Jewish Culture Day in Turkey

The European Day of Jewish Culture took place Sept. 7, and reports are coming in about how events were celebrated around the continent. Turnout appears to have been high in many places.

The Turkish Daily News reports from Istanbul:

Tünel's music store-lined streets are rarely quiet. But walking through the area Sunday, one could hear some very unfamiliar sounds, from a klezmer, to a maftirim choir, to Hebrew love poetry for the land of Israel.This was less an invasion than a return. For this year's European Day of Jewish Culture, a celebration of Jewish traditions held in cities across Europe, became for Istanbul's Jews a re-creation of a time when they were a vital, even dominant, part of the area, and when it would not have been unusual in the Galata area to be guided from synagogue to synagogue by Hebrew chants.

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New Jewish Museum in Moscow?

According to Ha'aretz, "the world's largest Jewish museum" is to be built in Moscow. Construction is to begin in 2009 and be completed by 2011...

The building apparently is already there, renovated last year and already serving as a museum (after an early history as a bus depot.)

According to the article, "The German architectural firm Graft Labs will be in charge of renovation and expansion, and international design company Ralph Appelbaum Associates will head design. The building, which spans 9,000 square meters, will be enlarged by adding underground floors covering 15,000 square meters, making it the largest Jewish museum in the world."

Having following the slow and complex process of creating a Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw over the past 10 years and more, It all sounds pretty quick -- I wonder who is curating the exhibitions, which are supposed to "commemorate Russian-Jewish history and include galleries of Jewish art and Judaica. Another section will commemorate the Holocaust. Plans include the construction of a large library, a center for Judaic studies and conference rooms."

Funding is coming from the Russian Cultural Foundation, the Moscow Jewish community and Jewish philanthropists headed by the incredibly weathly businessman Lev Leviev.

More on Jewish Heritage in Poland

A new post on Sam Gruber's Jewish monuments blog reminds me that I forgot to point out in my previous post the first comprehensive inventory of Jewish heritage sites in Poland that Sam oversaw in the mid-1990s for the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad.

Jan Jagielski, who will be speaking on Jewish cemeteries at the conference next week in Zdunska Wola, and Lena Bergman, now director of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, directed and coordinated that survey, which was carried out through visits by about 40 researchers to nearly 1200 sites around the country.

I first met Jan when I lived in Warsaw in the early 1980s -- I was the correspondent then for United Press International. I got to know him as part of the so-called "Jewish Flying University," a semi-clandestine group of young Jews and non-Jews who were trying to teach themselves everything they could about Jewish culture, religion, traditions and even memory: things that essentially were taboo during most of the Communist era.

Conference of Poles who Preserve Jewish Heritage

(Momument at Jewish cemetery, Kazimierz Dolny, 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber)


The first national conference of (non-Jewish) Poles who care for Jewish heritage sites in Poland takes place next week -- Sept. 15-16 -- in the small town of Zdunska Wola, near Lodz in central Poland.

Supported by state and local authorities, the conference came about thanks to the local activist Kamila Klauzinska, one of scores of non-Jewish Polish volunteers who have been honored by the Israeli Embassy over the past decade for their work in preserving Jewish heritage in Poland. (Klauszinska is a graduate student in Jewish studies at Krakow's Jagiellonian University. You can email her at kamila.klauzinska@poczta.onet.pl.)

The conference is organized in association with the Yachad Historical Society, a group dedicated to the preservation of Zdunska Wola's Jewish history and heritage sites, and is dedicated to the memory of Ireneusz Slipek, who until his death in 2006 spent 20 years caring for and cleaning up the Jewish cemetery in his hometown, Warta.

The New York-based filmmaker, Menachem Daum -- director of the wonderful "Hiding and Seeking" -- told me that Slipek was "a former priest who single-handedly took care of the Jewish cemetery in his hometown of Warta.  He began his work in 1984 during the Communist regime and for many years had to overcome much opposition from local authorities and neighbors.  His surviving brother made available to me years of his home movies, videos and photos in which we see Ireneusz toiling to repair broken tombstones and literally sweating to return them to their original locations.  Kamila was inspired to undertake her own work by the example of Ireneusz who quietly worked on the cemetery every day, even on the day he died ... . Although he was never much appreciated during his lifetime, through her conference Kamila hopes Ireneusz’s example will inspire others just as he inspired her. "

The American lawyer Michael Traison (whom I met in 1995 at ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz) a decade ago instituted an annual ceremony to honor non-Jewish Poles who are involved in various projects related to the preservation of Jewish culture heritage in Poland. The awards are presented each year during the Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow by the Israeli Ambassador to Poland. Scores of people, mostly volunteers and mostly from small, far-flung towns, have been honored for activities ranging from cleaning up Jewish cemeteries to running Jewish museums to carrying out school project on Jewish history and memory.


(Israeli Ambassador David Peleg presents an award during the ceremony in 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber.)


As Yachad states, it is "a great honor for those who were awarded with diplomas. Some of them, for the first time, could feel that their work and devotion were noticed by such eminent people and institutions, although none of the volunteers did his work for diplomas, awards or ovation. Prof. Szewach Weiss (the former Israeli ambassador) called those who, on their own initiative, put a great effort in saving Jewish heritage – the third generation of the Righteous among the Nations. This is the greatest distinction that could be given to us, modest people from little towns. We would never dare to call ourselves this way. This title can be given only for the bravest, only for large-hearted men."

Organizers of the Zdunska Wola conference hope to hold such a conference every two years to connect people and enables them to exchanges experiences and information.

Funding comes from the Ford Foundation, the Taube Foundation, the Batory Foundation and the city of Zdunska Wola, and support comes from state and local authorities.

At next week's conference, local volunteers from various towns will describe their experiences. Various dignitaries are also expected to attend, including Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and government minister Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, an aide to the Polish president. Jan Jagielski, of the Jewish Historical Institute and one of the pioneers of documenting Jewish heritage sites in Poland, will give a talk on Jewish cemeteries.

Here's the program:


PROGRAM of the CONFERENCE:

15 SEPTEMBER 2008

10:00 – registration
11:00 – opening of the conference, speeches by guests
12:00 – film „Elder brothers” about Ireneusz Slipek, volunteer caretaker of the Jewish cemetery in Warta
12:20 – meeting with Józef Ślipek, Ireneusz’s brother. Presentation of the works done  at the Jewish cemetery in Warta

12:24 – lecture by Jan Jagielski - "Our Jewish cemeteries"

After the lecture volunteers from all Poland will present themselves:

1.Tamara Włodarczyk - Klodzko
2. Agnieszka Piśkiewicz - Szczekociny
3. Grzegorz Kamiński - Toszek, Wielowies

(summary, discussion), (coffee break)

4. Dariusz Walerjański - Zabrze
5.Marcin Dudek - Barcin, Pikosc
6. Artur Cyruk - ATLANTYDA

(summary, discussion), (coffee break)

6. Szymon Modrzejewski - MAGURYCZ
7. Agnieszka Ilwicka - Dzierzoniow
8. Michał i Adam Lorenc - SPOTKANIE RYMANOW

(summary, discussion),
18:00 - solemn supper

16 SEPTEMBER 2008

Beginning at 9:00

1. Elżbieta Bartsch/Kamila Klauzińska - YACHAD
3. Paweł Turlejski - Minsk Mazowiecki
The end of presentations of individuals and associations
4. Prof. Aleks Bartnik
5. Albert Stankowski
6. Rabbinical Commission for the Jewish cemeteries
7. Summary, discussion and official ending of the conference
8. Opening of the exhibition MEMORY KEEPERS prepared by students from YACHAD - at 6 Sieradzka Street
9. Visit at the Jewish cemetery in Zdunska Wola

European Day of Jewish Culture -- Italy

European Day of Jewish Culture events took place in more than 55 towns and cities in Italy, and there were hundreds of activities to choose from. The Day was marked Sunday in more than a score of European countries. (Here's a link to events in Bulgaria.)

In Italy, Milan and Mantova hosted the "keynote" events.

I chose to go to Siena, where I attended a concert Saturday night in the lovely Baroque/Rococo synagogue just off the famous Campo. The music was special -- it was the suite of Baroque music (for male singers and chamber orchestra) that was composed by the Jewish musicians Volunio Gallichi and Francesco Drei, for the ceremony inaugurating the synagogue at the end of May 1786. This was the first time that the music was played in the synagogue since then. Very, very interesting; it sounded like Handel, or someone like Handel in his "Water Music" or "Royal Fireworks" mode, sung in Hebrew -- very far from what is considered today "typical" Jewish music like klezmer and mournful prayers. The performers were Siena's Rinaldo Franci orchestra, directed by Michele Manganelli.



My friend Francesco Spagnolo, an Italian musicologist who is now research director at the Magnes Museum in San Francisco, introduced the performance with a talk describing the music and the role it played in the dedication ceremonies, which took place over several days. Using such music, he said, represented an act of modernity at the time of the Enlightenment, just as Jewish were about to gain civil liberties. As part of the inauguration ceremonies, specially written Hebrew poems were recited and, on May 27, processions from two older synagogues in the Siena ghetto wended their way to the new synagogue, chanting and bearing Torah scrolls.

Italian speakers can read an article Francesco wrote about Jewish music in Italy, including the music played in Siena, by clicking HERE.

Yet More on Travnik Synagogue

Jakob Finci, the head of the Jewish community in Bosnia, confirmed that the synagogue in Travnik demolished last week to make way for a shopping center was NOT the 18th century Kalkados synagogue, which already had been destroyed in 1860, but another built in 1860 to replace it. Last used for worship in 1941 and damaged during World War II, it had been sold to the town in the 1950s by the Bosnian Jewish community. Stripped of any indication of its former use, it was used as a metal workshop for decades. In late August, news of the impending demolition sparked an ultimately unsuccessful local campaign to save the building, as a reminder of Bosnia's historic multi-cultural heritage. Many of those who protested the demolition identfied the building as the historic 18th century synagogue.

Here is a piece by Ivan Ceresnjes detailing the history of Travnik Jews and Jewish monuments:

"A Jewish community has existed in Travnik, Muslim Croat Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, since 1768, and the first synagogue was built in 1769. During the period of the Ottoman Empire, Travnik was the seat of the Pasha, making Travnik the most important city in the Ottoman province of Bosnia and its Jewish community the second in importance, after Sarajevo. The number of Jews increased constantly, and reached a peak in 1940 of 375 Jews. After WWII only a few Jewish families resettled in Travnik and the recent war delivered the final deathblow to the Jewish community.

"I was not able to enter the synagogue, built in 1860 on the foundations of the previous synagogue and therefore the building is only partially documented. The communal chronicles say that the synagogue was built entirely by voluntary work of members of the community between Pesach and Rosh Hashana.

"Travnik is in a way strange City when Jews are in question: during the WW II Jews were killed, synagogue was damaged (but not destroyed) and all ritual objects all were taken by the local Croatian and Moslem Nazi-collaborators to the nearby Jesuit monastery. After the war only a handful of survivors returned, and since the synagogue was not suitable for prayers Jesuits returned everything to the Jewish community in Sarajevo.
In the spring of 1941, local fascists partially burned and looted the building, took the ritual objects (Torah scrolls, silver items from synagogue, books, tefillim, tallitot) from the synagogue and gave them to the local Jesuits. After the war, the Jesuits returned the Torah and ritual objects to the Jewish community in Sarajevo which in turn donated part of the collection to the Jewish museum in Belgrade.

"The synagogue was stripped of everything that would indicate its former use. The hall has been divided horizontally on the level of the former women’s gallery, whose entrance was from the outside. Behind the synagogue is a building which housed a Jewish school and the Rabbi’s apartment.

"So, truth is that the building has been sold by the Federation in early '50, (there were good reasons for that and I can elaborate on that), used for some time as a kind of metal workshop and was abandoned before the last war so the Jewish Community had no legal rights on the building but the truth is also that Municipality of Travnik and local City Museum asked more than once if Jews are interested to find together with them some solution for the survival of the only Jewish prayer-house in the city for any kind of cultural use.

"In the City Museum are four recently discovered silver artifacts, thought to be from the house of one of the oldest Jewish families of Travnik. Researchers documented two silver Esther Scroll cases, a silver book cover belonging to the family of Yaacov Yeruham Konforti, and a silver belt. The cache was found while digging the foundations of a new house in 1989. It was presumably hidden and buried at the site of Konforti’s house.

"One of the Esther Scrolls is engraved with Konforti’s name and the date 5650 (1890). There is also an engraved floral decoration and a hallmark indicating that this was made by the same artisan who made the prayer book cover.

"The second Esther Scroll is silver, machine stamped and chased. A cartouche decorating the scroll has a decorative monogram with the letters JK, probably Jacob or Jeruham Konforti.

"The silver book cover is engraved with an open work interlaced foliage motif. On the front cover there is an oval medallion inscribed with the family name and the date 5650. The back cover is identical to the front including the oval, but without the inscription. Both the engraving and the cutting for the open work are done by machine.

"The fourth item that was found in the cache is a silver belt made with a floral motif.

"The Jewish cemetery in Travnik, founded in 1762, is outside of the town on the slope of one of the surrounding hills, bordering the Catholic cemetery. It is large, quite overgrown with vegetation, but in decent condition. In the center of the plot is a monument to those who perished in WWII. It is a concrete pedestal on which are positioned three tombstones, possibly among the oldest ones from the cemetery. "

More on Travnik Synagogue

I have received word that the synagogue I mentioned in Travnik has indeed been demolished. Both my correspondent and local news reports describe it as the old Kalkados synagogue, which was built in 1768 -- but which information supplied to www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu by Ivan Ceresnjes and others says was already demolished in 1860 and replaced by the synagogue that was used as a metal workshop after World War II. The photograph I linked to in an earlier post clearly shows the newer synagogue -- as do photos in local media. I am trying to clarify this.

My Article on the European Day of Jewish Culture

Hadassah Magazine runs an article I wrote on the European Day of Jewish Culture in its current edition. You can read it online -- click HERE, then click on current issue, then scroll down.

Former Bosnian Synagogue Threatened?

There's been a bit in the news (in Bosnia) about plans to tear down the former "Kalkados" (or New) synagogue in the town of Travnik and construct there a shopping center. Built in 1860, the synagogue has been used as a metal workshop since after World War II. According to pictures I've seen, doesn't retain the outward (at least) look of a synagogue.

(You can see a photo of it as part of an extensive photo documentation of Jewish sites in the former Yugoslavia, posted on the web site of the Jewish community of Zemun, Serbia.)

There has been a call made to halt the demolition -- I saw a report that a citizens' group called "Front" had called on Bosnian authorities to step in. A brief report by Bosnia's FENA news agency quotes a member of the Sarajevo Jewish community, Eli Tauber, as saying that the Community can do nothing to stop the process as the building had been sold off after World War II.

Singer Festival in Warsaw Sept. 6-14

The fifth annual Singer's Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture takes place Sept. 6-14. The program is a rich mix of performance, workshops, book presentations and lectures -- most of which, however, seem to be in Polish.

Music stars this year include the Klezmatics, Yale Strom, and Chava Alberstein.

The Festival (which coincides with the European Day of Jewish Culture, Sept. 7) includes various open air events and a street fair that takes place in and around Prozna Street, the semi-ruined block in downtown Warsaw that is just about the only piece of the Warsaw ghetto area to have survived World War II. There have been ongoing debates for years about what to do with Prozna; whether and to preserve it, whether it should form the center of a Jewish life museum, etc.

I was encouraged to see that there is now an upscale little cafe and gallery functioning in Prozna, as well as a couple of other businesses. For the festival, many of the bricked-up windows have been covered with pictures of pre-war Jews.

The Singer festival is sponsored by the Shalom Foundation, headed by the Lodz-born Yiddish singer Golda Tencer. Tencer's husband, Szymon Szurmiej, directs Warsaw's State Jewish Theater. The Festival this year includes celebrations for his 85th birthday. Shalom supports many Yiddish-language oriented projects, including a web site called yiddishland.pl