Hmm... "Ebraismo Virtuale" - virtually "Virtually Jewish?"

I've just discovered that the Israeli scholar Ariel Toaff has published a book called "Ebraismo Virtuale" -- or "Virtual Judaism."

I haven't seen the book yet, but there have been comments in the Italian media noting that he drew the title from my own "Virtually Jewish."

In "Il Sole 24 Ore," Giulio Busi wrote Sept. 14, "Unfortunately, the title of the book is copied from 'Virtually Jewish' by Ruth Ellen Gruber, and as for new ideas, there are not many."

Well, at least someone has read my book!

Toaff's book seems to be about how the memory of the Shoah holds Judaism "hostage." Toaff (accoring to Busi) apparently stigmatizes "the current state of Judaism and its image in the media on a global level."

Toaff, the son of Rome's emeritus chief rabbi, is the author of some wonderful books, including a terrific history of Jewish life in medieval Umbria. But last year he caused a huge scandal with his "Pasque di Sangue," in which he said there was evidence to back up blood libel allegations that Jews in medieval times murdered Christians.

Genealogy Trip to Lithuania Being Planned

Avotaynu's Jewish Genealogy newsletter, "Nu? What's New?" reports:


Howard Margol and Peggy Freedman are organizing their 16th annual group trip to Lithuania, June 30 to July 10, 2009. If you are interested in tracing your roots in Lithuania, Latvia, Eastern Poland close to Lithuania, or Belarus, now is the time to sign up. This year the group will be limited to 25 persons. The trip includes stops at various archives, synagogues, ghettos,
Holocaust sites, meetings with Jewish leaders, sight-seeing, guide/interpreters, and two days to visit and spend time in your shtetls of interest. Margol and Freedman are very familiar with the archives, are on a first-name basis with the archivists, and know all the main places of Jewish interest.

The trip is sponsored by the American Fund For Lithuanian-Latvian Jews, a non-profit organization, and is not a commercial venture. Any profit from the trip will go to support the Jewish community in Vilnius.

For details and a full itinerary, contact litvaktrip@gmail.com

Simchat Torah in Hermanuv Mestec, CZ

(Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber, 2006)


I have received word that on Oct. 22, Simchat Torah will be celebrated in the restored synagogue in Hermanuv Mestec, a small town in Bohemia about 60 miles east of Prague.

The even will be a joint celebration by Prague's liberal Bejt Simcha congregation and the Progressive Temple Sinai congregation from Wellington, New Zealand. Temple Sinai has a Torah scroll that comes from Hermanuv Mestec, which it received through the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust. The Trust was responsible for rescuing the collection of 1,564 Torah Scrolls and 400 Torah Binders that formed part of the "precious legacy" of ritual objects looted from more than 150 destroyed Jewish communities and collected at the Jewish Museum in Prague during the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia during World War II.

For further information on the celebration, contact Bejt Simcha: kehila@bejtsimcha.cz

Jews settled in Hermanuv Mestec in the early 16th century. At its height, in the mid-19th century, the community numbered about 840 people. Many were active in the local shoe industry. At the outset of World War II, only about 60 Jews still lived there.

The neo-Romanesque synagogue was designed by the architect Frantisek Schmoranz and built in 1870 on the site of an earlier synagogue. It stands in the remains of the old Jewish quarter on Havlickova street, near St. Bartholomew's church, a few steps away from the main market square.

According to a detailed information booklet that I picked up when I visited the synagogue a coupe of years ago, Schmoranz originally had planned a larger and more ornate building with a tower, but that design was quashed over fears by the local Catholic clergy that such a synagogue would overshadow the church.

After World War II the synagogue was used as a church and then as a warehouse -- the first time I visited, in about 1990 or 1991, the sanctuary was willed by piles of huge industrial spindles filled the sanctuary.

The building was beautifully restored a few years ago and now forms part of an art gallery complex. Inside, intricate geometric and floral patterns cover the walls; stained glass windows gleam in the windows, and the Ark, topped by the Ten Commandments, is resplendent with gilding.

(Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber, 2006)

The Jewish cemetery has more than 1,000 tombstones, oldest legible dates from 1647, is about 200 yards away, off Havlickova. Some of the older stones feature delicate carving and asymmetric shapes; others have an almost clumsy, primitive look. (It is well maintained, and a caretaker lives on the spot.)

Both the synagogue and the cemetery have been declared national cultural monuments.

Workshop to be Held on European Itinerary of Jewish Heritage

What is being billed as the First international workshop on the European itinerary of Jewish heritage is to be held in Oviedo, Spain on Nov. 4-5. The sponsor for the meeting is the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Heritage (AEJP), which coordinates the annual European Day of Jewish Culture.

Participants are to include the presidents of B'nai B'rith Europe and the European Council of Jewish Communities, the director of the European Institute of Culture Itineraries, and experts from France, Italy and Spain. Participants listed in the program include Max Polonovski from Paris, Annie Sacerdoti from Milan, Assumpcio Hosta, from Spain. It is not clear who else will be in attendance.

Topics on the agenda include "Approaches to management of cultural routes, with examples of Italy, Slovakia Czech Republic, England, France, Holland, Poland and Spain," and talks relating to the history and future of the annual European Day of Jewish Culture -- I recently wrote about some of the challenges in my article on European Culture Day in Hadassah Magazine.

One of the sessions is on "the website as a tool for promotion and working in a group" -- I hope that attention will be drawn to the regularly updated International Survey of Jewish Monuments site and the (slowly) growing Jewish Heritage Europe site -- not to mention Sam Gruber's Jewish art and monuments blog (and my own blog). Sam's blog, mailing list and ISJM site, along with my blog, are among the few web resources that attempt to keep up some sort of regular, updated track of international developments in the Jewish heritage field.

It will be interesting to see what comes of the Oviedo workshop. (And I wish that information had been released on it a bit earlier, as it might have been interesting to attend.)

Endangered Synagogues

Here's an article I wrote recently on endangered synagogue buildings, published in the Jewish Chronicle in London. (There was some trouble with the link, but I think it works now.) It's bit simplified and simplistic, but the point is clear. (And it's a point that anyone following this blog will have been aware of....)




(Ruined synagogue in Nowy Korczyn, Poland. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber)




Historic European shuls ‘falling apart’

Ruth Ellen Gruber

September 26, 2008

Time is running out to save scores of historic former synagogues in Central and Eastern Europe, a heritage foundation has warned.

"If we want to be serious about saving this heritage, we must do it now, as the synagogues are falling apart," said Monika Krawczyk, CEO of the Warsaw-based Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland.

Nearly 20 years after the fall of Communism, a question-mark still looms over the fate of scores, perhaps hundreds, of former synagogues ravaged during the Second World War.

Most were abandoned or transformed for other uses during the Communist era. While restitution returned many to Jewish ownership, others still remain public or private property.

Some have been restored and are used as museums, cultural sites and - in rare cases - as houses of worship.

But a good number still stand abandoned or in poor condition, with either insufficient funds - or interest - to restore them.

"We are doing whatever we can," Ms Krawczyk said. "The more property we get, the more critical mass, and more complaints from visitors that cemeteries are neglected. There are also more problems if we get a summons to carry out emergency repairs in many sites at once. We don't have the resources. Roofs can't be fixed with kind words and good advice."

Ms Krawczyk said gaining restitution of a property could be difficult, time-consuming and complicated.

"We have to prove even the most obvious cases," she said. "The law was enshrined in part in the spirit of helping redress the wrongs that were done. But the authorities are not living up to the spirit."

In addition, she said, the costs of repairing a synagogue, or the complications of preservation norms on historic buildings, often made local authorities reluctant to contribute.

Even synagogues that may seem protected can be at risk. Last year, one of the two historic synagogues in Joniskis, Lithuania, collapsed, even though it was listed as a historic monument.

"Proper care of these properties, often involving substantial costs, difficult planning and use issues, and demanding historical and architectural preservation concerns, have preoccupied many Jewish communities for years," said Samuel Gruber, president of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments.

"In many cases, and especially for smaller communities, the needs of these properties continue to stretch their professional and financial resources."

Protests failed to save a former synagogue in the Bosnian town of Travnik. Built in 1860 on the site of an earlier synagogue, the building was damaged during World War II and has not been used for Jewish worship since 1941.

The Bosnian Jewish community, numbering under 1,000, sold it to the city in the 1950s, and it had served as a metal workshop for decades.

Still, said those campaigning to save it, the synagogue was "one of Travnik's symbols and a testament to the centuries-old religious and ethnic diversity and life in Bosnia".

But their efforts to save it were futile, and the building was torn down a few weeks ago to make way for a new shopping centre.

British Checking Disused Jewish Cemeteries

Abandoned, disused and neglected Jewish cemeteries are not just a problem in post-communist countries and elsewhere in Europe where most Jews were murdered in the Shoah. But concern over what to do, how to do it, who should do it, and how whatever is done should be financed is a serious issue in other countries, too.

See this story from the London Jewish Chronicle on the situation in England:

From The Jewish Chronicle
Leon Symons
October 3, 2008

The Board of Deputies has begun an audit of all the cemeteries it looks after in Britain to find out who owns them and who is responsible for their upkeep. It has also launched an appeal to raise the funds needed to maintain the cemeteries, hoping to generate around £50,000.

Solicitor David Marcus, the deputy for Muswell Hill, has begun researching Land Registry and other records to try to find out who owns the cemeteries, some of which are centuries old.

"The Board has accepted responsibility for cemeteries around the country, virtually all of which are now out of use," Mr Marcus explained. Some have title deeds in the name of Board honorary officers who have died, while others are in the name of the local community, or with the local authority.

"We want to start a new company and place in it all the cemeteries and any others that become its responsibility, so they are outside the Board. For example, a number are mentioned on the Jewish Heritage website, some of which are at risk, that we know nothing about and are not part of the Board's group. The problem is: Who will look after them?"

Read Full Story

LA Jewish Journal Story on Czech Jewish Heritage

(Inside the Boskovice synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber, 2004)


The Los Angeles Jewish Journal runs a nice travel feature by Jay Firestone on Jewish heritage in the Czech Republic. I have covered all the material in my own writing -- and all the sites mentioned are covered, in more detail, in Jewish Heritage Travel. On this blog I have also posted a lot more information on many more Czech sites.

Still, it's great to see an article that goes beyond Prague and takes in some of the the wonderful little towns in Moravia, such as Boskovice, Trebic, and Telc -- though it's too bad that Mikulov wasn't mentioned, as it is one of the most important site of Jewish heritage in the country.




October 1, 2008

Czech Republic surprises with Jewish treasures

By Jay Firestone


A tight budget, an embarrassing exchange rate and exponentially expensive flights -- it's a tough time to be an American, and an even tougher time to be an American traveler. But it's still possible to enjoy a first-rate European experience while keeping travel costs reasonable.

The Czech Republic's strong cultural balance between bustling urban life and calm rural communities features a wide variety of tourism options, from breweries to castles to Jewish ghettos. Major cities like Prague and Pilsen are ripe with history at nearly every corner, and Jewish tours offer everything from the construction of the second-largest synagogue in Europe to the creation of the mythical Golem.

Click to Read Full Story

Contemporary Art Project Memorializes Shoah Victims in Prague

From Czech Radio comes a story about a new public art and memorial project in Prague's historic Jewish quarter. It is part of a "Stones of the Vanished" or "Stumbling Stones" project that originated in Germany and has seen similar monuments projects in a number of cities, most of them in Germany. According to the web site, after Prague an installation is also slated for another Czech town, Kolin.


Holocaust victims remembered by new ‘Stones of the Vanished’ project


By Rosie Johnston

If you stumble across a little brass plaque on a walk in Prague’s Old Town next week, then the chances are it is going to be a ‘kámen zmizelého’ (‘stone of the vanished’). The project, organized by the Czech Union of Jewish Students, will eventually see stones commemorating victims of the Holocaust embedded in pavements all over the capital. The idea comes from Germany, as does the man making the memorials, Gunter Demnig. But the project coordinator at the Czech end is Petr Mandl.

I met him on Wednesday morning to ask first about the name of the project:

“I would translate it as ‘The Stones of the Vanished’, the original name is ‘Stolpersteine’ in German, which means rather ‘stumbling stones’, but it is very hard to translate, and the meaning of the project is a bit different in the Czech Republic.”

So is this part of a European network of ‘Stolpersteine’ then? How big is the scale of this Czech project?

“So of course, we wanted Prague to be part of this international project – as you know, it has already been done in many other European countries. And now in Prague we are unveiling our first ten stones, and we want the project to enlarge by around 30 stones per year.”

And I hear that you are actually going to have to look quite hard to find these stones - that they are not going to be all that evident at first glance…

“One of the ideas of the project is to personify the historical event that was the Shoah, the Holocaust. We want to reflect the stories of people who were murdered in its course. So of course, the stones can’t be massive and all down the pavements, on every corner.”

So, if you were going to hunting for these stones, where would you find the first ten?

“Well, the first stones will be put in the Old Town, in the Jewish Quarter, where many Jewish people lived. But in the future, the majority of Jewish people in Prague lived in Vinohrady, and so there will be many stones there as well.”
Photo: www.stolpersteine.comWho is funding this project?

“It is funded by private sponsors and donors, and also those people who want to dedicate a stone to their family share the cost.”

The project is being unveiled later this month, so there aren’t yet any stones in place, but what will they look like, for those who maybe won’t get to Prague, and maybe won’t get tot see them?

“The stones are concrete cubes around 10cm each, or four inches if you want to be metric about it, and then there is a sheet of brass on top with writing. The writing reads ‘here lived – the name of a person, the date of birth, the date of transport, where that person was deported and the place and date of that person’s murder’.”

Worrying News about Wooden Synagogue in Lithuania

In his Jewish Art & Monuments blog, Sam Gruber has published worrying news about the deteriorating condition of the former wooden synagogue in Pakruojis, Lithuania.

The synagogue -- one of the most impressive of the dozen or so surviving wooden synagogues in Lithuania -- was already in bad shape when I visited there in 2006. Sam has posted a slide show of pictures I took at the time.

The synagogue dates from the very early 19th century and is the oldest surviving wooden synagogue in Lithuania. Old pictures show that it once had an ornate interior, with a richly carved Ark and central bimah. The walls and ceiling bore colorful paintings. including one of a locomotive pulling a train. Painted fruit trees, storks, and flowers decorated the ceiling. One painting depicted the messianic image of the Leviathan swallowing its tail; its curved body surrounded a rendition of a t house with potted shrubs out front and three smoking chimneys. The synagogue is still recognizable by its double-mansard roof, but it was used as a cinema and sports hall in the 1950s. When I saw it, the windows were boarded up, the walls were sagging and outer planking had buckled in some places.

Recently, wooden planking as been removed from one wall and, as Sergey Kravstov of the Center for Jewish Art notes, “there are other severe problems, mainly the danger of fire, since the structure is abandoned, and is being frequently visited by homeless.” (Sergey's virtual reconstruction of the synagogue can be seen on the Center for Jewish Art web site HERE.)

These wooden synagogues are remarkable survivors -- I would say some of the most precious Jewish heritage sites in Europe. They are all that is left to remind us of the phenomenally ornate wooden synagogues, dating back centuries, that were destroyed by the Nazis.

The artist Murray Zimiles has created an unforgettable series of works based on the destruction of these synagogues.

Jewish Genealogy Blog

Here's another resource for family historians -- the Tracing the Tribe Jewish genealogy blog, by Schelly Talalay Dardashti. Schlley writes: "I have tracked my family history through Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Spain, Iran and other countries. My articles about genealogy have been widely published in the Jewish media. In addition to writing, I speak at Jewish and general gen conferences and societies and also teach online Jewish genealogy at Genclass www.genclass.com. I'm past president of the five-branched JFRA Israel, a Jewish genealogical association, and a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists."

I've added a link to this blog on my Blogs to Watch list.