the 1990s, when I was documenting Jewish heritage in Slovenia, the most impressive site visited was the haunting remains of an Austro-Hungarian World War I military cemetery. All that was left were the massive stone pillars of the gates, a huge temple‑like monument, and about five scattered grave markers. Two of these were of Jewish soldiers, each bearing a star of David.

Stanjel gravestone. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Yesterday, Nov. 17, an exhibition dedicated to Jewish World War I soldiers opened in the former synagogue in Maribor, Slovenia. It is called Forgive Us, Forgive Us O You Dead. Jewish Soldiers of the Austria-Hungarian Army On The Isonzo Front.

In Isonzo Front, in northeast Italy and western Slovenia along the Isonzo river, is dotted with battlefields, museums and monuments to the World War I fallen. Some half a million soldiers died between 1915 and 1917. Fighting here was immortalized in Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms.

The exhibition in Maribor was curated by Petra Svoljšak, Head of the Milko Kos Historical Institute of the Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Renato Podbersič, senior researcher at the SCNR (Slovenian Center for National Reconciliation).

The theme of the exhibition forms a part of the Podbersic's dissertation research, which is to be concluded in near future. Podbersic visit all the extant war cemeteries of WWI in Slovenia and added several other tombstones to the list that I had compiled in 1996. He made historical research of the documents and existing literature and also interviewed people who knew about Jews who fought on the side of the Austrian army in World War I.

Our friend Ivan Čerešnješ, of the Center for Jewish Art, contributed photos of his own grandfather and other Jewish soldiers from Bosnia, fighting in the Isonzo front.

Maribor Synagogue Center curator Janez Premk also advised on the exhibit. He said he believe that it will be "a major contribution in the contemporary research of the Jewish past in Slovenian lands."

Ukraine -- Report on a Jewish Heritage Tour

2011-11-18T14:46:00.000+01:00

Ohel containing tomb of the Baal Shem Tov in Medzhybizh. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

As I am currently compiling up to date information on Jewish heritage sites in Ukraine and other European countries, I was pleased to come across an article by Yoram Dori, a senior advisor to Israeli President Shimon Peres, describing a Jewish heritage tour in Ukraine preceding participation in the Limmud cultural/educational event in Odessa. Dori traveled with Chaim Chesler, the founder and chair of the executive of Limmud FSU, Dan Brown, founder and editor of the eJewish Philanthropy website, Natan Roi, editor of the Jewish Agency’s Hebrew website, and Edvard Doks, a travel guide and Ukrainian correspondent for Yediot Aharonot.

His article focuses on the fact that few if any of the Jewish heritage sites they visited bore mezuzahs or plaques or other signs indicating their history and origianl purpose -- and issues that has loomed large across former-Communist Europe since public interest in Jewish heritage began evolving in the late 1980s.

Ver is di mezuzah? (“Where is the mezuzah?”) was the question at the heart of our tour of various Jewish sites in Ukraine, preceding the recent Limmud FSU festival in Odessa. [. . .]

For me, by the way, everything is clear. When I get home I will try to find a solution at least to the missing plaques. Maybe by an appeal to the president of Ukraine who is due to visit Israel shortly. To allow hundred years of Jewish history to disappear without trace is just not acceptable.

Their stops included Zhitomir, Berdichev, Vinnitsa, Medzhybizh, and Uman. (Except for Vinnitsa, I covered all these sites in Jewish Heritage Travel.)

Jewish cemetery, Berdichev. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Belarus -- Synagogue vandalized

2011-11-17T11:10:00.000+01:00

File photo from Chabad.org

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The synagogue in Babruysk in eastern Ukraine was vandalized twice in the past week.

The synagogue's secretary, Maya Savatseyeva, told RFE/RL that vandals smashed the synagogue's windows at about 2 a.m. on November 18. On November 11, a swastika and "Death to Jews!" was daubed on the fence surrounding the synagogue.

The town's Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Shaul Habobo said that the local government is providing security for the synagogue while the police continue to search for the perpetrators.
“Everything is pretty much repaired,” he said. “Thank God, we have put this behind us.”

The local Jewish community numbers about 50, mostly elderly, people.

England -- an "old Jewish quarter" tour in London

2011-11-12T12:07:00.001+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

By now, "old Jewish quarter" tours in places like Prague, Venice and Krakow (or Boskovice, Trebic, even L'viv and beyond) are normal -- and popular -- niche itineraries. Here's a story in the London Jewish Chronicle about an old Jewish quarter tour in London's East End.......a district long the hub of Ashkenazi life in London that is now largely Asian.... but which I am old enough to remember when it was still at least something still of a Jewish district.....visiting the market in Petticoat Lane (and hearing about how Jewish it was) is a vivid memory from childhood.

The tour is offered by London Walks, a wellknown walking tour operation, which provides a video preview of the walk, which it describes as "set amid the alleys and back streets of colourful Spitalfields and Whitechapel ... a tale of synagogues and sweatshops, Sephardim and soup kitchens."

Here's some of what Monica Porter writes in the Jewish Chronicle:

The highlight of the tour [is] a visit to the country's oldest surviving synagogue at Bevis Marks. [...]

Maurice Bitton, the shamash of Bevis Marks, welcomes us into the beautiful building, which dates from 1701. Tucked away in a courtyard, because Jews were not allowed to build on public thoroughfares at the time, it is virtually unchanged since it was built. The great brass hanging candelabra, austere dark oak benches, magnificent ark - everything is original.

Bitton recounts with relish the history of the Sephardi synagogue, and regales us with tales of the congregation's most famous son, the 19th-century philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore. He shows us the great man's seat, now roped off. The congregation has shrunk since then, but Bitton says it is starting to grow again, as young Jews move back into the area.

For me, the visit brings back memories. In the 1970s, long before the City was redeveloped, I worked for a magazine whose creaky Dickensian offices overlooked this synagogue. On dusky winter evenings, I peered down through its windows into the warm, candlelit glow, mesmerised by the sound of chanting.

From here we walk north-east to Petticoat Lane (aka Middlesex Street), home of the shmutter trade. This is in Spitalfields, the beginning of the East End proper. Jews fleeing the pogroms in the late 19th century set up their stalls in the market here. Later, Alan Sugar, too, started life as a Petticoat Lane stallholder. Now it is abuzz with Asians, hawking shmutter of their own.

Germany -- Travel story in Huffpost on Jewish sights in Worms

2011-11-12T11:46:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Worms, near Frankfurt in (western) Germany, is home to some of the most historic Jewish heritage sites in Europe -- the thousand-year-old Jewish cemetery (believed to be the oldest in Europe aside from ancient Roman-era catacombs) and the rebuilt 11th century Rashi synagogue with its museum. The synagogue was totally reconstructed from rubble between 1959 and 1961 -- one of the few synagogues of recognized historical importance in Europe that in the first three decades after World War II were reconstructed or restored in ways that retained their Jewish identity.

Alan Elsner reflected on his recent visit there for the Huffington Post.

Middle East Digital Jewish Heritage Tour -- Off Geographical Topic but Relevant

2011-11-11T09:16:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I want to highlight the Diarna project, a web site devoted to a digital tour of Mizrachi culture and Jewish heritage in the Middle East and North Africa. There are photographs, videos, descriptions and digital reconstructions of synagogues, etc.

Border guards, plane tickets, and security concerns don’t exist inside Diarna’s unique digital tour. Instead, join a multimedia journey to the region’s captivating yet rarely-visited Jewish heritage sites, from Saharan outposts in southern Morocco to remote Kurdish villages in Iran, to epic sites in the Arabian Peninsula.

Diarna, “Our Homes” in Judeo-Arabic, is a project dedicated to virtually preserving Mizrahi (“Eastern”) Jewish history through the lens of physical location. Satellite imagery, photographs, videos, oral history, and even three-dimensional models offer a unique digital window onto sites and communities disappearing before our very eyes. As structures decay and the last generation to live in these locations passes on, we are in a race against time to preserve priceless cultural treasures.

Four ways to begin your journey:

View Diarna’s Media Gallery, including video tours of the Jewish cemetery in Khartoum, Sudan and the ancient synagogue in Oufrane, Morocco.
Download a sample Diarna Google Earth tour layer, featuring sites in Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Iraq.
Make a Virtual Pilgramage to Moroccan Anti-Atlas Mountain Shrines
Tour a 3-D Reconstruction of the Magen Avraham Synagogue in Beirut, Lebanon

Italy -- Festival of Polish Jewish Culture in Venice

2011-11-09T07:54:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Later this month there will be a festival of Polish Jewish culture held in Venice -- with concerts, exhibitions, lectures, etc. I am scheduled to speak at the closing "Day of Study". The festival is organized by the Polish Institute of Culture in Rome, the Venice Jewish Community and the association organizing events for the upcoming 500th anniversary of the institution of the ghetto in Venice.

Here's the schedule (In Italian).

In occasione della presidenza polacca nel Consiglio dell’Unione Europea. Nell’imminenza delle celebrazioni per i 500 anni del Ghetto di Venezia. Venezia, dal 20 al 29 novembre 2011.

Su proposta dell’Istituto Polacco di Roma e del suo direttore Jaroslaw Mikołajewski, la Comunità ebraica di Venezia e l’Associazione per i 500 anni del Ghetto di Venezia hanno voluto organizzare un Festival della Cultura Ebraica Polacca. Si tratta del primo evento culturale di un lungo percorso che condurrà nel 2016 alle grandi celebrazioni in occasione dei 500 anni dall’istituzione del Ghetto di Venezia, il primo ghetto al mondo. Gli organizzatori delle odierne manifestazioni hanno voluto dare particolare rilievo ai concetti di vita e di cultura, ! tentando di offrire al pubblico proposte culturali che spaziano cronologicamente dal ‘500 alla contemporaneità. Non è assente il tema della Shoah, che naturalmente trattandosi di ebrei e di Polonia non può essere trascurato, e tuttavia l’intento è quello di non farsi schiacciare dalla catastrofe dello sterminio e proporre ai visitatori tracce culturali spesso inesplorate e inedite. Gli ebrei e la Polonia nel passato e nel presente, con uno sguardo al futuro.

L’idea di organizzare questo evento a Venezia assume particolare significato per la collocazione geografica e storica della comunità ebraica lagunare in rapporto alla Polonia. Basterà pensare agli importanti rapporti culturali e famigliari fra esponenti del rabbinato veneto e polacco a partire dal Cinquecento, ed è utile ricordare che all’indomani del rogo del Talmud (1553) che mise fine alla stampa a Venezia della principale opera della tradizione ebraica, il testimone venne preso dagli stampatori di Cracovia che produssero la loro prima edizione già nel 1559. E da Venezia provennero gli ebrei (sefarditi) che andarono a fondare la comunità ebraica nella lontana Zamosc, nuova città costruita da un architetto padovano e disegnata sul modello rinascimentale.

Il Festival prevede i seguenti appuntamenti:

- Una mostra sui rabbini di Cracovia presso il Museo Ebraico! di Venezia

- Un dibattito sul rapporto fra ebrei e Polonia con la partecipazione di Adam Michnik, intellettuale ebreo polacco, giornalista, protagonista della rinascita democratica e animatore del movimento Solidarnosc.

- Un evento “concerto e parole” con il decano dei musicisti klezmer di Polonia, Leopold Kozlowski

- Una rassegna cinematografica dedicata allo sguardo del grande regista polacco Andrej Wajda sul rapporto fra ebrei e Polonia.

- Una Giornata di Studi incentrata sulle dinamiche insediative degli ebrei fra Venezia e l’Europa orientale.

In particolar! e la Giornata di Studi rappresenta l’ evento iniziale del lungo percorso di valorizzazione della storia del Ghetto di Venezia e dei suoi 500 anni.

Programma

20 novembre

Rabbini di Cracovia – ore 16, inaugurazione della mostra presso il Museo Ebraico

Ebrei-polacchi, polacchi ed ebrei: riflessioni su una storia comune – ore 17-19 presso la Sala Montefiore (Cannaregio 1189) Tavola rotonda con Adam Michnik, Francesco M. Cataluccio, Laura Mincer

Leopold Kozlowski, l’ultimo klezmer della Galizia – ore 20 presso la sala concerti del Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello, Palazzo Pisani, San Marco 2810, concerto di musica e parole.

22 – 29 novembre

Ho sentito la voce del dottor Korczak – rassegna cinematografica dedicata ad Andrej Wajda e al suo sguardo sull’ebraismo polacco. La rassegna si svolge presso la Casa del Cinema.

Martedì 22 novembre : ore 17.30 GENERAZIONE (Pokolenie, 1955) di Andrzej Wajda; ore 20.30 SANSONE (Samson, 1961) di Andrzej Wajda

Giovedì24 novembre : ore 17.30 PAESAGGIO DOPO LA BATTAGLIA (Krajobraz po bitwie, 1971) di Andrzej Wajda; ore 20.30 DOTTOR KORCZAK (Korczak, 1991) di Andrzej Wajda

Martedì 29 novembre : ore 17.30 SETTIMANA SANTA (Wielki tydzien, 1995) di Andrzej Wajda;

ore 20.30 DYBBUK (Der Dibuk, 1937) di Michal Waszynski

27 Novembre

Ore 10-18 Giornata di Studi: LA CITTÀ DEGLI EBREI: GHETTI, QUARTIERI, SHTETL FRA PASSATO E PRESENTE

Russia -- Replicate? Replace?

2011-11-03T16:57:00.000+01:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This Jerusalem Post story about the battles with a circus over the site of the destroyed synagogue in Kaliningrad, where Chabad wants to build a replica/reconstruction of the building, is somewhat off topic, but encompasses some of the dilemmas involved in Jewish heritage preservation and memory.

Jews in the Russian city of Kaliningrad want to reconstruct a grand synagogue on the same spot where it stood before the Nazis destroyed it, but first they have to evict the current tenants: the local circus.

Rabbi David Shvedik told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday he has been trying for years to relocate the circus from the vacant plot where the majestic Konigsberg Synagogue once stood but to no avail.

“We own the land but they won’t leave,” he said on the phone from Kaliningrad. “They’ve threatened us by saying if they were forced to leave and then all the children will be angry at the Jews because there’d be no more circus in town.”

The Chabad emissary said members of the local Jewish community have tried to pay the circus to move.

“We don’t want a war,” Shvedik said, “which is why we’ve offered them 400,000 euros to go but they said no.”

Read full store HERE

Berlin -- Jewish Museum turns 10

2011-10-26T06:54:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Quick reposting of an article on the Jewish Museum in Berlin -- which last month celebrated its 10th anniversary.

I well remember how, as the article puts it

Even in the late 1990s, people would wait for months to get a tour of the bare frame of the building with its dark stairwells, empty spaces and crooked walls. Paths and corridors branch off to symbolic destinations - to the outside, to freedom, to a 'Garden of Exile,' or to a dead end.

Rudi Klein Speaking in DC next week on his new book

2011-10-22T14:53:00.001+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I encourage anyone in the DC area to go hear my good friend Rudi Klein discuss his magnum opus, Synagogues in Hungary 1782-1918, at a talk at the Library of Congress on Monday. it's a fascinating subject and Rudi gives a lively talk! I posted about the book HERE when it came out.

Here's the press release for the talk:

“Synagogues in Hungary 1782-1918” Is Subject of Book Talk on Oct. 24

Architectural historian Rudolf Klein will discuss his new book, "Synagogues in Hungary 1782-1918" at noon on Monday, Oct. 24 in the European Division, Room LJ-250 of the Thomas Jefferson Building at 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. The event, which is sponsored jointly by the European Division and the Hebrew Language Table, is free and open to the public; tickets are not required but seating is limited.

The focus of Klein’s book is the synagogues of Hapsburg Hungary and their transformation from 1782 through World War I. While the book is primarily architectural, it illuminates how synagogues served as vehicles for conveying values, identity and dreams that were at the core of Jewish existence in the Diaspora. The author deconstructs the traditional idea of synagogue style and introduces a matrix of formal and functional elements that constitute a synagogue.

Klein is a professor of modern architectural history at Szent Istvan University in Budapest. From 1996-2006, he was a professor of architectural history at Israel’s Tel Aviv University. The author of many books on Jewish architecture, Klein has focused on the diverse cultural heritage of the Jews of Hungary.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.

Austria -- Vienna Jewish Museum Reopening

2011-10-20T17:42:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Just a brief note -- the Jewish Museum in Vienna re-opened Tuesday after being closed for about a year for a fullscale -- and controversial -- restoration and revamping of its exhibition. I have yet to see it, but the next time I go to Vienna (probably in early December) I will make sure to give a full report, as I am very curious to see the new facility. The opening (temporary) exhibition is a sure-fire crowd pleaser on 100 years of Jewish experience in Hollywood...

Here's a video of the opening ceremony:

The Jewish Museum Vienna is now open - Welcome back! from Jewish Museum Vienna on Vimeo.

As for now, according to one brief (and dry) article:

Not only the technical infrastructure and visitor facilities were renovated, but visitors will also be offered new and exciting insights into the collections − of Jewish past and present − as well as a new atelier for children and several other services.

Visitors will get to know whom the Jewish Museum Vienna has to thank for its collections and take a virtual tour through the synagogues that existed in Vienna before 1938. They will also be invited to view the new permanent exhibition, but also to Hollywood − the location where the first temporary exhibition will take place. This will be an introduction to the founding fathers of the film metropolis, the men who left their shtetl in Galicia and Ukraine to invent the American dream in Hollywood. This journey will take one across 100 years of Hollywood and trace this Jewish experience as far as the present."

I posted here earlier this year about the controversy over the museum renovation, in the process of which the holograms that had formed part of the museum's historic exhibition, mounted in 1994, were destroyed during their removal.

Poland - art and memory. Page of History Foundation

2011-10-17T20:02:00.002+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I have to admit that I had never heard of the Page of History Foundation and its interesting project linking art and commemoration until I read a recent article in the Jewish Chronicle about an art work it just unveiled in the town of Gora Kalwaria (Yiddish Ger) south of Warsaw -- a sculpture depicting Adam and Eve by the Polish artist Bronislaw Krzysztof.

The year was 1990, Communism had just collapsed in Poland and John Pomian, a Pole living in the UK, was on a return visit to his country of origin with a Jewish friend, Casimir Stamirski.

As the pair passed through the town of Mogielnica, Mr Pomian, who served in the RAF during the war, was invited by Mr Stamirski to stop off in the town to see they could find any traces of the Jewish community that once thrived there.

There was nothing to be found. As they returned to their car, they spotted a large boulder bearing the names of locals who died during the Second World War. There were no Jewish names among them.

On his return to London, Mr Pomian decided something had to be done to commemorate the presence of Jews in Poland, who, he says, "have shared our history for centuries". In 1991, Mr Pomian set up the Page of History Foundation, which aimed to install works of art in towns where Jews once lived as gestures of remembrance "from Poles towards Polish Jews".

Read full article HERE

The foundation's web site describes its purpose as commemorating the Jewish presence in Poland "through funding works of art authored by recognized artists and making these available to a wider public."

It states that the Foundation's four basic principles are:

-- this is to be a Polish gesture towards the Jews, who shared our history for centuries and made their contribution to the development of Polish culture and commercial life.

-- this is to be a completely private undertaking and we will not be seeking any money from public funds.

-- we will commemorate Polish Jews through works of art of the highest and lasting aesthetic merit.

-- the inspiration for these works will be the Old Testament, which is the sacred scripture of both Christians and Jews.

Besides in Gora Kalwaria, works of art have been put up since 1995 in Warsaw, Szydlow, Lodz and Zamosc.

Poland -- Concern over preservation of "forgotten" Holocaust sites

2011-10-13T10:14:00.000+02:00

Gate at Auschwitz. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

A fund-raising campaign for preservation of the infrastructure at Auschwitz has been achieving success. But focusing resources and attention on Auschwitz has raised concern that other Holocaust sites are crumbling. I wrote about this in a JTA article.

By Ruth Ellen Gruber October 12, 2011

ROME (JTA) -- Auschwitz, the most notorious camp in the Nazi killing machine, may soon claim success in its campaign to preserve the legacy of the Holocaust.

The foundation supporting the site in southern Poland has attracted tens of millions of dollars from donor countries, and the camp’s barracks and other buildings seem set to be preserved for decades to come. The museum memorial at the former Nazi death camp attracts more than 1 million visitors per year.

Some fear, however, that the concentration of resources and attention on Auschwitz could overshadow other preservation efforts and threaten the integrity or even the existence of the memorials and museums at lesser-known camps and Holocaust sites in Poland.

"Because Auschwitz is treated as the symbol of the Holocaust and the whole world is supporting only this museum, everybody in Poland, including the government, seems to think that this is enough," said historian Robert Kuwalek, a curator at the state-run Museum at Majdanek, the Nazi concentration camp and killing center near Lublin in eastern Poland. "The problem is deeper because it is the lack of basic knowledge that the Holocaust happened in forgotten sites like Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Chelmno.”

Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka were the three killing centers of the so-called Operation Reinhard plan to murder 2 million Polish Jews in 1942 and 1943. During that operation, Kuwalek said, "more people were killed in a shorter time than in Auschwitz-Birkenau during the whole period that that camp functioned."

Despite their importance in the history of the Holocaust, these and other sites -- such as the forced labor camps at Stuffhof and Gross-Rosen -- are overlooked by the vast majority of visitors who want to learn about the Holocaust or pay homage to its victims firsthand. All are marked by memorials or even museums. But some are located in remote parts of the country, and most are in serious need of upkeep and preservation.

The museum at Sobibor, for example -- the site of John Demjanjuk's crimes -- was forced to close in June when funding from local authorities ran out. An estimated 167,000 to 250,000 people, mostly Jews, were murdered at Sobibor, which is located in a remote part of eastern Poland. In May, a German court convicted Demjanjuk, now 91, of complicity in the murder of 28,000 Jews there.

"We simply realized that we could not afford to pay our bills this year, maintenance costs included," Marek Bem, a Sobibor museum spokesman, told the Krakow Post. "Without a stable budget we can't make any plans for the future."

The museum reopened July 1 after the Polish Culture Ministry announced that it would be reorganized as a state-run institution funded by the ministry.

"Auschwitz is the great exception to the rule," said Rabbi Andrew Baker, the director of international Jewish affairs for the American Jewish Committee. Baker was the point man for the AJC in its cooperation with the Polish government to build a large and impressive monument and museum at Belzec, where 500,000 Jews were killed. The center opened in 2004.

"With all the focus on Auschwitz, there's a kind of irony," he added. "It is coming that Auschwitz is becoming a universal symbol. It is raising money from scores of countries. When the survivors pass on, one question will be how to retain the identity of Auschwitz as a place where Jews were killed. It can become a universal place of lessons about genocide."

The Auschwitz Foundation was set up in 2009 with the goal of raising $163 million and thus guaranteeing an annual interest income of about $6 million for the much-needed conservation of barracks, the ruins of gas chambers, and other artifacts and material.

To date, nearly 20 countries have announced support for the effort, bringing the total pledges to more than $122 million. Germany alone pledged about $82 million. Israel was the latest country to pledge funds, with a $1 million contribution pledged to the foundation a few days before Rosh Hashanah.

In a statement quoted by the Auschwitz museum website, Yad Vashem director Avner Shalev explained why the investment was seen as so important.

"The site of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over 1 million Jews were murdered during the Shoah, has become a key symbol of the Holocaust and of absolute evil," he said. "It is therefore a moral imperative to preserve the site's authenticity and legacy, and it is meaningful that Israel is participating in meeting that imperative."

The success to date of the Auschwitz fundraising campaign has been greeted with a cautious sigh of relief by scholars and preservationists who for years had raised the alarm about the threats to the site.

"It seems that the future of Auschwitz with regard to preservation is mostly secured," said Tomasz Kunciewicz, director of the Auschwitz Jewish Center, an educational institution in the town of Oswiecim, where Auschwitz is located. "Several governments have already made significant contributions, and others are expected to follow suit.

"However, regarding the more 'forgotten' death camps, such as Sobibor, the situation seems to be acute and there should be similar international efforts made regarding fundraising as in the case of Auschwitz."

In contrast to the 1.3 million visitors to Auschwitz last year, only about 30,000 go annually to Belzec, in southeastern Poland, and 20,000 visit Sobibor. Even Majdanek, which has a large museum and many more original buildings and other infrastructure than Auschwitz, attracts only about 100,000 annual visitors. The Majdanek museum is still coming to grips with a 2010 fire that destroyed one of the original barracks, where some of its key collections were stored.

"Everybody talks about the problems at Auschwitz," Kuwalek said. "Nobody pays attention to the other places. I'm really afraid that they were forgotten and will be forgotten."

Determining how to deal with these sites, he added, "will be a discussion that is more and more important. There is a recognition that something has to be done, but no one knows how and what."

Read the story at JTA HERE

England -- Clean-up of Jewish Cemetery in Liverpool

2011-10-11T13:54:00.001+02:00

Photo: http://www.deaneroadcemetery.com/photos.htm

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I thought I'd add a report from Liverpool, England about the start of a huge clean-up operation at the historic but derelict Deane Road Jewish cemetery, which was founded in 1837 and operated until 1929.

Prominent Liverpool Jews such as David Lewis, the founder of the big department store Lewis’s, are buried here, but the site has long been overgrown and neglected, resembling many cemeteries in Eastern Europe. Fitful clean-up has been under way since 2002, but in December 2010, the Heritage Lottery Fund agreed to award £494,000 to the cemetery to achieve full restoration of the site, with completion expected in Spring 2012. There is a web site devoted to the cemetery and the clean-up project, which will be posting before-during-and-after photographs of the progress and has maps, biographies and many other resources.

In the 19th century, a community of Jewish businessmen belonging to the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation changed the face of Liverpool's economy. Amongst these men and women were watchmakers, silversmiths, bankers, entrepreneurs, clerics, artists, politicians, medics and musicians. Their combined resourcefulness, wealth, activities and status helped Liverpool develop into one of the most thriving cities of the Victorian age.

For years, their graves stood desolate, obscured by trees, choked by poisonous plants, vandalised with graffiti and surrounded by refuse. Deane Road Cemetery, their final resting place, was derelict for a century. Following several failed restoration attempts, it seemed that conditions would never be able to be improved long-term. However, since 2002, an ongoing restoration project has gradually improved the physical state of the cemetery and applied for funding for a full restoration.

World Monuments Fund 2012 Watch List -- two Jewish interest sites

2011-10-06T11:35:00.001+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Two sites of Jewish interest are included in the 2012 Watch List issued by the World Monuments Fund. Initiated in 1996, the Watch List is published every two years to call international attention to cultural heritage around the globe that is at risk from the forces of nature and the impact of social, political, and economic change.

The 2012 list includes the Portuguese (Sephardic) Jewish cemetery in Ouderkerk, in The Netherlands, famous for is distinctive carved tombstones.

Portuguese Jews settled in Amsterdam after fleeing persecution in Spain in the sixteenth century. Although northern Europe was tolerant during this violent period, the Portuguese Jews were refused a Jewish cemetery in the city. The community instead purchased land 31 miles from Amsterdam in 1614 at the confluence of the Bullewijk and Amstel rivers. Beth Haim covers 10 acres and has over 27,500 graves from over four centuries. The Portuguese Jewish community thrived in Amsterdam until the early twentieth century, and Beth Haim, which means “house of life,” is replete with refined carvings and inscriptions devoted to the dead.

The location of the cemetery at the confluence of two rivers has led to significant water issues, compounded by a lack of regular maintenance. The local community today is committed to the preservation of the cemetery, but resources are limited. Open for public tours and in close proximity to Amsterdam, the local stewards of the site strive to raise public awareness and preserve the site for future generations.

The other site is in Macedonia -- the ruins of the ancient city of Stobi, which include traces of two synagogues, one on top of the other: one dates from the 2nd or 3rd century, the other from the 4th century. Among the finds is a well-preserved mosaic floor with Jewish symbolism.

Stobi lies at the confluence of the Crna and Vardar Rivers, and was an important urban, military, administrative, trade, and religious center of the Roman and early Byzantine empires. Thought to have been first inhabited in the sixth century B.C., significant urban development and demographic expansion occurred from the first to third centuries A.D. and Stobi continued to develop and expand until it was abandoned around the turn of the seventh century. The archaeological remains within the city walls occupy 27 hectares on three terraces that slope towards the Crna; suburbs and cemeteries are located outside the city walls. The site contains 26 exposed buildings, including a theater, synagogue, palaces, houses, basilicas, and baths, and has been excavated for nearly a century. Due to poor site drainage, Stobi is constantly threatened by flooding and rising subterranean water, and lacks an integrated plan for research, conservation, interpretation, and community engagement.

Stobi is one of the most significant and well-known archaeological sites in the Republic of Macedonia and provides insight into the historical events, material culture, and urban planning of the Hellenistic, Roman, and early Christian settlements in the area. A management plan is needed to guide continued research, protection, and tourism development.

Italy --Exhibition in Rome

2011-10-05T12:28:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

What sounds like an interesting photographic exhibition opens tomorrow, Oct. 6, in Rome at the "House of Memoria and History". It's an exhibit of 300 photographs taken by Maurizio Agostinetto during a 960-kilometer trip by bicycle from the Brenner Pass to Auschwitz, retracing the route of 26 Jewish deportees during the Holocaust, including Primo Levi.

Shana Tova!

2011-09-28T15:39:00.000+02:00

Synagogue ceiling, Siret, Romania. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Shana Tova to all my readers! Thanks for your attention and comments!

May you have a sweet, satisfying and scintillating New Year -- and beyond!

I Receive High Honor from Poland

2011-09-23T10:33:00.001+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I'm honored and delighted to report that at a ceremony at the Polish Consulate in New York last night I received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit -- one of Poland's highest honors awarded to foreigners. Poland's President Komorowski presented the awards -- alas, I was not able to be in New York, but my friend who stood in for me took a video of the moment when my name was read out:

Given my history with Poland, going back more than 30 years, it is quite an honor! As my old friend and colleague Doug Stanglin reported in USA Today, this award comes 28 years after Poland's the-Communist regime arrested me, threw me in jail, interrogated me and expelled me on trumpted up "espionage" charges.

At Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, 1983

What a difference a few years and the fall of the Berlin Wall makes.

In 1983, at the height of martial law and the Solidarity worker's movement, Poland's communist-led government detained American reporter Ruth Ellen Gruber on suspicions of "crimes against the state."

The then-bureau chief for United Press International was hauled in for questioning by police, then expelled from the country.

Thursday, the Polish government was at it again, with a new proclamation aimed at Gruber.

This time, it bestowed on her the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit, one of the highest honors awarded to foreigners.

.Read full story HERE

Here's another story, by Polish Radio's English service:

Ruth Ellen Gruber, who remains an active commentator on Central European affairs, was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit by President Bronislaw Komorowski on Thursday at a ceremony at the Polish Consulate in New York.

Poland’s head of state is currently attending the UN General Assembly in New York, where he gave an address calling for solidarity among nations.

Gruber, who covered the Solidarity surge in Poland as a bureau-chief of United Press International, was deported from the country for “crimes against the state.”

As it was, Mr Komorowski was himself arrested by the Polish authorities during that period. As a Solidarity activist, he was interned after the declaration of Martial Law in December 1981.

Gruber was granted the award both for her coverage of the Polish bid for democracy, as well as her more recent work furthering Polish-Jewish understanding.

Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere), a collection of her articles, was recently published, as well as her work on the so-called Jewish revival in Poland – Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Central Europe. (nh/jb)

Read full story HERE

Nice photo web site on Eastern European Jewish traces

2011-09-21T11:22:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I've just come across the web site galiciantraces.com -- "a photographic documentation of Eastern European Judaica" by Charles Burns. It features a growing gallery of photographs and comments on Jewish heritage and heritage sites in Eastern Europe. It's worth a look.

He has arranged the photos by towns -- and there are dozens on the list. The are mainly in Ukraine and Poland -- but he doesn't give the country or any other geographic location. I also wish he had included links to similar sites and other resources.

Italy -- Huge turnout for Jewish culture event in Rome

2011-09-19T10:38:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Organizers report a huge "unprecedented" turnout for a Jewish culture extravaganza held in Rome Saturday night -- the "Night of the Kabbalah".

I wasn't able to attend, as I'm in Prague... but the Rome Jewish community reports that at one point more than 3,000 people stood in line to get in to the Jewish Museum for events. There were readings concerts, discussions, interviews etc etc etc

The event was organized as part of the annual International Jewish book festival in Rome, which is on this week.

Part of the crowd. Photo: Rome Jewish Community

Czech republic -- Ten Stars project

2011-09-17T11:50:00.007+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I spent two hours yesterday meeting with Jan Kindermann in Prague to discuss "Ten Stars" -- the ambitious and very impressive EU-funded Jewish heritage preservation project he is coordinating for the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic. The project involves complex renovation and exhibition projects at ten synagogue buildings dotted all around the country. The towns include Úštěk, Jičín, Brandýs nad Labem, Plzeň, Březnice, Nová Cerekev, Polná, Boskovice, Mikulov and Krnov.

Krnov synagogue. Photo: 10 Hvezd project

"10 Stars" is a creative and very well thought out strategy of development and promotion that is funded by the Culture Ministry and an approxmately €10 million grant from the European Union. All the sites are owned by the Jewish community, and there are local partners in each place.

There is a comprehensive web site associated with the project -- but it's a pity that it is only in Czech, which means that awareness outside the country remains limited.

Planning took place in the approximately two years since the EU funding came through -- Jan showed me stacks of detailed files. Actual construction will being in October.

The idea is to create a network of 10 sites that will all be open to the public. Each site will house a permanent exhibition, based on one theme. Linked together, all the sites will in effect constitute a comprehensive Jewish museum spread out over the entire country. The "10 Stars" will issue a sort of "passport" (such as those used for other heritage and museums) to encourage visitors to take in all the components. Each time you visit one of the sites, you will get a stamp in the passport -- if you get stamps for all of them, you can turn it is and get some sort of "prize."

Thematic exhibits will include Jewish education, Jewish life and practice, Architecture, Industry, the Rabbinical world, etc.

Some of the sites on the list of Stars include places where synagogues already have been restored. (Polna, Ustek, Boskovice, Jicin, etc)

Boskovice. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

In those places, the project will carry out much-needed maintenance (such as at the synagogue in Ustek, whose lower floor has suffered water damage) but will also restore a neighboring Jewish building for use as part of the exhibition complex -- in Ustek, this means the rabbi's house next to the synagogue. since the Ustek synagogue already includes a fine little reconstruction of the former school room, the permanent exhibition here will deal with Jewish education.

Ustek. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

In Plzen, where the Great Synagogue has undergone at least a partial restoration, the 10 Stars project will restore the Old Synagogue. And since Plzen is the only town on the list where there is an active Jewish community, the permanent exhibit here will deal with Jewish life and practice.

Many other synagogues have been restored and are used for cultural purposed in the Czech Republic -- quite a few of these are owned by municipalities, not the Jewish community. But all should complement each other, meaning that CZ remains the country where a strategic vision and plan regarding Jewish heritage has had the most success, thanks to pragmatic visionaries within the Jewish community as well as to local activists and a political and cultural climate that supports and welcomes involvement in these initiatives.

Ukraine -- latest on the Golden Rose

2011-09-10T17:46:00.002+02:00

Golden Rose ruins, December 2010. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Archeological excavation near Golden Rose, December 2010. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Misleading reports that suggested that the preserved ruins of the historic Golden Rose synagogue in L'viv were being destroyed to make way for a hotel went viral this past week, triggering an uproar. The G. R. ruins themselves are not under threat -- the envisaged hotel is on a nearby site. There are also archeological excavations going on around the Golden Rose site, which could be misconstrued as preparation for construction. Nonetheless, a longterm strategy for what to do with the Golden Rose is still not in place -- although I am glad to learn that plans for the implementation of the "Synagogue Square" memorial that includes the G.R. ruins and the place in front of them where another synagogue and a prayer house once stood seem to be moving forward.

I was on the international jury for the design competition for this and two other memorials marking Jewish sites in L'viv, and have reported on them in this blog.

Here is the story I ended up doing for JTA on the Golden Rose situation, based on numerous phone calls and email communication with various parties. Most people I know who have anything to do with L'viv Jewish heritage are happy that the controversial hotel plan has now come under scrutiny. But they are rather taken aback at the way a misleading and mis-headlined report can go viral and ignite such a firestorm.

Ukrainian mayor says synagogue ruins are not threatened

September 9, 2011

WARSAW (JTA) -- The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Lviv denied reports that the preserved remains of the historic Golden Rose synagogue were being destroyed to make way for a controversial hotel.

"I want to reassure everyone that no construction has ever taken place at the site of the Golden Rose," Lviv's mayor, Andriy Sadovyy, said in his statement.

"Construction of a hotel in the neighboring Fedorova Street, which has drawn criticism from some civic organizations’ representatives, has nothing to do with the site of the former Synagogue,” he said.

The mayor also said that plans were going ahead for new memorials to Lviv Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

The Golden Rose synagogue was largely destroyed during World War II; what remains are its foundations and a wall bearing arches.

On August 19, a Lviv district court ordered the Ukrainian Investment Company, the hotel's builder and investor, to "stop any preparatory and construction works on the plot" on Fedorova Street and "vacate building machines from this territory."

The site of the envisaged hotel does not directly touch the Golden Rose ruins. But critics charge that it could compromise a mikvah, the foundations of a former kosher butchery and other buildings in the old Jewish quarter.

“It is a disgrace,” said Meylakh Sheykhet, the Ukranian director of the Union Council of ex-Soviet Jews, in a statement. “They are building the hotel over the very places where there are Jewish artifacts buried and where the mikvah once stood.”

The mayor's press office said that his statement had been issued in response to an article by Tom Gross published by The Guardian newspaper and other international media outlets. Gross' article was headlined "Goodbye, Golden Rose."

In The Guardian, Gross wrote: "Last week I watched as bulldozers began to demolish the adjacent remnants of what was once one of Europe's most beautiful synagogue complexes, the 16th-century Golden Rose in Lviv."

Although the "adjacent remnants" to which Gross referred apparently did not mean the actual preserved ruins of the synagogue building, many readers were left with the impression that the synagogue itself was threatened. Other media outlets picked up the story and reported that the synagogue was being destroyed. Even Wikipedia at one point stated, "It [the Golden Rose Synagogue] was illegally demolished by the government of Ukraine in 2011 to build a hotel."

“After the publication of this information we have received inquiries from various countries of the world about the situation of the ruins of the Golden Rose Synagogue," Sadovyy said.

Sadovyy's statement noted that Lviv staged an international architectural competition last year for memorials to mark three sites of Jewish history in the city. Winners, announced in December, came from Israel, the United States and Germany.

One of the sites, the so-called Synagogue Square, includes the ruins of the Golden Rose and the space in front of it where another synagogue and a beit midrash once stood. Sadovyy said that an international group of experts "is at work" on this project. JTA has learned that Jewish representatives and city officials will meet in Lviv next month to discuss how and when to implement construction of the memorial there.

"It is extremely important to us, that, together with the Jewish community, civic organizations and everybody concerned with the fate of Lviv heritage, we resolve the issue of Synagogue fragments’ conservation as well as the issue of their worthy setting," Sadovyy said.

Poland -- Jedwabne monument defaced with swastikas

2011-09-01T10:51:00.002+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I don't usually post about defacement or vandalism of monuments, but I can't ignore this one. The monument in Jedwabne to the hundreds of Jews burned alive by their Polish neighbors when they herded them into a barn and set the barn on fire in July 1941 has been defaced with swastikas and anti-semitic slogans.

Media reports said a policeman on patrol discovered the attack Wednesday night. The monument, which stands on the site of the barn where the Jews were killed, is not lit and stands on its own, away from town buildings. Jan Gross's book about the event, "Neighbors," touched off a huge and lacerating debate on Poland the Holocaust when it was published a decade ago.

Photographs in the Polish media showed anti-Semitic slogans and swastikas scrawled in big green letters on the obelisk-like monument and on the wall surrounding it. One slogan read, "No need to apologize for Jedwabne."

According to Polish news reports, regional police in Bialystok, who are investigating the incident, are linking this attack to other apparent neo-fascist vandal attack in the past few weeks in eastern and northeast Poland. These include scrawled anti-Semitic slogans and Nazi symbols found on the former synagogue in the town of Orla on August 10. Then, vandals broke into the Islamic Center in Bialystok, trashed the ground floor and attempted to set the building on fire. The next day, bilingual signs in Polish and Lithanian were found damaged in Punsk, a town near the border with Lithuania.

On Thursday, Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski issued a statement condemning the vandal attacks. "I utterly condemn these acts of criminality, alien to Polish tradition," he said. "There is no room for such behaviour in Polish society – even if it is the work of but a small group of extremists. We stand in solidarity with all those who feel personally affected by these despicable acts. I am convinced that the perpetrators will be swiftly tracked down and face the full extent of the law with regard to their actions."

Hungary -- Hard Times for Budapest Jewish Summer Festival

2011-08-31T23:31:00.000+02:00

Banner during the Festival in 2009. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Deutsche Welle runs a report about hard times, financial and other, hitting the annual Jewish Summer Festival in Budapest.

Hungary's Jewish Summer Festival takes place this year in the shadow of economic gloom and extremism plaguing this EU nation of some 10 million people.

Under the current center-right government, the festival's budget was slashed and the city of Budapest reduced its financial support by 70 percent to five million forints (about 18,500 euros or $26,700).

"Despite the economic difficulties, we tried to organize the festival," explained Gusztav Zoltai, executive director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary. He pledged the program would be so good "that the public does not notice we have financial problems."

[....]

Budapest Klezmer Band ... member Ferenc Javori hopes music and culture will ease tensions in Hungary's troubled society.

That seems necessary since Hungary has been rocked by anti-Semitism. Several festival posters were painted over with swastikas and slogans such as "Jews go home," for example.

Earlier in August, the Sziget Music Festival saw scores of neo-Nazi and far-right activists trying to storm the Budapest event, which they viewed as organized by Jews and anti-Hungarian investors.

Police detained several demonstrators, including a prominent parliamentarian of the rightist Movement for a Better Hungary, or Jobbik. Earlier, thousands of neo-Nazis from across Europe gathered at their own Magyar Sziget, or Hungarian Island festival in the village of Veroce, just north of Hungary's capital.

Among those performing there was far-right Swedish singer Saga, singing for neo-Nazi and other extremists, who were waving flags and giving the Hitler salute.

See full story by clicking HERE

Slovakia -- My Ruthless Cosmopolitan column about Slovakia

2011-08-30T08:53:00.001+02:00

In Slovakia, being strategic about preserving Jewish heritage

By Ruth Ellen Gruber · August 28, 2011

: Maros Borsky, vice president of the Bratislava Jewish community, standing in the Orthodox synagogue in Zilina, Slovakia. The shul is one of the sites on his Slovak Jewish Heritage Route. (Ruth Ellen Gruber)

RUTHLESS COSMOPOLITAN

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (JTA) -- In 1989, on the eve of the fall of communism, the American poet Jerome Rothenberg published a powerful series of poems called "Khurbn" that dealt with the impact of the Holocaust on Eastern Europe.

In one section, he recorded conversations he had had in Poland with local people who had little recollection of the flourishing pre-war Jewish presence.

"Were there once Jews here?" the poem goes. "Yes, they told us, yes they were sure there were, though there was no one here who could remember. What was a Jew like? they asked.

"No one is certain still if they exist."

I often think of this poem when I travel to far-flung places in Eastern and Central Europe, and it was certainly on my mind on a trip to Slovakia this August. 

That's because yes, there are still Jews here, and the post-Communist revival has reinvigorated Jewish communities in the region. 

But also, despite this, numbers are still so small that even in many places where Jews once made up large parts of the population, Jewish history and heritage have been, or run the risk of being, forgotten. 

"Look," my friend Maros Borsky reminded me in Bratislava. "Kids who were born after 1989 don't even remember communism."

Borsky is trying to do something about this -- which is why I was in Slovakia.

Read the entire story here.

European Day of Jewish Culture Next Sunday

2011-08-29T12:34:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Here's a reminder that the 12th edition of the annual European Day of Jewish Culture will take place next Sunday, September 4.

The schedule of events for many of the participating countries can be found HERE.

The theme this year is “EDJC 2.0: Facing the Future.” As the web site puts it:

Jewish heritage in the era 2.0: new approaches to promotion and preservation using the new tools of communication, representation and exchange

The new era of communication has opened up a world of new possibilities for presenting and highlighting Jewish Culture and heritage.

Whether it is graphic design, videos, films, internet forums, etc., they all offer the opportunity of both a new view on already known aspects, and of tackling the subject in a totally different way, using the ever increasing facilities for sharing information interactively in a social media dialogue.

As usual, Italy is the most enthusiastic participant with a wide range of programming in more than 60 towns and cities up and down the peninsula. The main official events will take place in Siena.

Synagogues -- great new resource on Tumblr and Twitter

2011-08-28T11:43:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Thanks to Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett for turning me on to a wonderful new resource on synagogues -- a Twitter feed and also Tumblr blog called "A synagogue a day" that showcases daily images from the William A. Rosenthall Judaica Collection at the College of Charleston special collections.

The images include both historic and contemporary postcards and photographs of synagogues all over the world, interior and exterior shots. Worth a look to see the vast diversity of architecture -- and geographical spread!

Italy -- Italian Jewish Food lets you travel via your taste buds

2011-08-26T20:23:00.000+02:00

Sign advertising kosher products in Pitigliano, Italy. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

If you can't hop over to Italy, you can "get a taste of Jewish Italy" by sampling of the recipes of Italian Jewish dishes Joan Nathan spotlights in an article in Tablet Magazine. She also recommends a sampling of cookbooks featuring Italian Jewish cuisine.

If you want to dine less vicariously on Jewish Italian favorites -- there is a growing number of Jewish (even kosher) restaurants in Rome, Florence and elsewhere.

One of my favorites in Rome is called Ba' Ghetto -- it is in the old Ghetto neighborhood, around the corner from the main synagogue. Nice selection of local and Mediterranean Jewish food; relaxed but slightly upscale ambience.

Slovakia -- Trencin and the mixed emotions of visiting Jewish sites

2011-08-24T10:48:00.003+02:00

Synagogue in Trencin, 1993. Monotype by Shirley Moskowitz (c) estate of Shirley Moskowitz

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

There usually comes a time when you visit sites of Jewish heritage in Eastern and Central Europe when the impact of the past -- the destruction wrought in the Holocaust -- breaks through and grabs you. I have experienced this often: I love looking at the synagogue buildings and admiring the architecture and recalling the richness of Jewish history and recognizing their importance to the cultural heritage of society at large and applauding the way that many by now have been restored for cultural use. Likewise when I thrill to the wonderful carving on Jewish gravestones and appreciate the creativity and aethestic verve that produced them. Still, I sometimes find myself unexpectedly choked up, even weeping.

I wrote about these contradictory feelings at length in the introduction to my book Jewish Heritage Travel.

And Rabbi Andrew Goldstein touched on this theme in the sermon he gave after our trip to Slovakia this month following the Slovak Jewish Heritage Route (which I posted HERE). That is why he and his wife, Sharon, held informal "services for synagogues" in a couple of the synagogues we visited -- notably the still semi-ruined one in Liptovsky Mikulas and the Status Quo synagogue in Trnava, now an art gallery.

Sharon Goldstein chanting in the Trnava Status Quo synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

My friend, the wonderful (and wonderfully outspoken) musician Mark Rubin experienced this several years ago when he visited the Slovak town of Trencin and saw the magnificent synagogue there -- one of the most impressive buildings in town, besides the hilltop castle.

Trencin synagogue with hilltop castle in the background. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Mark wrote a lengthy, eloquent -- and angry -- post about his feelings on his blog.

There indeed is a fine synagogue in Trencin, but there will be no shabbes here. There are no Jews here. The stark, sudden and complete realization that though this building may still stand and from the outside is beautiful and all, there are no Jews here to pray with. Not tonight, and probably never again I imagine. A wave of depression and sadness flushes over me. I mean what was I thinking? Jews must have prospered here, I mean why else would you have such a grand house of worship? Sure, as if after all the pogroms, the harassment by fascists from within and without, and then the gentle graces of the Soviets and their labor camps that there would be anyone left? These are the kind of things I see every time I head into the Eastern parts of Europe and this is just the sort of internal conversation I have with myself nearly every time. Much like a child finding out over and over again that there is no Santa Claus, I have to tell myself yet again; “Jews used to live here.”

I have to say that I have never bit hit by this feeling when in Trencin -- and the first time I was there was about 20 years ago. On the contrary, I have always regarded the magnificent synagogue there as a magnificent survivor. You can't undo the Holocaust. But in contrast to many other synagogues, the Trencin synagogue was always maintained in pretty good shape and regarded by the town as a key component of its urban core. As long as I have been going there, it has been marked with a plaque identifying it as a former synagogue -- and there has also long been a plaque commemorating the Jews of Trencin who were killed in the Holocaust: some 1,619 Jewish lived in the city in 1940, but only 326 survived the Holocaust. Also, the synagogue complex includes a small prayer room which is still used by the handful of Jews that still do live in the town.

Today, the huge sanctuary is used as the municipal art gallery. The art on display was, um, not the best. But the sanctuary has been restored and is maintained. The wonderful stained glass and the intense blue painting of the cupola have long been cared for -- but recent restoration work has uncovered polychrome decoration on the walls that had been painted over in white. It's not sure whether this is going to be recovered.

Above photos (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Slovakia -- Rabbi Andrew Goldstein on Synagogues, Memory and Future

2011-08-20T10:15:00.001+02:00

The Goldsteins and Maros Borsky in Samorin synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, who was on the recent trip in Slovakia to tour the Slovak Jewish Heritage Route, gave an eloquent sermon this week in his synagogue in London that evoked what we saw -- and raised important questions regarding surviving sites of Jewish heritage and their place, role and future. These issues have been a continuing focus of this blog, and (of course) of anyone involved in the field. In 2009, a conference in Bratislava was devoted to these issues and formulated a series of "best practices" recommendations to consider when dealing with disused or abandoned Jewish sites.

Rabbi Goldstein is the chairman of the European Union for Progressive Judaism and has spent decades traveling and teaching in east-central Europe.

SLOVAK SYNAGOGUE SERMON

What do you do with a synagogue building that becomes redundant? What do you do if the community shrinks and can no longer support a congregation or the upkeep of the building?

I wonder if our friends at Harrow and Wembley Progressive spent long searching the Talmud to see what were their options: as you know they recently sold their building to a fundamentalist Christian church and moved in with Middlesex New...Reform synagogue. A brief look at the rabbinic sources says you can sell a synagogue if you use the proceeds to build another: which lets Harrow & Wembley off the hook, or for community benefit: which was certainly the case when North London sold their building. The Talmud says you may sell a synagogue on condition that its not going to be turned into a wash-house, a tannery, a bath-house or a toilet. What about a church?

It seems as if once a month you read in the Jewish Chronicle of an English synagogue being closed as its congregation dwindles and a number have become evangelical churches and increasingly mosques. Just think of the famous Brick Lane building that started out as a church, then an ultra-Orthodox synagogue and now a mosque. And I suppose we should recall that NPLS started out by using a former Primitive Methodist church as it first synagogue. The continued use of a redundant building for religious purposes seems appropriate, but often British shuls seem to be turned into blocks of flats or office buildings: at least I have not heard of a tannery or public convenience.

Sharon and I have just returned from a fabulous tour round Slovakia as guests of the Slovak Tourist Board, arranged by our friend Maros Borsky. The idea was to take journalists along the Slovak Jewish Heritage route that Maros has developed. Photographs of which we saw displayed in our Art Gallery a few weeks ago: we visited the actual sites, along with journalists from Israel, Hungary & Italy. The Israelis were all secular, yet seemed genuinely moved by Sharon singing Psalms in the empty shuls we were taken to.

Of course Slovakia is quite different from the UK....because the vast majority of its Jewish population was wiped out in the Holocaust. And of those of who survived, most left the country after the war with its take-over by the Communists or during the brief window of opportunity during the Prague Spring. Since the end of communism the community has dwindled further and those that have stayed have tended to move to the capitol Bratislava that nowadays has the only viable Jewish community in the country.

Unlike neighbouring Poland and Austria and Ukraine, unlike Germany, very few Slovak (or Czech) synagogues were actually destroyed during the Holocaust (sadly one of the few was in Spisske Nova Ves where our Slovak Torah comes from). The Communists, however, destroyed many buildings or used them for, often quite unfitting purposes: Bingo halls, markets, store-rooms: though so far I've not discovered a tannery. The Communists also destroyed the surviving Jewish community; and for all of these reasons there are hundreds of Jewish buildings and cemeteries in places, quite often in large towns, where there is not one living Jew residing.

What is the present day Jewish community to do with this vast number of Jewish sites? It cannot preserve and look after everything. Maros Borsky has persuaded the community leaders to concentrate on just a few buildings and cemeteries of special historic or architectural merit. Places that might have a long-term future, that might give evidence of the former glory of the country's Jewish community. Then Maros came up with the idea of a Slovak Jewish Heritage Route that tourists could follow to experience this treasure trove of Jewish beauty.

This was the route Sharon and I along with the 8 professional journalists followed a week ago.

To justify our trip, we too must attempt to get published articles encouraging others to visit Slovakia and, at least, seek out a few of the buildings on the route, and soon I must get down to write a few articles, so this sermon is a first attempt. Tonight, as a theme, I will answer the question I posed at the beginning: what is a fitting use for a redundant synagogue? For a fitting use is one of Maros' criteria as well as a local body able to guarantee a long term future for the building.

The Route starts in Bratislava where Maros is concentrating in converting the woman's gallery in the only remaining synagogue into an exhibition of Judaica from the collection of the community. Downstairs the sanctuary will remain for High Holyday services, the weekly minyan more comfortable in the small "Winter" synagogue. Presov, in the far east of the country, also has a historic Judaica collection in the gallery, though there is rarely a minyan to davven in, perhaps, the most fabulously decorated of all the shuls in the country. It stands in a compound that contains 3 other former synagogues, now used as office buildings. Further east is Bardeov where a tiny shul, a stieble indeed, is preserved exactly as it was when the last Jews were deported 70 years ago. The Orthodox synagogue in Zilina is also intact, though I was saddened to hear that services don't actually take place there: on Rosh Hashanah the tiny community meet in a nearby hall and reminisce - seemingly nobody to lead even a short service. A small exhibition in the women's section is visited by local school groups, but I was interested in a showcase with a selection of Table Tennis memorabilia: once Zilina the centre of the Jewish game. Trnava has two synagogues: one once Orthodox and Neologue and both have been turned into are galleries. The former expensively repaired with the vividly painted walls & ceiling restored to their former glory. The Neologue made safe, but left to remind visitors of its neglected state, a result of the destruction of its community, a reminder of the Shoah. I'm not sure which is the better state for a redundant synagogue found a new use.

The synagogue in Nitra is used as a concert hall and Sharon and I, on a previous visit, heard a children's concert there. Upstairs is Slovakia's official Holocaust memorial exhibition, and on the stairs a collection of prints of Nitra born Shraga Weil. Perhaps a perfect combination for a beautiful building, restored and looked after by the municipality: a reminder of the fate of its past worshippers and yet regularly used for inspiring music. Please God this will be the eventual fate of the magnificent building in Liptovsky Mikulas where we had one of the most moving experiences of our tour. One of our party, David Sivor had there had his Bar mitzvah, and in the now empty sanctuary recalled the event, and Sharon sang Psalms: the acoustics perfect; for a brief moment a reminder the large community that once worshipped in that place.

The future of the Jewish community in Slovakia is uncertain but, at least, through the inspiration of Maros Borsky, they now have a splendid Heritage Route that will long tell of the glory of the former community. Many other stories I could add, especially about our visit to the cemetery in Spisske nova Ves, our Torah town, where Dr Ruzena Kormasova and her High School students continue to research the history of the town's former Jewish community and look after the cemetery. But how appropriate that I tell my story on an evening where we include in our service the blessing of a baby whose mother, if not Slovak - is Czech. Thank God our congregation is thriving: perhaps it has always been like this in Jewish history: Jewish life in one country declines, but the Jewish people and Judaism lives on in places new.

Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein

19th August 2011....19th Av 5771

Painted gravestone decoration

2011-08-19T15:02:00.002+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

During my recent trip visiting Jewish heritage sites in Slovakia, I came across some artwork that demonstrated the way Jewish gravestones were often painted in various colors to emphasize the carved ornamentation. (I have posted on this in the past, and have also posted pictures showing gravestones in Romania, Poland and Ukraine where you can still see traces of such polychrome decoration.)

The watercolor pictured above is a view of the Jewish cemetery in Ungvar (today Uzhorod, Ukraine) painted in 1930, apparently by Eugen Barkany, who assembled the wonderful collection of Judaica and other objects that formed the basis of the Jewish museum founded in Presov, in eastern Slovakia, in 1928. (At the time both Uzhorod and Presov were part of Czechoslovakia -- to see old postcards of Uzhorod, click HERE.) The painting clearly shows the polychrome decoration.

The Barkany collection is now displayed in the women's gallery of the marvelously ornate Orthodox synagogue in Presov, a stop of the Slovak Jewish Heritage route (scroll down for previous posts on this route).

Here are some other paintings of cemeteries and stones by Barkany, from 1930, on display:

Can't read it well -- but, Humenne? (near Presov)

Lwow/L'viv -- tomb of the "Golden Rose" (cemetery has been destroyed)

Michalovce

Slovakia -- Yet More from the Jewish Heritage Route: Malacky

2011-08-17T17:19:00.003+02:00

Malacky - synagogue and discount supermarket. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I've always been very fond of the spritely little synagogue in the town of Malacky, just off the highway north of Bratislava. It's a charming Moorish-style building, built for the town's Neolog (reform/conservative) Jewish community in 1886-87 and designed by Bratislava-born Wilhelm Stiassny, one the leading synagogue architects of the day in central Europe. (Stiassny also designed the Jeruzalemska st. synagogue in Prague and the synagogue in Caslav, CZ).

I visited Malacky during my five days this month following the Slovak Route of Jewish Heritage -- a project devised by my friend Maros Borsky, the leading expert on Jewish heritage in Slovakia. The author of the book Synagogue Architecture in Slovakia, Maros founded and directs the Slovak Jewish Heritage Center. You can see earlier posts on the trip HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE .

With its cream and orange striped exterior, two bulbous side domes topped with stars of David, horseshoe arches and bright blue and yellow decorative detail, the building looks wonderfully cheery but totally out of place: an exotic holdover from some prior life amid a concrete urban setting of parking lots, a supermarket (the ubiquitous discount "Lidl"), apartment blocks and other modern development.

It is a unique reminder of the destroyed community and its world: indeed, it's really the loveliest building in the town.

I was pleased to see that the local muncipality recognizes this -- we were given souvenir coffee mugs and refrigerator magnets with the synagogue's picture on it. OK, it commercializes the -- burtally destroyed -- past, but it also recognizes it....

The synagogue is now used as an art school, and the sanctuary was cut in half horizontally, to create two floors.

Still, much of the lush interior décor has been preserved in fine condition and almost intact -- though downstairs the Ark, pillars and other decoration are somewhat obscured by the school's clutter.

Malacky -- downstairs in the art school. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The upper floor, used as a concert hall, features a wonderful, ornately carved and painted wooden ceiling, as well as the top part of the ark, with its decorative motif of grape vines.

Malacky -- upstairs detail of ceiling. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Malacky -- the upper part of the Ark. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Click HERE for information about travel and tourism in Slovakia.

Slovakia -- Liptovsky Mikulas Synagogue (including video)

2011-08-14T11:28:00.007+02:00

Liptovsky Mikulas synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The magnificent neoclassical (former) synagogue in Liptovsky Mikulas, at the edge of the Tatra Mountains, was one of the highlights during my five days this month following the Slovak Route of Jewish Heritage -- a project devised by my friend Maros Borsky, the leading expert on Jewish heritage in Slovakia. The author of the book Synagogue Architecture in Slovakia, Maros founded and directs the Slovak Jewish Heritage Center. You can see earlier posts on the trip HERE and HERE and HERE .

Interior. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Built in 1846, the synagogue is now surrounded by parking lots, modern construction and a very, very few lingering old houses. The synagogue was partially restored in the 1990s for use as an exhibition hall. Only traces remain of the sumptuous interior decoration, including an elaborate Ark, designed by my architectura hero -- the prolific Hungarian synagogue architect Lipot Baumhorn, who renovated the building in 1904-1906 after it was gutted by fire. My long chapter on Baumhorn in my 1994 book Upon the Doorposts of Thy House was, I believe, the first lengthy treatment of him and his work in English -- and it still may be so, though I understand a student in Budapest is now doing her PhD on Baumhorn.

While I was researching that book, I brought my mother, the artist Shirley Moskowitz, with me on one trip. She did a series of monotype prints of Jewish heritage sites we saw -- including the Ark of the synagogue in Liptovsky Mikulas.

While in the synagogue, Rabbi Andrew Goldstein and his wife, Sharon, recited and sang prayers associated with synagogues in an informal commemorative service for the building and its community. It was a beautiful and moving experience.

Liptovsky Mikulas was the first city in then-Hungary to elect a Jewish mayor; Isaac Diner, elected in 1865, was the first of several Jews to serve in the post.

Click HERE for information about travel and tourism in Slovakia.

Slovakia -- More highlights from Slovak Jewish Heritage Route -- Presov

2011-08-13T17:44:00.003+02:00

Mezuzahs in Barkany Judaica collection. Photo: (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Here are further highlights from my five days following the Slovak Route of Jewish Heritage -- a project devised by my friend Maros Borsky, the leading expert on Jewish heritage in Slovakia. The author of the book Synagogue Architecture in Slovakia, Maros founded and directs the Slovak Jewish Heritage Center. You can see earlier posts on the trip HERE and HERE.

A major stop on the journey was the Presov, in the far east of Slovakia, the country's third largest city.

Here we visited the orthodox Jewish compound, centered on the large and sumptuous orthodox synagogue, built in 1898. It is a wonderfully ornate building -- still used by the tiny Jewish community -- that testifies to the one-time size and prosperity of the community here. The women's gallery houses the wonderful Barkany collected of Judaica that was collected for what was the first Jewish museum in the region, which opened in Presov in the 1920s. Alas, it is a branch of the State-run Museum of Jewish Culture in Bratislava and suffers the same lack of information on the objects. But what is there is really wonderful.

Exterior of Presov orthodox synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Door into sanctuary. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Presov: Ark and Ceiling. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Sanctuary. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Ceiling near Ark. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Click HERE for information about travel and tourism in Slovakia.

Slovakia - More on the Jewish Heritage Route

2011-08-12T18:45:00.003+02:00

Ceiling, Orthodox synagogue, Trnava. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I spent the past five days following the Slovak Jewish Heritage Route -- 14 or 15 sites (out of the 24 on the Route) in all parts of Slovakia, from Bratislava to Presov and back. We stayed in top hotels but for some reason I never had a good enough internet connection to post on this blog. So here are a few highlights, with more detailed posts to come.

Synagogues -- we saw all types. Some fully restored and used for various purposes, some in use as synagogues, some under restoration.

The oldest was that in Stupava, not far from Bratislava. It was built in 1803 and is one of the oldest int he country -- one of only two built in the "Polish" nine-bay style with a four-pillar bimah supporting the vauted ceiling. The one in Stupava belongs to a private citizen, Tomas Stern, a doctor and businessman who bought it for almost literally nothing and has been restoring it as a sort of hobby (for years he documented Jewish heritage sites in Slovakia).... He will be getting married there (officiated by the Bratislava rabbi) at the end of August!


Stupava interior. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

One of the most exciting moments for me was to see the newly restored Orthodox (or Small) synagogue in Trnava, north of Bratislava. The Status Quo synagogue (a wreck when I first saw it 20 years ago) was restored in the mid-1990s as a contemporary art gallery -- a restoration that was daring, in that it preserved vivid signs of the damage and devastation that the synagogue underwent during and after WW2. From the outside, it even still looks like a ruin.

Trnava, Status Quo Synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

But the Orthodox synagogue across the street remained locked and abandoned; disused and in terribly neglected shape. It has recently though been acquired by a private investor, beautifully restored (also preserving signs of damage) and opened as the private Max Gallery. There is talk now of a collaboration between the two synagogue galleries -- I hope so.

Trnava Orthodox Synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The little country synagogue in Spisske Podhradie, located in a town beneath majestic Spis castle, has been undergoing restoration for years.... But it is nearly completed. The idea is to have a small exhibit on Jewish history there and also use it as a cultural space. The setting is unique -- The town, the castle and the splendid monastery complex (Kapitula) all form a UNESCO cultural heritage site. But the town is poor and undeveloped. So far, there is little infrastructure for visitors and the site remains well of the beaten track for mainstream tourists (though we saw Polish and German cars).

Spisske Podhradie sign for synagogue with castle in background. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Spisske Podhradie synagogue street facade. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Inside nearly restored Spisske Podhradie synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Click HERE for information about travel and tourism in Slovakia.

Slovakia -- Following the Slovak Jewish Heritage Route

2011-08-07T23:31:00.001+02:00

Brooding sky over Bratislava's main square. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I arrived in Bratislava today, to spend the coming week going around the country on the Slovak Route of Jewish Heritage -- a project devised by my friend Maros Borsky, the leading expert on Jewish heritage in Slovakia. The author of the book Synagogue Architecture in Slovakia, Maros founded and directs the Slovak Jewish Heritage Center.

I have been following the evolution of the Jewish Heritage Route from its very beginning. The Route now includes about 24 sites in all parts of Slovakia -- mainly synagogues and Jewish cemeteries. Each uses a common logo and each has a uniform plaque affixed to it, and each involves a partnership with a local body, such as a municipality, or a school, or local Jewish community, or another organization -- that, as a stakeholder, will work to make sure that the site is maintained and also used for educational purposes.

I have visited most of the sites in the past (and reported on some of them in this blog as well as in Jewish Heritage Travel and other writings).

Today we saw the modernist synagogue on Heydukova street, the only functioning synagogue to survive in the city. It was built in the 1920s for the Orthodox community and designed by Artur Szalatnai-Slatinský. It is a rather stark building, with seven pillars marking the street facade. The interior has some cubist elements and very interesting interior detail, including distinctive hanging lamps and a grille around the bimah that recalls gothic construction.

Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Maros showed us the work being done in the women's section, where next year an exhibition of Bratislava Jewry will be installed.

We briefly visited the Museum of Jewish Culture, a branch of the Slovak National Museum that reopened in 2009 following the revamping of its original exhibition, which dated from 1993. Although I wish this institution well, I have to say that today's visit did nothing to dispel the disappointment I felt when I was here about a year ago. The objects are arranged with little information about their history, provenance or significance. See my post from last September by clicking HERE.

Click HERE for information about travel and tourism in Slovakia.

Poland -- Museum of the History of Polish Jewry

2011-08-05T10:09:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

During the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow last month, I spoke with Barbara Kirshenblatt Gimblett, who heads the team developing the core exhibit of the Museum of the History of Polish Jewry. The Q and A was published in The Forward.

The museum has gone through some rough patches in recent months, with the departure, under pressure, of its director, Jerzy Halbersztadt, and financial shortfalls. What can you say about the status of the institution?

First of all, one of the great strengths of the institution is that it does not depend on one person. And that is a tribute to the former director. This museum has the good fortune to have a very, very good team. And the team has rallied and is functioning in a very positive way. So I’m optimistic….

Financially, we struggle. But we have donors, led by Sigmund Rolat and Tad Taube, that have been with us and supported us for many years.

What have been the main challenges? Are you satisfied with the process and result so far?

Although I first started coming to Poland in 1981, it was not until I began working on this project that I began to realize what it means to tell the story of how Polish Jews lived — and not only how they died — here, in the very place where they created such a vibrant civilization. That story has been overshadowed, understandably, by the Holocaust.… What began as a challenge — there is no collection of objects that could support such a compelling story — turned out to be an extraordinary opportunity and lesson, so to speak, in how to bring history to life using every possible medium.

How close is the exhibition to being installed?

Our goal is to open April 2013. When he visited the museum in May, President Obama promised to bring his daughters to the opening — and we’ll hold him to it!

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/140845/#ixzz1U8jKIST1

Hungary -- Bankito turns to civic action

2011-08-01T10:08:00.001+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The annual Bankito alternative/youth Jewish culture festival on Bank lake north of Budapest takes place this week. And this year, besides music and arts, the program includes a big dose of social and civic activism -- in particular a program called "Volunticipate" forging links between Jewish and Roma (Gypsy) youth groups to help promote volunteerism and minority pride and fight prejudice. And there are a number of workshops and discussion groups on topics relating to Jewish identity, studies, etc.

Poland: New cemetery signage in Lutowiska and Starachowice

2011-07-26T19:54:00.002+02:00

Lutowiska. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I posted recently on the exemplary fashion in which Jewish heritage sites are cared for and put on local tourism and heritage itineraries in the remote village of Lutowiska in the far southeast corner of Poland.

There is even more signage point the way to the Jewish cemetery there now, thanks to the support of the Michael Traison Fund for Poland, the Community Office of Lutowiska and the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ) which erected a new information plaque and road sign.

Michael's fund, the FODZ and the Town Office of Starachowice also put up two new road signs marking the way to the local Jewish cemetery there (where I have never been).

Poland: Oswiecim, the city of Auschwitz, wrestles with whether the past must be part of its future

2011-07-26T19:03:00.000+02:00

My latest JTA story is about Oswiecim, the town outside of which Auschwitz was built.

Woman walks her baby in front of the Auschwitz Jewish Center. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

JTA, July 21, 2011

OSWIECIM, Poland (JTA) -- Can a town that exists in the shadow of death transform itself into a place of normalcy?

The question long has vexed Oswiecim, the town of 40,000 in southern Poland where the notorious Auschwitz death camp is located.

For decades, residents and city leaders have struggled to separate Oswiecim from Auschwitz and pull the town, its history and its cultural associations out from under the overwhelming black cloud of the death camp, which is now a memorial museum.

With only limited success to date, however, a new generation of town leaders is trying a different tack: bolstering Oswiecim as a vital local community, but also reaching out to connect with Auschwitz rather than disassociate from it.

"Ten or 15 years ago, many of us began thinking that the way to go was not to reject Auschwitz but to deal with it," said historian Artur Szyndler, 40, the director of research and education at the Auschwitz Jewish Center who grew up in Oswiecim under communism.

The town has adopted "City of Peace" as its official slogan. And for years a Catholic-run Dialogue and Prayer Center and a German-run International Youth Center near the camp have promoted reflection and reconciliation.

Downtown, the 10-year-old Auschwitz Jewish Center makes clear that before the Holocaust, Oswiecim had a majority Jewish population and was known widely by its Yiddish name, Oshpitzin. The center includes a Jewish museum and a functioning refurbished synagogue -- the only one in the city to survive. It runs study programs and serves as a meeting place for visiting groups.

And now the Oswiecim Life Festival, founded last year by Darek Maciborek, a nationally known radio DJ who was born and lives in Oswiecim, aims to use music and youth culture to fight anti-Semitism and racism.

"This place seems to be perfectly fitting for initiatives with a message of peace," Maciborek said. "A strong voice from this place is crucial."

The closing concert of this year's festival, held in June, included the Chasidic reggae star Matisyahu. He gave a midnight performance for a crowd of 10,000 in a rainswept stadium just a couple of miles from the notorious "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("work sets you free") gate of the death camp.

"It was an incredibly symbolic moment," Oswiecim City Council President Piotr Hertig told JTA. "It was a very important symbol that a religious Jew was performing at a festival in such a place."

Hertig said the new push to bolster Oswiecim and reach out more to the Auschwitz museum and its visitors is partly due to a generational shift in the town.

For a long time, most of Oswiecim's population consisted of thousands of newcomers from elsewhere in Poland who settled here after World War II. But today's community leaders increasingly include 30- and 40-somethings like Hertig and Maciberok who were born in Oswiecim and feel rooted here.

The town now has plans to go ahead with several projects that had been thwarted by outgoing Mayor Janusz Marszalek, who had particularly strained relations with the Auschwitz Memorial, according to Hertig. These include a new visitors' center for the memorial and a park on the riverbank just opposite Auschwitz that will be connected to the camp memorial by a foot bridge.

"This will be a very good place for people to come after visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau, where they can meditate, reflect and soothe their negative emotions," Hertig said.

Hertig said he hoped new programs and study visits developed with the Auschwitz memorial will encourage longer stays by visitors. Plans are in the works to build an upscale hotel in town and refurbish the main market square and other infrastructure.

"Auschwitz, on our outskirts, is the symbol of the greatest evil," Hertig said. "But at the same time we want to show to others that Oswiecim is a town with an 800-year history that wants to be a normal living town."

Located on the opposite side of the Sola River from the Auschwitz camp, Oswiecim has an old town center with a pleasant market square, several imposing churches, and a medieval castle and tower. In the modern part of town is a new shopping mall and state-of-the-art public library, as well as a big civic culture center that hosts a variety of events, including an annual Miss Oswiecim beauty pageant.

But few of the more than 1.2 million people who visit the Auschwitz camp each year ever set foot in Oswiecim or even know that the town exists.

"It is difficult to comprehend what it must be like to call this city your hometown," said Jody Manning, a doctoral student at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., who is writing a dissertation on life in Oswiecim and Dachau, Germany, also the site of a concentration camp.

Local residents long have resented that most outsiders make no distinction between their town and the death camp.

"People from outside are sometimes shocked. They ask how I can live in Auschwitz. But I don't -- I live in Oswiecim," said Gosia, a 30-year-old woman who works at the Catholic Dialogue Center. "This is Oswiecim, my hometown -- not Auschwitz!"

It remains to be seen whether the new push can help remove the stigma from Oswiecim and achieve a less strained modus vivendi with the death camp memorial. "People have the right to live normally, but I don't think they'll be able to disassociate from Auschwitz," said Stanislaw Krajewski, a leading Polish Jewish intellectual. "The best they can do is to use it in a constructive way; the very name Auschwitz has a magical power."

Moldova -- Video of Vadul Rascov

2011-07-26T17:35:00.000+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Simon Geissbuehler turned me on to the extremely evocative Jewish cemetery in Vadul Rascov, a rather remote village and former shtetl in Moldova.... I've never been there, but Simon loves the place and he and others who have made the trek have written about it and taken wonderful photos.

Simon sent the link to a TV video clip (in Romanian) about the place. What strikes me is not just the site itself but the relatively recent dates on the gravestones that are shown.

Ukraine -- thoughtful report on the L'viv klez fest; virtually and non-virtually Jewish

2011-07-25T10:00:00.003+02:00

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

My friend Sarah Zarrow is just wrapping up a stint of living and researching in L'viv. I have recommended her blog -- her most recent post is a thoughtful take and description -- with pictures -- of the L'viv Klez Fest, which I have never been to.

Perhaps because of demographic changes, sometimes festivals feel like a Jewish version of “add women and stir.” Take some hummus, some d minor, and some hava nagila…poof! Instant Jewish. Part of the festival is a street fair on Staroevreiska (the old Jewish street, in the oldest section of town). “Jewish” is sort of a stand-in, it seems, for old, antique, quaint. Laundry hangs from some cords, signs for LvivKlezFest hang on others.

I get fake Jewish stuff, some times. I don’t always find it pleasing, or even acceptable, but I don’t get offended; I often can see where it comes from, even if I don’t like it. And I admit a certain fondness for it, sometimes. Fiddler-esque kitsch has an appeal. What I don’t get is when Jews really buy into it. It’s like black people in blackface, and it’s not done (at least, it doesn’t look like it here) self-consciously, as burlesque….I got pretty grumpy, until I was knocked out of my snottiness by two people: Harald Binder, the President of the Board of the Center for Urban History, who made the excellent point that a vision of Jews as culture makers, party-throwers, and generally happy and friendly people would be better than the general view of Jews in L’viv now. And Zhenya reminded me that people were happy, and that happiness wasn’t a bad thing. Which I forget, even after being away from New York for two months.

The Festival seems to be quite theatrical, as attested by these clips from last year, showing a performance of a "Jewish Wedding" --