Poland -- Shabbat in Rymanow and other festivals

I have added some new festivals to the growing list of Jewish festivals in Europe. They include a Shabbat in Rymanow festival this coming weekend, August 12-14.

It is part religious observance and part culture festival, with concerts, lectures and even food and wine tastings.

PROGRAM

THURSDAY, AUGUST12, 2010

10.00-10.45 Workshops at the Jewish cemetery in Rymanow – Explanation of
function of cemetery and symbolism of headstones and graves. Remembrance of
famous Tzadikim from Rymanow.
11.00-11-45 Ecumenical prayers at the Jewish cemetery.
12.15-12.30 Remembering those who gave their lives to save the Jews of
Rymanow – Catholic cemetery in Rymanow.
12.30-15-00 POLIN film screening with the participation of the director Jolanta
Dylewska. Next, fragments of a pre-war film from Rymanow.
(at big hall, Jas Wedrowniczek – free entry)
16.00 – 18.00 Culinary workshops ( Jewish kitchen at the Rymanow Rynek )
This will be led by a daughter if a Rymanow native, Malka Sacham Doron.
There will also be an exhibit of traditional Jewish dishes.
16.00-17.30 Historic trail of Rymanow properties. A walking tour of the long gone
Rymanow with participation of former Jewish residents. It will be
conducted in English and Polish, starting in the parking lot at the Rynek.
19.00-21.00 Artistic performance "Musical Stories of Chassidim" A dramatic
musical spectacle, which retells the story of Menachem Mendle the great
Tzadik of Rymanow, with Chassidic dancing. Performed by Mendy Cahan from
Israel accompanied by Olga Mieleszczuk.
Big hall – Jaś Wędrowniczek
Tickets -- 10zl. for purchase in the hotel.
21.30 – Rymanow encounter with Hungarian wine – tasting of wine from the
Tokay district, with the participation of members from the Portius and
Krosno district.

FRIDAY, AUGUST13, 2010

10.00-11.00 workshop in Yiddish language and singing of Niggunim. Melodies
without words – Mendy Cahan and Olga Mieleszczuk.
Big hall – Jas Wiedrowniczek
12.00-13.45 March of Remembrance, from Rynek to Wróblik Szlachecki.
Tracing the final walk of the Rymanow ghetto,
Prayer of Kaddish in Wroblik.
Starts at Monument of Victims of Totalitarianism at the Rynek.
15.30-16.30 Monodram " We Also need a Miracle "
Big Hall – Jas Wedrowniczek, free entrance
19.00 – 19.30 Singing of Nigunim in front of Synagogue
19.40 – 21.00 Kabbalat Shabbat and greeting the Shabbat at the Synagogue,
Services will be conducted by Rymanow native Moshe Barth.
21.30 – Shabbat in Rymanow, Festive Shabbat dinner for all participants.
Hotel Bogmar in Rymanow

SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2010

8.30-11.30 Prayers at the Synagogue
13 .30-15.00 Historic trail of Rymanow properties. A walking
tour of the long Rymanow with the participation of former Jewish residents.
It will be conducted in English and Polish, starting in the parking lot at
the Rynek.
19.30 – 20.30 Havdallah, saying goodbye to the Sabbath.

Berlin - Major Conference on Jewish Cultural Treasures in Europe after the Holocaust

A major conference on Jewish Cultural Treasures in Europe after the Holocaust will take place at the Jewish Museum in Berlin on Jan. 24-25. The conference comes at the conclusion of the exhibition "Looting and Restitution. Jewish Owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the Present," which has been running at the museum since September.

The conference topics look fascinating and important, and I wish I could go, but logistics (and finances) will probably not permit me...

More information about the exhibition and the conference can be found at the Jewish museum web site.

Meanwhile, here is the program:

Saturday, 24. January 2009

PANEL I: CONFRONTING LOOTING AND DESTRUCTION: NEW STRATEGIES
10.00 Introduction
Inka Bertz, Jewish Museum Berlin

10.30 Reconstructing Jewish Cultural Landscapes - The »Tentative Lists«
Project 1944-1948
Elisabeth Gallas, Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at
Leipzig University

11.15 Hashavat Avedah: JCR, Inc. and the Rescue of Heirless Jewish Cultural
Property After WW II
Dana Herman, Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives,
Cincinnati

PANEL II: GERMANY AND AUSTRIA
13.30 To Whom Do the Jewish Cultural Treasures Belong after 1945? Conflict
of Interests in the City of Frankfurt am Main
Katharina Rauschenberger, Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main

14.15 The Situation in Berlin 1945-1953
N.N.

15.00 Displaced on Three Continents. The Fate of the Material Heritage of
the Jewish Community in Vienna
Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Jewish Museum Wien

PANEL III: EAST CENTRAL EUROPE I
16.15 What Happened in Prague?
Michaela Sidenberg, Jewish Museum in Prague

17.00 Dealing with the Jewish Cultural Assets in Post-War Poland
Nawojka Cieslinska-Lobkowicz, Art Historian and Provenance Researcher,
Warsaw/Munich

17.45 The Jewish Historical Institute as a Repository for Jewish Cultural
Treasures in Poland
N. N.

Sunday, 25. January 2009

PANEL IV: WESTERN EUROPE
10.00 A Matter of Conscience? Legal and Moral Aspects of Dutch Restitution
Policy
Julie Marthe Cohen, Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam

10.45 The Fate of Jewish-Owned Cultural Treasures in Paris and in France
Laurence Sigal, Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme, Paris

11.30 Looted Jewish Art and Cultural Properties in Italy. The Difficult
Restitution and Compensation after 1945
Paola Bertilotti, Sciences-Po, Paris / Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et
Sciences Humaines, Lyon

PANEL V: EAST CENTRAL EUROPE II
13.45 Lviv 1944 - Now. Jewish Cultural Objects and Property. Some Cases and
Tendencies
Tarik Cyril Amar, Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, Lviv

14.30 Restitution Issues in Post-War Romania
Hildrun Glass, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

15.15 »Disappeared?« The Fate of Jewish-Owned Cultural Artifacts in Hungary
after 1945
Eszter Gantner, ELTE University of Budapest - Center for Central European
German Jewish Culture

16.00 Final discussion: Open Questions, Ongoing Controversies

Poland/Belarus -- Seminar on Jewish heritage preservation

Catching up on some backlog, I have learned about a seminar on Jewish heritage preservation in Poland and Belarus that took place recently at the Borderland Foundation in Sejny, northern Poland.

The seminar was a part of a project called “Polish-Byelorussian summer school for culture animators. Transfer of experience concerning protection of Jewish heritage”, which is financed from a program “Przemiany w Regionie-RITA” launched by Fundacja Edukacji dla Demokracji (Education for Democracy Foundation). “Holocaust” Foundation from Mińsk and “Ośrodek Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN” (The "Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre) from Lublin were partners in the project’s implementation.

Belarus -- Brest Jewish Museum?

The web site of the Federation of the Jewish Communities of the CIS reports thata campaign is under way to establish a Jewish section in the municipal museum in Brest, Belarus.

BREST, Belarus – In the Belarus city of Brest, the Jewish community association “Brisk” has begun undertaking a campaign for establishing a Jewish section in the municipal museum. The first initiatives to be taken are the collection of materials and items to display once this section has been created.

Towards this end, Boris Bruk, the Chairman of the Jewish community of Brest, is leading the establishment of a special council to close manage the collection and accumulation of materials on the life and development of the local Jewish community, including its foundation and distant past.

According to Boris Bruk, the collection for the future museum exhibition is already starting to come together. These materials include pieces from the traveling exhibition “The Jews of Brest”, which was previously organized by Arkady Blyaher, the local representative of the ‘Holocaust’ Center.

The Jewish community of Brest appeals to the public for assistance from anyone who may have access to or provide assistance with regards to collecting materials for the museum, and expresses its gratitude in advance to anyone able to aid in this matter. Boris Bruk is reachable via mobile telephone at +375 (29) 635-51-53 or via e-mail at hesed@brest.by

The Jewish community of Brest is a full and active member of the Association of Jewish Communities of Belarus and, as such, of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS and Baltic Countries.

Italy -- Synagogue in Sabbioneta to Reopen after Restoration

The charming little synagogue in Sabbioneta, near Mantova in northern Italy, will reopen next month after a year-long restoration process. The re-opening is timed to coincide with this year's European Day of Jewish Culture, which takes place Sept. 5.

Sabbioneta was built in the 16th century by Vespasiano Gonzaga and laid out as an ideal Renaissance city. The synagogue that stands was built much later -- in 1824 -- to a design by Carlo Visioli on the site of a much older Synagogue

Ukraine -- Zhovkva

Under the arcade on Zhovkva's main square. You can see where a mezuzah was affixed. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

As reported earlier on this blog, I visited Zhovkva, near L'viv, in November, after attending the conference on Jewish history and heritage.

Here's a link to my article about Zhovkva -- including more than the synagogue -- published in the International Herald Tribune.

FOR A FORTRESS TOWN, A SECOND RENAISSANCE

By Ruth Ellen Gruber
Jan. 12, 2009

ZHOVKVA, UKRAINE -- In Renaissance Italy, artists and master architects theorized that the ideal proportions for a city could be derived from those of the human form. Some even made drawings superimposing town plans onto the bodies of men.

Half a millennium later, Lubomyr Kravets, the director of the tourist office in the little town of Zhovkva, just north of L'viv, unfolded a local map to show me how that theory had been put into practice here in western Ukraine.

"See" he said, pointing. "Zhovkva looks like a human body. The castle here is the head, and the big church over this way is the heart. The four entrance gates in the town walls were the arms and legs."

Zhovkva was founded in 1594 as a private fortress town by the Polish military commander Stanislaw Zolkiewski. It was one of several fortified towns in what was then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that were conceived as "ideal cities" and built by architects and master masons from Italy.

Read Full Article

Ukraine -- Jewish Cemetery Photos from Trix Rosen

Jewish cemetery, Cernivtsi, Ukraine. July 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The American photographer Trix Rosen used my book Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe to chart a recent trip through Ukraine. She and a friend visited Chernivtsi, Sadhora, Kremenets, Sataniv, and Sharhorod as well as the pilgrimage tombs in Uman and Medzhybizh.

She has posted an essay about her trip and some of the photographs she took on her web site -- click HERE to view.

I've posted some of my own photos from Bolekhiv and elsewhere in Ukraine on this blog, and you can see more of my photographs from Ukraine in the photo section of my web site -- click HERE. (Photos from elsewhere can be accessed through the mail "Photos" page.)

Poland -- Jewish Presence vs Presence of Jews

My latest Ruthless Cosmopolitan column for JTA again explores the situation in Poland, where the intensity of the Jewish presence dwarfs the number of Jews who actually lives in the country.

In Poland, Shabbatons for non-Jews to combat anti-Semitism

By Ruth Ellen Gruber · August 2, 2010

PIOTRKOW TRYBUNALSKI, Poland (JTA) -- Whenever I visit Poland, I'm struck by how the intensity of the Jewish presence dwarfs the tiny number of Jews who actually live in the country. Even with the resurgence of Jewish life since the fall of communism, organized Jewish communities exist in fewer than a dozen Polish cities, and only the Warsaw community numbers much more than a few hundred people.

Yet each year sees hundreds of Jewish-themed festivals, conferences, educational projects, commemorative activities, publications and other initiatives throughout the country.

"I often joke that the mayor of every small town now feels obliged to make excuses if he or she has no Jewish festival," said Anna Dodziuk, a Jewish activist in Warsaw. Dodziuk published a book this year on Poland's largest and most famous Jewish festival, the nine-day Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow, which has been going strong since 1988. "To put it in short," she said, "it is politically correct now to explore the Jewish history of the local communities, to commemorate Jews of a shtetl who perished in Holocaust, to celebrate somehow Jewish culture."

The activities are meant to educate and memorialize, but they coincide with a Jewish presence that is glaringly visible in more negative contexts, too, and this is also part of the paradox.
Anti-Semitic graffiti is shockingly widespread. Spray-painted Stars of David hanging from gallows deface countless walls.

Much of this, however, likely has little to do with actual Jews. The ugly scrawls are the work of soccer fans who may have no idea what Judaism is but have adopted Jewish symbols as pejoratives with which to bash their opponents.

Meanwhile, figurines of Orthodox Jews clutching coins fill souvenir stalls in Warsaw, Krakow and some other cities. The imagery harks back to the stereotype of Jews as greedy moneylenders, but the figurines are marketed today as abstract good-luck talismans.

"When a member of the city council from a Polish town came to visit me in the States not long ago, he brought a present," said Michael Traison, an American Jewish lawyer who has offices in Chicago and Warsaw. "It was a painting of a Jew counting money, with a dollar bill stuck in its back. He obviously had no idea that the image could be offensive."

Trying to make sense out of the disparity is a cottage industry among scholars, educators, policymakers, communal leaders and ordinary citizens.

How do you balance an abstract evocation of Jews and Jewish life with the real thing? And how do you prevent stereotypes and skewed templates from dominating discourse?

Traison believes a sort of "public display of Judaism" can be useful.

Toward that end, over the past four years he has helped organize Shabbatons that have brought actual Jews and Jewish practice to half a dozen provincial towns where few or no Jews have lived since the Holocaust. Religious services are held in long-disused synagogues, and local officials and ordinary citizens are invited to join in for prayers, kosher meals and Shabbat study.

Traison says he has four main goals: remembrance; demonstrating that the Jewish people -- and Judaism -- are still alive; outreach to Poles; and enabling Jews and local Catholics to participate in a Jewish religious experience.

"This is all very important for young people in Poland, who often only know Jews through imagery and mythology," he said.

Stanislaw Krajewski, a Warsaw Jew who has attended several of the Shabbatons, agreed. "It doesn't just show pictures but is doing something that is really alive," he said. "It is such an innovation -- a way of bringing a sort of circulation of blood in these places."

A Catholic man who attended last year's Shabbaton in Kielce put it this way: "I could feel myself what I already knew theoretically, namely what the Shabbat means for Jews who treat their faith seriously.”
The song “Boi Kala” – “Come, Sabbath Queen” – “is also a challenge or a question on how I, a Christian man, treat my 'shabbat’ -- Sunday," the man said. "Thanks to Jews' testimony of how they treat their holy day, I treat my one more seriously."

Most of these elements were evident at the latest Shabbaton, which took place this summer in Piotrkow Trybunalski, a rundown industrial town in central Poland where city walls are scarred by anti-Semitic soccer graffiti but also bear commemorative plaques recalling the town's rich Jewish past.

The Shabbaton coincided with a city-sponsored Days of Judaism festival, and posters advertised the religious events along with lectures, exhibits and a klezmer concert. Piotrkow's mayor and other officials took part in a Holocaust commemoration ceremony, a kosher Shabbat dinner and an open-air Havdalah celebration in a public park near the center of town.

Schoolchildren staged a play based on a Holocaust story, and Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, led services in Piotrkow's former synagogue, which was defiled by the Nazis and then turned into the public library in the 1960s.

Most of the participants were Piotrkow Holocaust survivors and descendants from Israel, the United States and other countries. They included the former Israeli diplomat Naftali Lau-Lavie, who was called to the Torah that Shabbat to celebrate the 71st anniversary of his bar mitzvah. Lavie's father was Piotrkow's last chief rabbi, and his brother is Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, a former Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel and now the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv.

Many in the group had visited Piotrkow before. Some had sponsored commemorative projects such as placing plaques and cleaning up the Jewish cemetery. They came to honor the dead, relive memories and make a positive statement simply by walking the streets.

It was "surreal" to pray where both "fame and infamy reigned," said Irving Gomolin, a survivors' son from Mineola, N.Y., who was making his third trip to Piotrkow. But, he added, "It also helps send the message to the town that we have not forgotten, that the Jewish nation and Piotrkower Jews survive and remember and do not want to forget or have their past in this place forgotten."

Read full story on JTA.org

Poland -- Jozefow Jewish Cemetery Cleaned Up

The historic Jewish cemetery in Jozefow Bilgorajski in eastern Poland has been cleaned up, thanks to a project that was co-financed by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ) and the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The Foundation has posted a photo gallery showing the cemetery after the clean-up work.

Jews settled in Jozefow in the 18th century, and by 1921 nearly 80 percent of the local population was Jewish. A very nice baroque-style synagogue, built in the late 18th or early 19th century, now serves as the town library.

Jozefow 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The oldest tombstones in the cemetery date from the 1760s. I visited there in the summer of 2006, when I was doing the updates for Jewish Heritage Travel. The local librarian was very helpful, giving me explicit instructions how to find the cemetery, located near quarries on a hill just outside town. Access is via a dirt road off Kamienna street.


Parts of the cemetery were -- sort of -- clear, or at least fairly accessible, even in "high weed" season. But much of the cemetery was jungle.... Here are some photos to compare how it was, with the pictures on the FODZ site showing the area after clean-up.

Photos (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Prague -- New Kosher Shop

There's a new kosher shop in Prague, which Dinah Spritzer writes about in the New York Times. It is located in the Old Jewish Quarter at v Kolkovne 4, around the corner from the kosher King Solomon restaurant, which is run by the same management, the Gunsberger brothers.

As only a few thousand Jews currently live in Prague, the store initially targeted temporary residents who struggled to find Passover staples like matzoh and gefilte fish. But now the Günsbergers want their deli to be a hot spot for anyone seeking a taste of something Jewish, like rugelach (stuffed and rolled pastries), babka (cakes filled with chocolate, cinnamon-nut or almond paste) and kishka (beef intestine stuffed with matzo meal).

“We are especially popular with kids going to schools in New York who are spending a few months here,” said Michal. “They don’t care about the kosher part, but they love that we have Israeli cookies and huge pickles.”

The shop also carries a mix of packaged products like crackers, goat cheese and (milk-free) chocolate from France, Britain, Israel and the Czech Republic.

Read full story here

Hungary -- Bankito festival coming up

My latest article for JTA looks at Budapest's progressive Jewish music scene, as a sort of preview to this year's Bankito Jewish culture festival, held near Budapest August 5-8.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to get to Bankito -- I'm going to southern Italy with my father and brother to attend a conference on the art work that my mother carried out in a small Calabrian village in the 1970s and 1980s.

But the Bankito line-up looks good -- and fun.

Jewish fusion music key to Budapest’s ‘Jewstock’ festival

By Ruth Ellen Gruber · July 22, 2010

BUDAPEST (JTA) -- Flora Polnauer, 28, tilts back her head, half closes her eyes and hums a few bars of a song by her hip-hop/funk/reggae band HaGesher. The song is "Lecha Dodi," the Shabbat evening prayer -- sounded over a Yiddishized version of the Beatles song "Girl." It's just one of the many unconventional songs of the band, whose vocalists rap their own lyrics in Hebrew, Hungarian and English.

"It's modern Jewish music because it's influenced by Jewish things, but it's not the replaying of old Jewish songs," says Daniel Kardos, 34, a composer and guitarist who plays with Hagesher and several other bands. "I pick up many things and mix them."

Hagesher is one of about half a dozen bands in this city of European Jewish cool blending jazz, hip hop, rap and reggae with Israeli pop and traditional Jewish folk tunes and liturgy to form an eclectic urban sound.
"It's a big mix of contemporary Jewish musical identity," said vocalist Adam Schoenberger, the son of a rabbi. "All of us find Jewish culture very important. Hagesher is a platform for us to articulate musically our different musical interpretation of Jewish cultural heritage."

As the program director of the popular Siraly club, whose dimly lit basement stage is a regular venue for Hagesher and other groups, Schoenberger, 30, is a leader in Budapest's Jewish youth scene. He is also one of the organizers of Bankito, sometimes referred to as "Jewstock" -- a youth-oriented Jewish culture festival Aug. 5-8 on the shore of Bank Lake, north of Budapest.

Bankito includes concerts, exhibitions, performances, workshops, seminars and lectures, a poetry slam, sports events, movies, and Jewish and interfaith religious observances. A number of events at this year's festival will highlight Roma, or Gypsy culture, and focus also on social and civic issues such as the rights of the Roma and other ethnic minorities.

Music is a highlight of Bankito. Hagesher, the Daniel Kardos Quartet and other Jewish bands such as Nigun and Triton Electric Oktopus will perform. "We're at a fascinating moment in Jewish music: It's hip again," said Michigan's Jack Zaientz, who authors the Teruah Jewish music blog. "There's an amazing gang of musicians who are young, smart, urban and Jewish, and making their Jewish identities a core part of their music and stage identities."

Read full story at jta.org

Centropa.org -- on Youtube and I-Tunes

Centropa.org, based online and (physically) in Vienna, carries out research, educational and creative projects on Jews in central Europe. Much of its work is based on family photographs and indepth interviews. It is directed by my old friend and traveling companion, the photographer Edward Serotta -- I write a semi-regular travel column for it.

Among Centropa's projects are brief documentary films based on its photo collections and interviews. They provide unique insights into how Jewish life in mainly pre-WW2 central Europe looked, felt and was experienced.

These are now available for viewing on YouTube and downloadable as video podcasts on iTunes (go to the iTune store and search for centropa).

Lviv Klezmer Festival next Sunday

    




The second "LvivKlezFest" will take place Sunday in and around the inner Jewish quarter of L'viv, near the ruins of the Golden Rose synagogue -- a final late-night concert will take place in the square next to the ruins.

Participating bands come from Poland, Germany, Israel, Russia, and Ukraine, and there will be workshops, guided tours and other participatory events as well as concerts.
It's wonderful to the the (rather crumbling) district used in this way.



Here's the press release:

The Festival of Klezmer music “LvivKlezFest”  will welcome its guest for the second time on July 25, 2010 from 10.00 a.m. until 23.00 p.m.

You will enjoy the theatrical Jewish wedding procession on the streets of medieval Jewish quarter which will be adorned by playing of  Klezmer groups from different countries. Then the ceremony will fluently turn into a great long-lasting gala-concert on the ancient square near the legendary synagogue “Golden Rose”.

You will be also offered the master-classes on Jewish dance and handicrafts, walking tours in Jewish quarter and, certainly, you will taste traditional Jewish cuisine.

Those who will visit this big holiday of Jewish culture in Lviv  in the very heart of Eastern Galicia will get unforgettable feelings due to the combination of natural scenery in conjunction with unique Klezmer music.

The Festival is organized and supported by  All-Ukrainian Jewish Charitable Foundation  “Hesed-Arieh” (Lviv),   “Joint Center”(Kiev), Company of Emotions “!Fest”(Lviv).

ALL LOVERS OF JEWISH MUSIC, DANCES AND SONGS ARE WELLCOMED!

The Schedule of «LvivKlezFest-2010» (July 25, 2010)

10.00–13.30     Every half-hour free tour walks in  the Jewish quarter  of the city (the tour walks will start  from the cafe "Diana", Rynok square)

from 12.00  -  Theatrical performance "А hаsеnе in Galitsie" - "Jewish wedding-party in Galicia" accompanied by  Klezmer orchestras - (cafe "Diana", Rynok square); Treating, master-classes on Jewish handicrafts  -  (Br.Rogatyntziv street); Jewish workshops - (Staroyevreyska street).

14.30–23.00    Gala-concert ”Muzl Tov!” - “Happiness”! with participation of klezmers from Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Poland (Arsenalna square, across the  synagogue “Golden Rose”).

Poland -- Yale Strom Remembers Henryk Halkowski

Yale Strom, the klezmer musician, writer and filmmaker, has been exploring eastern Europe and its Jewish culture for decades.... He send this vivid and loving recollection of Henryk Halkowski.

The news of Henryk's death both shocks and saddens me. I've known Henryk (or Tsvi, as I always called him) since 1984. Tsvi, along with Jerzy Kichler and Joasia Swieciki (my former wife), formed the nucleus of the revival of Yiddish culture in Krakow before the wall came down. This was 6 years before the first Krakow Jewish Festival. After Jerzy moved to Wroclaw and took over the leadership of the Jewish club there, Tsvi became the leader of the Jewish club of Krakow. All my forays to Krakow over 20 years included visits and meals with Tsvi, and a performance and lecture at his club. Tsvi represented a group of young Jews - almost a forgotten generation - born to survivors in the late 40's-early 50's, who for myriad reasons never married. An only son, Tsvi was extraordinarily loyal and devoted to his parents, and then to his mother once his father passed away. Tsvi was offered a scholarship to study and lecture at NYU, but turned it down to stay with his mother, who was originally from Vienna. Tsvi is featured in several of my documentary films, because he was, in my opinion, the most knowledgeable Jew about Krakow Jewish history and folklore. After the wall came down and with the seeds of Jewish culture sprouting, Tsvi was an integral part of this movement. He was linked with the Jewish festival, where he gave insightful commentary (often at an RPM that rivals my own) on papers he'd written, including several of his books. He was able to bridge the divide between the old Jews of Krakow, who had a certain amount of power and status in the 1970's and '80's and the new Jews who participated in the revival. I last saw Tsvi in September of 2008, when he gave me his usual pungent and satirical historical insight into the erection of the new apartment building that will shamefully tower over the Remuh's cemetery. As I had every other time since 1984, I walked away from this meeting laughing and crying and savoring our conversation. Wherever one walked in Kaczimiercz, regardless of the time of day or night (and Tsvi particularly liked to walk the streets at night), you couldn't help but run into him, then have a drink, then have a meal. I endearingly called him "The Mayor of Kaczimiercz". Tsvi's last project was editing Khasidic stories of the Bratslaver Rebe and we talked about this over latkes at the Klezmer-Hois. His intellect was eclipsed only by his gentle sweetness. His ghost, like so many others, will hover over Krakow. The world will truly miss this "pintele Yid".

Sad News from Krakow -- Death of Henryk Halkowski

The inimitable Henryk Halkowski, one of foremost (and colorful) Jewish personalities in contemporary Poloand, died in Krakow of a sudden heart attack around midnight the night of Jan. 1-2...He had turned 57 only a few days earlier.

A writer, translator and consumate luftmensch, Henryk possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of Jewish culture , lore, heritage and history in Krakow and introduced me and countless others to many of the citys Jewish mysteries.

Henryk was unique. I will write more about him in a later post.

Ukraine -- Hebrew University research expedition to Galicia begins

Researchers from  Hebrew University in Jerusalem have begun another foray into Ukraine as part of the ongoing Jewish Galicia project. The group, headed by Dr. Vladimir Levin, will document Jewish heritage sites, including former synagogues, around the town of Nadvorna.

I posted about the project last year, after I met  Levin at a conference in Vilnius. Click HERE for that post.

Read a story about the expedition in Jerusalem Post story by clicking here

Poland -- Orla Synagogue; a Fund-raising/consciousness-raising video

The wonderful synagogue in Orla, eastern Poland near Bialystok, needs restoration -- and the tireless Tomek Wisniewski has posted a YouTube video (in English and Polish) on it to help raise consciousness -- and, it is hoped, funding!



The striking synagogue, with a distinctive scalloped facade, was originally built in the 17th century. Its sanctuary has nine bays and a vaulted ceiling, and there are still some traces of marvellous painted decoration -- vines, garlands, floral motifs, and animals.

The building dominates the little town, where before the Holocaust Jews made up nearly 80 percent of the local population.

The synagogue was listed as a cultural heritage monument before World War II. Tomek reports that when it was all but destroyed in a huge fire in 1938, the Polish government stepped into to reconstruct and restore the building.

The synagogue was reconsecrated in 1939, but then the Nazis used it as a field hospital and later turned it into a warehouse for chemical fertilizer. For decades it has stood empty and in ever-deteriorating condition.

When I visited Orla in 1990, the entire facade was covered in rickety scaffolding and more scaffolding filled the sanctuary inside -- indeed, the outer front wall and entrance were restored then, and in the 1980s the building got a new roof.

There was talk that it would be restored for use as a local culture center -- back in 1990 the mayor and other town officials seemed obsessed by the project and eagerly showed us around the building. But funding dried up, and nothing ever materialized....

Tomek rightly suggests that, if the synagogue were restored, it would add an important component to a cluster of restored synagogues in northeast/eastern Poland that are used for cultural purposes and draw thousands of tourists.

These include the massive, 17th century synagogue at Tykocin, a wellknown Jewish museum.

The synagogue in Sejny, to the north near the border with Lithuania, is used as a theatre and exhibition space, forming part of the cultural complex utilized by the Borderland Foundation, an innovative cultural and educational organization that promotes knowledge of the multi-ethnic history of that part of Poland.

Synagogue in Sejny, 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

India -- Jewish Heritage Trail here, too!

The Jerusalem Post runs a lengthy article by Shalva Weil about a nascent Jewish heritage trail in southern India. It is pegged to the situation of the 17th century synagogue in Parur, which is currently being renovated by public authorities after remaining abandoned and somewhat derelict for decades.

Last month, the government of Kerala, India’s southernmost state, armed with a matching grant from the central government, started the reconstruction of the Parur synagogue that used to be frequented by Cochin Jews before they came on aliya, largely in the 1950s. The last of the community immigrated in the 1970s, leaving behind a mere handful of people, and the synagogue has remained in disuse since then. Today, fewer than 40 Cochin Jews remain on the Malabar coast.

The conservation is progressing at such a pace that the chief architect in charge of the project, Benny Kuriakose, believes it will be completed by the autumn. This governmental and federal project could be a beacon for other countries, which pay lip-service to the preservation of Jewish heritage.

“I was very excited to hear that the Kerala government is renovating the Parur synagogue and restoring it to the glory of its past,” said Tirza Lavi, a native of Parur, and a today a curator of the Heritage Center for Cochin Jews at Nevatim, south of Beersheba. “We hope that Parur will be a showcase to the younger generation, displaying our communities’ rich and interesting history. I am sure that Cochin Jews in Israel will be glad to take part in the project and share their knowledge and memories.”

Weil writes that the Jewish heritage trail and Parur synagogue are part of a much larger project.

The reconstruction of the Parur synagogue is only a small cog in the wheel of a huge project called the Muziris Heritage Project, which includes archeological excavations and the reconstruction of other historical monuments in the area, such as temples, churches and mosques. The idea is to create a tourism trail from the ancient port of Muziris, today known as Kodungallor, through Cochin, Parur and other nearby areas, and develop the already-existing tourism boom. Today, Kerala is the eighth most favorite tourist destination in the world.

The seeds of the monumental project were planted only a few years ago. The beautiful Paradesi synagogue in Jew Town, Cochin, constructed in 1568, has been a well-known tourist site ever since Indira Gandhi attended its quatercentenary celebrations in 1968 and the Indiangovernment issued a special commemorative stamp on the occasion. In more recent history, however, the Kerala government agreed to undertake the renovation of another abandoned Cochin Jewish synagogue belonging to the Malabari Jews in the village of Chendamangalam, near Cochin. In February 2006, the synagogue was reopened with an exhibition on the Cochin Jews, and the synagogue has become a popular tourist destination.

Read full article here

Budapest -- Hanukkah Hungarian Klezmer Rap Party

More from Hanukkah party central....The Hungarian folk-rap band Zuboly added klezmer to the mix at a seventh-night Hanukkah gig in the basement of the Siraly cafe. The concert was part of Marom, the Jewish youth group's, Hanukkah festival. Zuboly has been described as "doing something like taking a folk song, or something similar and a pop song known by everyone and knead[ing] the two together in such a way, complete with rap insert of MC Busa that you can easily miss the transition between the Billy Jean and a Hungarian ancient shamanic song." OK...

With the addition of klezmer, it is described as "transforming into Zugoj."

Zsigmond Lázár and Béla Ágoston are founding members of the Odessa Klezmer Band. Their revolutionary idea was to examine how klezmer mixes with beatbox and all other creativity of Zuboly. Special guest of the band is Flóra Polnauer, who has already proved to be a true ZU-GIRL with outstanding talent in rap and improvisation, which will all be part of the festive concert...

(The klezmer comes in about halfway through this clip)

My friend Rudi Klein (the expert on synagogue architecture and author of the recently published book on Budapest's Dohany St. Synagogue) and I dropped by to listen after going to dinner nearby -- and Rudi noted that the basement, with its pillars and vaulting, is a fine example of original neo-classical architecture from the 1840s. At that time, the street Siraly is located on, Kiraly utca, was expanding outward becoming the main commercial thoroughfare of Budapest' s Jewish section.

Poland -- New Schindler's Factory museum in Krakow

 Schindler's desk. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

When I was in Krakow for the Festival of Jewish Culture, I had the opportunity to visit the new Schindler's Factory museum -- a branch of the city's History Museum that tells the story of the Nazi occupation of Krakow in 1939-45 and is located in the administration building of what was Oskar Schindler's enamelware factory.

 Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The museum is a wonderful combination of traditional objects and interactivity and in particular uses sound in a remarkably evocative way.

I wrote a piece for the International Herald Tribune and New York Times web site.

On June 11, the factory’s sprawling administration building opened as Krakow’s newest museum, an ambitious, multimedia evocation of Krakow’s experience under Nazi occupation from 1939 to 1945. Three years in the making, Schindler’s Museum (4 Lipowa Street, www.mhk.pl) cost €3.7 million, or about $4.7 million.

The new museum uses Schindler’s famous story as a springboard to recount a broader narrative that encompasses oppression and resilience, heroism and deceit.

“The history we see here is a reminder that there is an alternative to inaction, a reminder that when we learn of crimes that cry out against our conscience we cannot stand by in quiet revulsion, hoping the world will fix itself,” said the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who toured the museum during an official visit to Krakow July 3.

Formally a branch of Krakow’s Historical Museum, Schindler’s Factory is “a museum of the occupation that shows what the wartime experience was like in Krakow and shows the context of all the stories — of Jews in Krakow, of Oskar Schindler, of Cracovians, of the German occupiers,” said Edyta Gawron, a historian who was part of the team that developed the museum concept. “Such a museum was needed,” she said. “People visit Auschwitz, but they have no idea of what life was like here in Krakow.”The new museum combines photographs, artifacts and other traditional objects with interactive components, sound, set-piece reconstructions and film and photo projections to provide a full-immersion effect.

You can watch contemporary film footage out the windows of a wartime-era tram, for example — film of traffic, pedestrians, soldiers and roundups. Or peek into cramped family quarters or the hideout of underground resistance fighters. Or read posters announcing everything from circus performances to executions.

A labyrinthine route leads through exhibit sections based on chronology, specific themes, and the experiences of individuals. Personal testimony and interviews are used throughout. The choices people had to make in order to survive also form part of the story, and some sections deal with collaboration and betrayal.

Sound effects ranging from music to reproduced radio broadcasts to ordinary city noises heighten the impact of the visuals.

The symbolism is sometimes tangible. One section is paved with floor tiles that bear the Nazi swastika.

“It was a dilemma how to show Nazi symbols without seeming to promote them,” Ms. Gawron said, “but in this case, though some people are shocked, it clearly works — the swastikas are there, but they are being trampled underfoot.”

Read full story HERE

The one aspect of the museum that has raised criticism (among people I talked to) is the section on the role of the Catholic Church during the occupation, and in particular that of the Archbishop of Krakow, Adam Sapieha. The information panel on Sapieha states that he aided Jews by intervening with German authorities and urging local clergy to help hide Jews and issue false baptismal papers.

 Photo: Emily Finer

But it ignores the general anti-semitic attitudes expressed by the church and Sapieha himself. I was told, however, that more information including interactive material would be added to this section of the museum exhibit. I hope this is true and that the full context will be presented.

Czech Republic -- Singer records Yiddish CD in synagogues

 Inside the synagogue in Mikulov, now a museum, Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

by Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Czech-born Canadian singer Lenka Lichtenberg is recording Yiddish and Jewish liturgical songs for a new CD in several former synagogues scattered around the Czech Republic --  in Prague, Plzen, Radnice, Liberec, Turnov,  Boskovice, Mikulov, Polna,  Hartmanice. Some of these synagogues are used now as museums.

Lichtenberg told the Czech news agency CTK that she envisaged the CD as a "certain homage to synagogues, their atmosphere and the local Jewish communities that do not exist any longer".

She said it crossed her mind to record Jewish liturgic songs in synagogues in the country last year when she had a concert in the synagogues in Liberec, north Bohemia, and in Plzen, west Bohemia. Each of the 14 songs will be recorded in a different synagogue as every synagogue has specific acoustics and every venue will fill the song with a different content and spirit, Lichtenberg said. Apart from traditional liturgic songs, the CD will offer two songs that she has written and four by modern authors from Toronto. Lichtenberg has also recorded one song, a prayer for the dead, in a hidden synagogue in Terezin, north Bohemia, where an internment camp for European Jews was set up during WWII. Her mother was interned there, she recalled. The CD will include a booklet with photographs of the synagogues and information about the local Jewish communities. It should also be sold in the synagogues where it was recorded.

Read full CTK story here

Spain -- Yet More on Toledo (and Other Grave Controversies)

Here's a link to Sam Gruber's recent lengthy post on the situation regarding the medieval Jewish cemetery in Toledo, Spain, on which I posted a JTA story earlier today -- for some reason (holiday party-going, perhaps?) I did not see Sam's article when it was posted a few days ago.

Sam added today a long essay on recent controversies over moving graves. Read it by clicking HERE.

Spain -- Construction Work Halted on Cemetery Site

JTA reports that the Spanish government has ordered a month-long freeze on construction work on the site of a medieval Jewish cemetery in Toledo.

The decision made Dec.19 follows high-level meetings at the Spanish Foreign Ministry in Madrid with representatives of the Federation of Jewish Communities in
Spain, the Conference of Spanish Rabbis, the Conference of European Rabbis and the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe (CPJCE).

More than 100 graves have been exhumed from the building site, an expansion of a nearby state school, according to Rabbi Abraham Ginsburg, executive director of the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe.

Toledo regional authorities are currently storing more than 100 skeletons in separate boxes, Ginsburg told JTA Thursday.

"At present our main aim is to ensure that no further desecration is taking place and we are committed by Jewish law and tradition to ensure that those graves are being preserved in their sanctified and dignified manner in perpetuity," Ginsburg said.

Spanish authorities have set the freeze until Jan. 15, 2009. But Ginsburg said that at a scheduled meeting in Toledo on Jan. 12, the Jewish organizations will request that the freeze be extended until the issue is resolved.

A local rabbinic board is currently in consultation with higher rabbinic courts around the world to determine what can be done to preserve the sanctity of the remains according to Jewish law. There are still many graves that remain intact inside the cemetery that dates back to the 13th century.

Back in November, Sam Gruber posted an article giving background on this situation. He wrote:

To my mind the only solution in such a case must be to halt new excavation in any area that can be confirmed to hold graves. It is possible that some surface construction can be allowed that would ultimately protect the graves.

Poland -- Piotrkow Trybunalski cemetery photos

I have posted a photo gallery of images of the Jewish cemetery in the Polish town of Piotrkow Trybunalski on the web site of my (Candle)sticks on Stone project. They show women's tombstones and a variety of candlestick images, including broken candles, as well as mythical animals and other imagery and iconography.

Poland -- CNN on Jewish cultural and other revival

CNN has run a piece on Poland's rediscovery of its Jewish past I'm delighted that it mentioned the Jewish culture festival in Bialystok, as well as that in Krakow.
  

This phenomenon has, of course,  been going on for several decades already. By now, at least a score of Jewish culture festivals of one sort or another take place in Poland each year -- I've listed quite a few of them in the sidebar of this blog. Krakow's is the oldest and biggest; founded in 1988 it marked its 20th edition this year.

The success of the Krakow Festival  helped spark other Jewish festivals of various types around the country. In 2000, the a mapping of Jewish culture project by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research i London identified seven of them. In 2009, I counted more than 20, including at least two Jewish film festivals. Some were one-day affairs, others spanned a weekend or longer.

Some took place in towns with small Jewish communities, such as Wroclaw, Poznan and Gdansk. Others took place where no Jews live today. These included the sixth edition of a festival dedicated to the Yiddish author Shalom Asch, scheduled for early December in the central town of Kutno, the third edition of an annual Jewish culture festival in the village of Checiny, a Jewish theatre festival in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, the annual Jewish culture festival in Chmielnik, a Jewish culture festival in Bialystok, another in Szczekonciny, another in Przysucha, and so on. Festivals celebrating a diversity of cultures and religions, including Judaism, took place in Lodz, Wlodowa and Szczebrzeszyn.

‘I often joke that now the mayor of every small town feels obliged to make excuses [if] he/she has no Jewish Festival in his/her town,’ Anna Dodziuk, a psychotherapist who is also a Jewish activist and editor, told me. ‘To put it short: it is politically correct now to explore the Jewish history of the local communities, to commemorate Jews of a shtetl who perished in Holocaust, to celebrate somehow Jewish culture. So more and more Jews start to feel secure enough to be openly Jewish (or to be visible).’

Budapest -- Hanukkah party central

Hanukkah is in the air in Budapest, especially in the old Jewish quarter in and around the downtown Seventh District, where I have an apartment...

Chabad, of course, has huge menorahs where nightly lightings take place -- and Chabadniks also drive around town in little "Hanukkah-mobiles" -- small cars with electric menorahs standing up right on their roofs.

There are various parties, concerts and other events.

I got to town Tuesday night, after a few days in Vienna, where, among other things, I attended a first-night Hanukkah party in the main synagogue, the elegant, neo-classical Stadttempel on sloping Seitenstettengasse, in the heart of the city's core First District (the same synagogue where I attended Sukkoth services this fall) and adjoining Jewish community center.

Sponsored by Centropa, the Central Europe Center for Research and Documentation, it was structured around a meeting a club of elderly Jews who have been interviewed as part of Centropa's online database of family photos and stories. There were prayers and candle-lighting in the synagogue's graceful oval sanctuary; songs by a local Jewish school choir, and food, food, food (delicious vegetarian salads, humus, and the like). Here's a picture of the menorah lighting:



I left Vienna the next day, arriving in Budapest Tuesday night, just in time to high-tail it to the Siraly cafe, a five minute walk from my apartment, and get there in time to catch the last part of a Jewish "dance house" party, with music by Bob Cohen and Di Naye Kapelye and dance-teaching by Susan Foy. (Bob maintains the Dumneazu blog, a lively chronicle of food, travel, music and more in Eastern Europe, and Di Naye Kapelye's new CD, Traktorist, is receiving rave reviews.)

I forgot to bring my camera the other night -- but here's Bob playing a Hanukkah gig in Budapest a few years ago:


Siraly means Seagull but also, in local slang, “fantastic”. The cafe, in a three-storey building with tall arched windows on Kiraly street, is one of the most popular of the new "Jewish" cafes that have opened recently in and around the Seventh District. It is run partly by Marom, the youth organization of the Masorti, or conservative, Jewish stream (which has its office on an upper floor), and partly by a theater group.

In addition to serving up coffee, tea, schnapps and snacks, Siraly serves as something of a "alternative" Jewish culture center, with concerts, talks, book presentations, etc. A highlight each year is the Hanukkah festival Marom organizes, that lasts through the eight days of the holiday.


Each evening features the lighting of menorahs -- one set up on the bar, another an art installation positioned on the wall (the candle flames are symbolically uncovered.)


Then -- concerts, plays, "kosher cabaret" and other events, either in the upstairs gallery or in a (smokey) theater space in the basement. Last night (Christmas Eve, the centerpiece of the holiday for Hungarian Christians, when everyone is home around the groaning dinner table with their family) Marom and Siraly's chief, Adam Schoenberger, played with his own hip-hop band.

Walking over from yet another party, I got there late -- just in time to catch the very end of their set -- because I had dropped in to a neighboring church to get a taste of midnight mass....

Tonight, the concert is in a bigger venue downtown -- headliners are the French group Boogie Balagan (whose slogan is "from Paris to Palestisrael"), following the local bands Pipatorium and Chalaban, which plays Moroccan music.

Poland -- Jazz Suite Based on Jewish Heritage

Tykocin synagogue. Photo (c) R. E. Gruber

Damn! It is so difficult to keep up with all the developments related to Jewish culture and heritage... I just learned, well after the fact, of something I missed at the time -- a jazz suite called "Jazz Suite Tykocin" composed by Polish jazz musician Wlodek Pawlik as part of a Jazz Inspirations from Jewish Cultural Heritage project. It had its premiere last summer in Tykocin, in eastern Poland near Bialystok, where a massive 17th century synagogue was restored in the 1970s and serves as a Jewish museum -- Pawlik and his group performed the suite in the synagogue.

The suite has been released on CD -- here's what the newsletter of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews says about it:

Jazz Suite Tykocin which was recorded within the ‘Jazz Inspirations of Jewish Cultural Heritage’ project is on sale. The album was produced by the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic and the Radio Phonographic Agency. The Museum of the History of Polish Jews is one of the partners of the project.

Jazz Suite Tykocin is the latest musical project from Włodek Pawlik. The album, widely acclaimed by music critics for its originality, is a six-piece composition inspired by the Psalms of David. The music is a combination of jazz with classical music and orchestral jazz. Włodek Pawlik wrote the Suite with the thought in mind of Randy Brecker, the American jazz trumpet player, whose family comes from Tykocin. The first performance of the suite took place on 4th of July in the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Concert Hall in Białystok. The recording was made between July 5-7 with the participation of Randy Brecker, the Włodek Pawlik Trio with Włodek Pawlik – piano, Paweł Pańta – double bass and Cezary Konrad – percussion and the Symphony Orchestra of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic under Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski.

You can here a YouTube clip of the synagogue concert by clicking HERE.

Prague/Vienna

 Prague. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

I'm slow: still processing my recent visits to Warsaw, Piotrkow Trybunalski and Krakow (and Festival of Jewish Culture.) Meanwhile, here are links to my two latest columns for Centropa.org -- on Jewish Prague and Jewish Vienna.

Prague 

by Ruth Ellen Gruber 

PRAGUE -- Lying between the Vltava River and the Old Town Square, Prague's medieval "Jewish Town," Josefov, is one of the most popular attractions in a magical "golden city" that draws millions of tourists a year. Here, amid historic synagogues, the Old Jewish Cemetery, the Jewish Town Hall and other major sights, is the Ground Zero of Jewish Prague: the stomping ground for heroes and villains and the evocative background setting for a host of old legends, not to mention the cradle of present-day Jewish life. Here, Jewish heritage and legacy are cultivated and exploited as an integral part of the ancient city. At peak season, tourists swarm through the district, making it sometimes difficult to navigate the cobbled streets, and souvenir hawkers sell everything from miniature golems to embroidered kippot.

I imagine the Jewish presence in Prague as a series of concentric circles centered on this medieval ghetto area and then expanding outward, like widening ripples of water, to the edge of the city and beyond. Physical sites, as well as Jewish memory and contemporary Jewish life, are concentrated in the innermost circle: there are a Jewish education center, kosher facilities and Jewish communal offices, and regular services take place in several venues. But there are many places of Jewish interest well away from the city center, too. These are much less visible and well off the beaten track of most visitors to the city, but they, too, form an integral part of the Jewish experience in Prague. The following itinerary will let you sample some of these outer circles of Jewish history and culture as well as the city's inner core.

The Inner Circle

Tourists aside, Prague's old Jewish quarter today bears very little resemblance to the dense welter of narrow alleys, tiny squares, dark passageways and crowded courtyards where generations of Jews were compelled to live from the Middle Ages to the mid-19th century, when the Habsburg monarchs granted them civil rights. After emancipation, many Jews moved out, and Jewish Town became a slum. An urban renewal project in the late 19th century swept away almost everything but a handful of synagogues and a few other historic sites, and the medieval ghetto was replaced by the handsome complex of buildings we see today. On the façade of the building at Maiselova 12, across from the Old-New Synagogue, you can see Jews symbolized by the star of David, money and stereotype profiles.

Jewish Town is still, though, where the city's main Jewish sights are concentrated. And if you can brave the crowds, you will see some of the finest and best preserved and presented Jewish heritage sites in Europe.
These include the 13th-century Old-New (or Alt-neu) Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Europe still in use. Built about 1270, the compact Gothic building has a high peaked roof and distinctive brick gables. The twin-naved sanctuary features soaring Gothic vaulting and a central bimah enclosed by a late Gothic iron grille. Carvings of grape vines surround the Ark.

Across narrow Cervena alley is the High Synagogue, built in 1568, which, like the Old-New Synagogue, is today an active house of prayer and study. Right next door to the High Synagogue is the Jewish Town Hall (entrance at Maiselova 18), which still serves as the headquarters for Jewish community offices and activities. Built in the 1560s, the Jewish Town Hall is one of the landmarks of the Jewish quarter, with a distinctive tower and big clock with Hebrew letters, that seems to run backwards.

Prague's Jewish Museum occupies several historic synagogue buildings in the district. The museum was originally founded in 1906 to preserve items from the synagogues that were demolished in the urban renewal clearance of the old ghetto. Most of its collections, however, come from the more than 150 provincial Jewish communities in Bohemia and Moravia that were destroyed by the Nazis. The Nazis brought the loot to Prague, and even during World War II used the empty synagogues to exhibit precious relics of the people they sought to annihilate. The museum was run by the communist state after World War II, but it was returned to Jewish administration in 1994.

Read full story HERE

Vienna 

by Ruth Ellen Gruber 

Vienna looms large in Jewish history and memory. The imperial Habsburg capital was the vibrant hub of a vast, multi-national Empire that stretched across Europe and encompassed a colorful and sometimes contentious mix of peoples, languages, religions and local cultures.

Jews lived here for centuries. Surviving pendulum-swing periods of tragedy and triumph, prosperity and persecution, they made key contributions to the cultural, economic and intellectual development of the city.
Nineteenth and early 20th century Vienna in particular was home to some of Europe's most influential artists, authors, musicians and thinkers -- from the writers Joseph Roth, Arthur Schnitzler and Stephan Zweig, to the composers Arnold Schoenberg and Gustav Mahler, to the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Vienna was also the cradle of some of the icons of popular culture: the filmmaker Billy Wilder grew up in the city, and the novelist Vicki Baum, the author of Grand Hotel and other best-sellers, was born here and wrote about her Viennese childhood in her memoirs. "To be a Jew is a destiny," she once said.

The Holocaust swept this world away. But monuments, museums and other vestiges of this long and creative Jewish presence can be found in many parts of the city.

What's more, Vienna is home, now, too, to a new flowering of Jewish life and creativity, both religious and secular. Vibrant schools, synagogues and other Jewish centers bear living witness to a remarkable Jewish rebirth in the decades since the Shoah. And Jewish writers, artists, musicians and filmmakers are putting their stamp on contemporary culture.

Visitors to Vienna can get a taste of both worlds. Most Jewish historical sites and monuments, as well as most active synagogues and Jewish centers, are located in central parts of the city, embedded in a historic urban setting that conjures up the grandeur of the past amid the contemporary bustle of modern-day life.
The following itinerary highlights some of the most important (and most easily visited) Jewish sights, but still, alas, gives only a brief taste of the richness of Jewish experience in the city.

Read full story HERE

Auschwitz -- US Pledges Aid to Restore Camp

 Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

On Saturday, U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton visited the brand new Schindler's Factory Museum in Krakow -- a branch of the city's history museum dedicated to the period of Nazi German occupation in World War II. During her visit she announced U.S. plans to pledge $15 million over five years to help restore and maintain the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, not far from Krakow. The site was made into a memorial/museum after World War II but has suffered considerable deterioration over the years. Flooding this year forced it to be closed to the public.

Below is the US government statement. For a full text of Clinton's speech click HERE

Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation Announcement

Office of the Spokesman

Washington, DC

July 3, 2010

---

In a speech today, July 3, at the Schindler Factory Museum in Krakow, Poland, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the U.S. intention to contribute $15 million over five years to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, subject to Congressional authorization and appropriations. The World War II-era factory of Oskar Schindler, the German entrepreneur who saved hundreds of Jewish factory workers from the Holocaust and, Krakow, the closest major city to the camp and an important center of Jewish life before WWII, provide a meaningful setting for the U.S. announcement. The Secretary’s announcement of the anticipated U.S. contribution illustrates the significance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau site, helps commemorate the 1.1 million victims who perished there, and demonstrates America’s commitment to Holocaust education, remembrance, and research.

U.S. Contribution

*Subject to Congressional authorization and appropriations, the United States’ contribution of $15 million over five years will begin in FY 2012.

*The U.S. contribution will help fund a €120 million endowment to preserve and safeguard the remains of the camp. Due to the temporary nature of the camp’s initial construction, the buildings and other artifacts at Auschwitz-Birkenau are in poor condition and in serious danger of irreversible deterioration.

*The United States strongly encourages other nations who have not already done so to follow suit and to contribute to the Auschwitz-Birkenau fund to preserve the site for future generations.

Importance of Auschwitz-Birkenau
*The Auschwitz-Birkenau death and concentration camp is one of the most widely recognized symbols of racism, bigotry, and hatred where untold millions suffered unthinkable and heinous treatment under Nazi tyranny. While there are hundreds of other historically important camps and mass grave sites, Auschwitz-Birkenau has become a symbol of the Holocaust.

*In 2009 alone, more than 1.3 million people from around the world visited the museum and memorial, among them survivors of Nazi persecution and their descendents, students, educators, and many who only for the first time learned of the horrors that went on at this infamous camp.

*The preservation and continuation of Auschwitz-Birkenau is essential so that future generations can visit and understand how the world can never again allow a place of such hatred and persecution to exist. It is also an important educational tool to show those who doubt that the Holocaust ever existed that indeed, tragically, it did.