UK: Skeletons Found in Norwich Well May be Those of Medieval Jews

Anti-Semitic cartoon of 1233 (during the reign of King Henry III) found on an Exchequer Roll. Photo: National Archives (UK)

UK: Skeletons Found in Norwich Well May be Those of Medieval Jews

A few years archaeologists excavated Jewish burials in Tarrega, Spain that showed evidence and violent death, and they put forward the hypothesis that the remains were of victims of a masscre of Jews in that Catalonian town, presumably an event from ca. 1391. Now new archeological evidence from Norwich, England points to the murder of Jews there. Skeletal remains of seventeen individuals found in a well in 2004 has been examined and researched and archaeologists and paleontologists now believe that these were Jewish victims - including many fomr the same family - of brutal murder.

According to a report published and broadcast by the BBC, "The most likely explanation is that those down the well were Jewish and were probably murdered or forced to commit suicide, according to scientists who used a combination of DNA analysis, carbon dating and bone chemical studies in their investigation. The skeletons date back to the 12th or 13th Centuries at a time when Jewish people were facing persecution throughout Europe....Seven skeletons were successfully tested and five of them had a DNA sequence suggesting they were likely to be members of a single Jewish family." Eleven of the bodies were of children from the ages of 2 to 15 with five of them below the age of five.

Dating of the deaths is not precise, especially since Norwich Jews were persecuted in many periods. They were accused in 1144 of the violent murder of the boy, William (of Norwich), the first recorded instance of the infamous "blood libel." Despite the rejection of the charges, the charge led to persecution and at least one community leader was killed. In 1190, at the time of the Third Crusade, many Jews were massacred in York and Norwich, where survivors purportedly took refuge in the city's castle. Still later persecutions including executions of Jews in Norwich in 1230. Jews were expelled from England in 1290.

Read full story here.

Greece: Jewish Museum in Athens Vandalized

Greece: Jewish Museum in Athens Attacked by Vandals

The Jewish Museum in Athens was vandalized this week. On July 22nd, red swastikas were painted on the building's exterior walls. Despite frequent acts of vandalism against Jewish targets throughout Greece, including those in Ioannina, Hania, and elsewhere previously reported on this blog, this is the first time the museum has been the target of and anti-Semitic attack. According to community representative security cameras recorded the eight perpetrators during the museum attack.

Poland: Vandalism at Gdansk and Wroclaw Jewish Sites

Poland: Vandalism at Gdansk and Wroclaw Jewish Sites

(ISJM) The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland this past week reported two incidents of vandalism at recently restored Polish Jewish sites.

On June 16, 2009, the Jewish cemetery in Gdańsk-Chelm was vandalized by still-unknown attackers, who painted an anti-Semitic slogan in Polish ( "Jews to the oven, for this is your place") on a placard placed at the gate of the newly-renovated cemetery. The local Jewish community reported this case to the Police, and the President of Gdansk, Pawel Adamowicz, expressed his regret in an official letter to the local community. The cemetery has vandalized in the past.

In Wroclaw, swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans were painted on the buildings of the White Stork Synagogue, the facade of which has been recently been restored, and Jewish Information Center in Wroclaw. The case is being investigated by the Police. Last January (2009), a ‘Free Palestine’ slogan was painted at the Center’s window in January 2009. The Wroclaw municipality will clean the graffiti, which will cost about 1500 euros.

Prague: Ruth Ellen Gruber Comments on Recent "Golem-mania"

Prague, Czech Republic Golem restaurant. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2004

Prague: Ruth Ellen Gruber Comments on Recent "Golemania":
When does cute become kitsch? When does story-telling get in the way of truth?

Its a shame when a rich and complex history is reduced to a stereotype, and even more so when the media takes a lively part. But rather than go into the details of Jewish life, history, thought, art, ritual, and science in the Jewish town of Prague, its so much easier to talk about the Golem.

When does cute become kitsch? When does story-telling get in the way of truth?

Ruth Ellen Gruber has tracking the cult of the Golem for years, and she's posted some comments and links on what appears to a return of this particularly persistent cultural virus. Some would say that Jews always need a Superman - even a stupid one made of mud. But I say say we need understanding of history, not reiteration of myth embellished for entertainment of profit.

Maybe things will change a bit this summer, when an informative exhibtion about the real life, times and intellect of Rabbi Judah Löw ben Bezalel (reputed creator of the reputed Golem) opens on Castle Hill. Then we can appreciate the Golem story in a bigger context and better light.

Prague -- Heads Up for Summer Exhibition on Rabbi ...

My confession? On at least one of my visits to Prague I bought Golem whistles and necklaces for friends and relatives. Way better than puppets of hook-nosed Jews.

Prague, Czech Republic "Jewish" puppets for sale near Jewish cemetery. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2004

See Ruth's most recent blogs with links to stories in the New York Times and on JTA.

Prague -- Yet More Golemania....

NYTimes Discovers the Golem

France: Holocaust Monument at Drancy (Paris) Vandalized

France: Holocaust Monument at Drancy (Paris) Vandalized

by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Various news reports describe the vandalism of the Holocaust Monument at Drancy (now a northern suburb of Paris, midway between the city center and Charles De Gaulle airport), France, on April 11, 2009. A video surveillance camera filmed the act and the perpetrators.

Drancy was the primary point of collection and deportation of over 67,000 (some estimates cite 77,000) French Jews (and some others) to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibor, from where few returned. Approximately 3,000 prisoners died at Drancy from malnutrition and mistreatment.

Today, a memorial consisting a large sculpture by Shlomo Selinger and a small exhibition located in a former transport boxcar was established in 1976.

A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust describes the monument as follows (with extensive photos):

Sculpture: The two blocks to the side of the central sculpture symbolize the doors of death. Drancy was considered to be the anteroom of death. The central sculpture is composed of 10 people, representing the number of people necessary for collective prayer (Minyan). On the front of the central sculpture a man and a woman embody suffering and dignity. In the center, the head of a man wearing the ritual cube (Tefilin) symbolizes prayer. Below, two inverted heads symbolize death. The Hebrew letters "LAMED" and "VAV" are formed by the hair, arms and beard of the two people at the top of the sculpture. These two letters have the value of 36, which is the number of righteous men in the world according to Jewish tradition

The interior of the boxcar is used as a museum about the camp. It includes a display of photographs, documents, and texts depicting the horrible living conditions and events that took place at Drancy.

The existence of the camp, established by the French Vichy government in 1941 as an internment camp was not officially acknowledged by the French government until 1995. According to the website of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, "Until July 1, 1943, French police staffed the camp under the overall control of the German Security Police. In July 1943 the Germans took direct control of the Drancy camp and SS officer Alois Brunner became camp commandant."

The camp was a multistory U-shaped building that had served as a police barracks before the war. Barbed wire surrounded the building and its courtyard. The capacity of the camp was 5,000 prisoners. Five subcamps, used primarily as warehouses for personal property confiscated from Jews, were located throughout Paris: at the Austerlitz train station, the Hotel Cahen d'Anvers, the Levitan furniture warehouse, the wharf in Bercy, and the Rue de Faubourg. Approximately 70,000 prisoners passed through Drancy between August 1941 and August 1944. Except for a small number of prisoners (mostly members of the French resistance), the overwhelming majority were Jews. A few thousand prisoners managed to obtain release during the first year of the camp's existence.

According to reports, Raphael Chemouni, responsible for maintaining the memorial, said it was the first time that it had been a target. "Until now there has been a very great respect for this monument," he said. There was some previous vandalism reported in 2005.

According to the JTA the train car" and a stone pillar, were daubed with swastikas. Shopfronts in the towns of Drancy and Bobigny were also attacked, according to the police." Lucien Tismander, from the Auschwitz Memorial Association, said this weekend's vandalism was particularly hurtful because of Drancy's symbolic importance in the history of France. "This monument is in a sense the tomb of the 76,000 French deportees and it has been sullied," he said.

Selling Jews, Judaism, Jewishness and Anne Frank (again)

Selling Jews, Judaism, Jewishness and Anne Frank (again)
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Using Jews as commodities is nothing new. Depictions of Jews, usually unflattering, were a staple of the printed broadside in Early Modern Europe. Venders in Poland still sell their carved wooden figures of Hasidic rabbis and Klezmer musicians to all sorts of buyers – Jews and non-Jews alike. For some these are anti-Semitic depictions, for others part of a long folk carving tradition in which everyone is caricatured.

Remember in 1993 the Hasidic-inspired line of clothing Jean-Paul Gualtier where models wore yarmulkes and payes (sidelocks)? There are plenty of more recent – but less controversial – Jewish-inspired fashion statements (see Alana Newhouse, “Shmatte Chic: The rise—finally!—of Jewish fashion”). Today, all sorts of jewelry makers and even tattoo artists have made a mini-industry out of Jewish symbols – traditional and kabbalistic. Jews are a big part of this system, too. They make and sell all kinds of commodities linked to perceptions of Jewishness. Some are fine art, some are kitsch. Some are steeped in tradition; some are irreverent (though not always disrespectful). And, of course, Jewish buyers fuel the market in Judaica fakes.

In the last 2 generations young Jews in America and Israel – and now in places like Hungary – have developed an in-your-face Jewish aesthetic that aims to shock all viewers, including (and sometimes especially) traditionally observant Jews. It’s a new kind of Jewish assertiveness – like a cultural version of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), or at least perhaps the assertive but less belligerent Anti-Defamation League (ADL). If Jews can be “Too Jewish,” (in the terms of the 1996 Jewish Museum exhibition) perhaps they can inoculate themselves against the most the slings and agonies of everyday anti-Semitism. Sometimes it works and “too Jewish” becomes the new hip, and sometimes it backfires and is a pain embarrassment to everyone.

For embarrassment (or should it be revulsion), see the link that Ruth Ellen Gruber has posted for an Amsterdam garret apartment where “one can live like Anne Frank” (What happens to the tenant when the lease is up?). This type of branding, like the trend in European “Jewish style” cafes (which Ruth has written about) that stereotype Jews (as Africans, American Indians, and others are also still stereotyped world in advertising worldwide) is mostly disgusting and sometimes dangerous.

Its one thing when Gene Wilder plays a rabbi and dons payes in The Frisco Kid – a funny film that actually is both an affirmation of Judaism and a historic corrective – since there were plenty of Jews who helped shape the American West. And the case can be made for Barbara Streisand dressing up as Yentl. But it is quite another thing when an Ukrainian café owner encourages customers to dress up as Hasids to laugh and eat and drink on the very site the Lviv’s destroyed Beth Midrash, in the shadow of the ruined Golden Rose Synagogue, whose worshipers were rounded up an murdered. No matter what one thinks of the strictures of the Hasidim, the place of their death is no place for caricature. There is no one to answer back.

Commercializing Holocaust suffering (or stoicism or heroism) – through ignorance or malice cannot be condoned. Even when done in way that is meant to celebrate the victim (Ann Frank), such exploitation actually belittles her. Maybe the apartment owner figured if Broadway, Hollywood and publishers around the world could make money selling their version of Anne Frank “why not me, too.” After all, the Ann Frank House is a big Amsterdam tourist destination. Why shouldn’t the neighbors cash in? For the real Anne Frank apartment, click here.

Some of my (Jewish) friends do not feel quite as squeamish about this as I do. They delight in a post-modern deeply ironic (and often self/Jewish-deprecating) style that views these episodes of exploitation and misappropriation as specimens to be collected and analyzed but not criticized or eradicated. Maybe in America or Israel, where there is so much real Judaism, and so much reliable information about Jews is available. In Europe, however, we cannot be so sanguine. Ignorance about the what, who, when, where and why of Jews and Judaism is so overwhelming that even a few well placed stereotypes can win the debate.

What does all this have to do with Jewish art and monuments? Its about the way people read things Jewish - and the care that needs to be taken in presenting selected aspects of the Jewish past. Culture experts and historians do not just collect information, we must know how to present it. Good history and thoughtful presentations must compete in the marketplace not just of ideas, but of commodities.

Ukraine: Attack on Kirovograd Synagogue Thwarted

Ukraine: Attack on Kirovograd Synagogue Thwarted

(ISJM) The Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union reports (in BIGOTRY MONITOR, Volume 8, Number 41, October 17, 2008) an attack on the historic Great Choral Synagogue of Kirovograd in Ukraine was foiled by the local SBU, a successor to the KGB. A group of far-right extremists allegedly planned to blow up the century-old synagogue, according to an October 7 report by Interfax. The SBU uncovered the group early this year but only just announced the fact.

The Kirovograd synagogue, located at Dzherzhinsky St., 90/40, was returned to the Jewish community in 1991. It also houses a small Jewish history museum on the upper floor, has been the site of previous anti-Semitic attacks.

In January 2006, Kirovograd inaugurated new square near the synagogue dedicated to victims of the Holocaust. A Holocaust memorial has stood on the spot for many years, but the site was contested by a local developer. Long-term city residents recall that the site of the square was the spot where Nazi soldiers gathered Jews from the city and region on Yom Kippur of 1941 prior to murder.