Judaica Europeana Provides a Unified Digital Presence for Judaica Collections

Nothing beats visiting a museum in person, as these visitors to Manchester's Jewish museum learn firsthand, but someday soon Judaica Europeana might be the next best thing. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber

Judaica Europeana Provides a Unified Digital Presence for Judaica Collections

Judaica Europeana is a growing network of Jewish museums, libraries and archives which have joined to present a unified digital presences to highlight the strengths of their collections. So far twenty-three institutions in 17 cities have joined forces to provide integrated online access to Jewish collections. These include the Jewish museums of Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankurt and Toledo as well as London’s Ben Uri Gallery. The National Library of Israel will strengthen Judaica’s technical expertise and provide access to its collections. The Center for Jewish History in New York, which includes outstanding collections on Jewish life in Europe such as those of YIVO and Leo Baeck Institute, will complement the content held in Europe.

I hope I'll be able to use Judaica Europeana to getter better images than this one, which I took a few years ago without flash at the Budapest Jewish Museum. photograph: Samuel Gruber.

The Paris Yiddish Centre-Medem Library which has been associated with the project from an early stage, will provide among other things, a remarkable collection of Yiddish music. The Steinheim Institute in Duisburg has a very large database of Jewish tombstones and important photographic archives. The Spanish Ministry of Culture and the Sefardi Museum in Toledo will provide valuable content from their collections. See a full list of Partners at www.judaica-europeana.eu/partners.html

Judaica Europeana is one of a series of initiatives supported by the European Commission’s eContentplus programme that harvest and aggregate content for EUROPEANA, Europe's museums, libraries and archives online. A prototype which features 14 million items online can be accessed on www.europeana.eu. A fully operational version will become available later in 2011. Judaica Europeana is co-funded by the European Commission under the eContentplus programme, as part of the i2010 policy.

The project is just the latest in an still-evolving pan-European community of Jewish culture. In the past decade we have the slow but still struggling efforts of the Association of European Jewish Museums and also the highly popular annual Day of Jewish Culture. Judaica Europeana aims to create the most visible type of product from such international culture efforts - namely to show shared collections of Judaica to everyone, all the time, online. If successful the project will trample those last remaining cultural borders in Europe - recognizing that historically and now in contemporary terms, the Jewish people and Jewish culture are trans-national. The great strength of the site appears to be its intent and ability to house thousands of images. The weakness will be one shared with many websites - that there will be limited depth of information and analysis. For web-designers, seeing is often believing. Still, having such a big image library handy will be a boon to many.

Budapest, Hungary. Jewish Museum. Photo: Samuel Gruber

The project, however, dramatically demonstrates again the great divide that still exists in vision, organization, and technical resources between institutions in the old "West" - may of which receive state aid - and the struggling institutions in the former Soviet block. Twenty years after Communism only a few institutions such as the Prague Jewish Museum and the Jewish Historical Institute have been able to compete in competence with the old centers of London, Paris, and Berlin. A few centers, such as Budapest are also now emerging as major exhibition and research centers (on Budapest link to the JE newsletter below). Sadly, there are still many "orphaned" institutions in former "East" that most need to catalog, digitize and publish their collections. I hope that Judaica Europeana will extend a helping hand to institutions large and small.

Two views form the Amsterdam Jewish Historical Museum. Video can be watch online at home, but old synagogues are best understood in the spaces, moving around, turning this way and that, and experiencing passing time and shifting light. Ah, but how many musuem goers work that hard? Photos: Samuel Gruber.

According to Judaica Europeana, its strength "lies in the diversity and richness of its cross-domain offerings. Users will find at their fingertips ― only a few clicks away ― books, documents and manuscripts along with images, film and sound recordings on almost any subject. Everyone will be able to integrate this material in virtual exhibitions or in learning resources. The APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) developed by Europeana will allow the distribution of these resources directly into the workflow of the users, on PCs and mobile devices. This vast Jewish content resource will become progressively available online during 2011 and will continue to grow in the coming years."

The new Judaica Europeana illustrated newsletter is out and presents highlights from the collections of Frankfurt University and the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam, two virtual exhibits from Budapest and Athens and some papers given at the EAJS Congress in Ravenna. It can be viewed here.

Conference: Lviv Meeting for Museum Workers with Judaica Collections

Lviv, Ukraine. Judaica items in the collection of the Ethnographic Museum. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber, 2000.

Conference: Lviv Meeting for Museum Workers with Judaica Collections
by Samuel D. Gruber

The Faina Petriakova Center in Lviv (UKraine) will host a one-day conference on November 23rd dedicated to the methodology of the display of Judaica,Jewish history, culture and religion in the museums of Ukraine. The organizers tell me the 45 museum workers
from different cities will participate, and probably 10-15 local professionals from L'viv.

The conference comes at at time when there is growing talk, though still few resources, of establishing Jewish exhibitions and museums in several cities. At present, however, most Judaica collections in Ukraine remain in storage or in exhibitions hardly changed since the fall of Communism.

This conference is an important step in the development of the professional network of Judaica curators in Ukraine, and also an important opportunity to develop standards for information, conservation, interpretation and exhibition of Jewish history and art. It will also be important for this group to establish ongoing relations with Jewish museum professional groups elsewhere in Europe, Israel and the United States.

The language of the conference is Ukrainian, though special arrangement can be made for foreign museum professionals interested in participating. For more information contact Meylach Sheychet at meylach@mail.lviv.ua

The scheduling of the conference is at the same time as the annual meeting of the Association of European Jewish Museums. While at present there is no overlap between the participants in these event, though I hope in the future there will be an opportunity for the two conferences and their sponsors to connect.

The Faina Petrakova Center is named after art historian Faina Petriakova, former Lviv curator, who made known to the world the Judaica collection at the Ethnographic Museum in Lviv. I remember well Faina's tenacity in arranging my viewing of the collection at the Museum, against the wishes of the then-director, during my first visit to Lviv.

In 2004, as part of the discussion about founding the Center, I wrote "Faina’s efforts were recognized internationally, but her efforts and expertise were largely thwarted locally within the local museum system. This situation was just beginning to change at the time of her death. It is important to build upon Faina’s achievements, and the establishment of the Research Center as a central coordinating point for activity in the realm of Jewish heritage in the L’viv area is a crucial step. Similar efforts have taken place in other countries where established museums, university departments or Jewish communities themselves, have taken the lead. Unfortunately, this had not been the case in Ukraine in general, and certainly not in L’viv or elsewhere in Western Ukraine, once a thriving center of Jewish Europe."

The Center's organization of this conference continues Faina's legacy. I can foresee several immediately results of this meeting - including the establishment of a network connected by email, and a compilation of a (at least briefly) descriptive list Judaica collections and exhibitions in Ukraine.

Conference: Association of European Jewish Museums Annual Conference in Athens, 21-24 November 2009

Conference: Association of European Jewish Museums Annual Conference in Athens, 21-24 November 2009

(ISJM) This year, the conference of the Association of European Jewish Museums (AEJM) will be held in Athens, hosted by the Jewish Museum of Greece.

According to the AEJM website, the program (preliminary version see below) will give "participants insights into the local Jewish history and culture with a keynote lecture by Prof. Euridice Antzoulatou-Retsila, as well as visits to sights and exhibitions in and around Athens. The conference will bring together museum professionals from all over Europe and will include workshop, keynote lectures and panel discussions, on themes such as Building Bridges with other minorities and the wider community. Participants are also invited to extend the program by an additional day (Nov. 25), in order to visit the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki and sites of interest in that historic center of Jewish life."

Conference participation is for AEJM members. For those not members, consult the AEJM website to learn about individual and institutional memberships. For further
information, please contact Ulrike Roth (AEJM Administrator): aejm@aejm.org


PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME FOR AEJM CONFERENCE,
Athens, 21-24 November 2009

Saturday 21 November 2009

18:00 Arrival at the Jewish Museum of Greece (JMG)
Registration – Receipt of conference material
Guided tour of the exhibitions
Reception
Program


Sunday 22 November

9:00 Meeting at Electra Pallas Hotel (conference venue)

Sightseeing tour by bus: Athens Synagogue
Athens Cemeteries

11:30 Leave for Chalkis
12:30 Lunch offered by the Chalkis Community
14:00 Visit to Chalkis Synagogue and Cemetery: brief presentation

16:00 Return to Athens

17:30 Meeting at the Electra Pallas Hotel (conference venue)
17:45 Welcoming Address by Samuel Matsas, JMG President
18:00 Keynote Lecture by Prof. Euridice Antzoulatou-Retsila on
“Museums, Bodies of Memory”
18:40 Questions - Discussion
19:30 Reception by Athens Jewish Community at the Cultural Centre (Kosher)


Monday 23 November 2009

9:00 Meeting at the Electra Pallas Hotel (conference venue)

Keynote session and panel discussion: „Building Bridges“
This will exploring the ways in which Jewish museums build connections to different audiences: to the Jewish community, to the wider community and to other minorities.

10:45 – 11:15 Coffee/tea break

„Building Bridges“ session continues

12:00 – 13:00 Session on Looted Judaica

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch break


14:00 – 15:30 First round of workshops:

• Greek Jewish Religious Art: unique features and common characteristics. This will be presented by Christina Meri, JMG curator, illustrated with actual artifacts.

• Museum storage and preventive conservation policies: issues and solutions for small spaces. This will be presented by Mary Kapotsi, staff conservator.

• Corpus of Jewish Inscriptions of Greece: a JMG project of European and International interest. This will be presented by Anastasia Loudarou, archaeologist, who is in charge of the project.

• Educational programs and products: choices and challenges. This will be presented by Orietta Treveza, JMG education officer.

• Designing exhibitions on a small budget: in-house solutions. This will be presented by Hayia Cohen, JMG graphic designer.

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee/tea break

16:00 – 18:00 Annual General Meeting

19:00 Tour of the new Acropolis Museum

20:30 Reception by Athens Municipality at the local Mayoral Hall

Tuesday 24 November 2009

9:00 – 10:30 New Projects: Panel Discussion on innovative exhibitions and other inspiring projects – contributions are invited for this session.

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee/tea break

11:00 – 12:30 Second round of workshops

12:30 – 13:00 Workshop feedback and discussion of future priorities for AEJM

13:00 – 13:15 Conference Conclusions

Those attending the conference are invited to transfer to Thessaloniki for a visit and further program at the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki. This will include a bus tour of Jewish sites in the city, a meal and a guided tour of the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki.

Association of European Jewish Museums 2008 Annual Conference scheduled for 22 to 25 November in Amsterdam

Association of European Jewish Museums (AEJM) 2008 Annual Conference
22 to 25 November in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The Association of European Jewish Museums (AEJM) has announced its 2008 Annual Conference to be held 22-25 November in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The conference, which is the first and best opportunity for European Jewish museum professionals to gather to discuss issues and projects of mutual concern, is open to members of AEJM and invited guests.

This year's conference is hosted by the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, which will present its completed program of expansion and redesign, including the restoration of the former Ashkenazi Great Synagogue and the re-installation of the exhibition within its space.
Other themes to be addressed at the conference workshops are:

1. Collection Management issues: Database / Digitization.
2. Education / Children’s Programs.
3. Object identification: case-study Mediene (provincial Jewry) Project.

To learn more about the AEJM and AEJM membership go to their website. AEJM welcomes representatives of Jewish Museums and Judaica collections from throughout Europe. Representatives from other museums and related institutions are also welcome to participate on a limited basis. To find out more about the conference program and eligibility to attend and participate, contact Sara Tas at sara@jhm.nl.