News, articles and information about Jewish art, architecture, and historic sites. This blog includes material to be posted on the website of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments (www.isjm.org).
Cemeteries: Non-Jews Often Essential for Cemetery Upkeep
by Samuel D. Gruber
It has long been the custom for Jewish communities to hire non-Jews as custodians and maintenance workers at Jewish cemeteries. Under Communism, it was not uncommon for Jewish survivors and descendants to hire (often clandestinely) local people - often farmers- to look after Jewish cemeteries in communities where no Jew survived. The cemeteries were kept clean and secure and the custodian earned much needed cash. Over the past decades this type of arrangement has become more regularized, and many Jewish communities hire local people to regularly clean cemeteries - especially to cut weeds and other excess vegetation.
It is well known that when local (non-Jews) are involved in the care of the Jewish cemeteries the risk of vandalism decreases because the caretakers take a proprietary interest in the property, and in small towns they are likely to know anyone who trespasses. In the Czech Republic, in a small number of cases, the Federation of Jewish Communities has refurbished former caretakers' apartments situated at the edge of cemeteries, and these have been rented at reduced rates to part-time caretakers, as part of their compensation.
Another way that non-Jews have been increasingly involved in caring for Jewish cemeteries has been through the organization of occasional excursions to cemeteries by local school groups, civic groups, church groups and others. In the 1990s these cleaning projects were usually ad hoc and nearly spontaneous. More and more, however, they have been organized and the group not only do good work, but they receive instruction in the history of the Jewish community and the significance of the cemetery, and they are also taught best practices for cemetery care. There are now so many such programs - especially in Germany and Poland - that it is hard to keep track of them.
A few recent examples include secondary school students carrying out in May a second annual clean-up of the local Jewish cemetery in the German city of Lüdinghausen. As part of the project, the children received lessons about the fate of the city’s Jews during the Holocaust. Read the original article (in German).
In Poland, as I have previously reported, students of The Public Middle School No.2 in Dabrowa Tarnowska took the local Jewish cemetery under their care. Within the framework of 'To Bring Memory Back' program they regularly visit the cemetery, gather litter and clean up the matzevot.
On June19, 2009, the Foundation also signed an agreement with the Central Board of Prison Service which will allow inmates of 85 correctional facilities to help clean up Jewish cemeteries in Poland. Prison inmates are already used to help clean highways and other locations, as is the case in many countries.
While some might find it uncomfortably ironic that prisoners will be used to clean cemeteries - many of which were originally pillaged by forced laborers during the Nazi occupation, the situations are not analogous. Instead, the agreement demonstrates that Jewish hertiage in Poland is increasingly included in a broad range of planning efforts for the protection and care of all national resources. It also demonstrates that those in the Jewish community in charged with the difficult task of maintaining an enormous portfolio of properties - especially of cemeteries - have to be even more creative in order to get the work done.
Conference: Life and Work of the Maharal of Prague
(ISJM) The Jewish Community of Prague will host a conference dedicated to the life and work of the great thinker and rabbi, the Maharal of Prague (Judah Lowe Ben Bezalel) from September 7-9, 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of the learned and legendary Rabbi and community leader.
The conference seeks to bring about a full discussion on such topics as the Prague Maharal’s role in the life of Ashkenazi Jewry at the beginning of the modern era, his position in the Jewish religious philosophy of his period, and the importance of his spiritual legacy to modern Jewish philosophy and life. This special event will be attended by internationally renowned experts across the rabbinic and academic world. The official languages of the conference will be English and Hebrew.
The following events will be held as part of the conference:
Group visit to the Maharal’s grave
Ceremonial opening of the conference
Gala reception at an historical venue
Visit to the exhibition on the Prague Maharal
Visit to the Jewish Museum in Prague
The event is being organized in cooperation with the Department of Religious Affairs in the Diaspora (the Sochnut) and other institutions, including the Ariel University Center of Samaria, Charles University in Prague, the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic and the Jewish Museum in Prague.
For more information please visit the website at: www.maharal.name
Czech Republic: Tour the former Jewish Quarter of Trebic
Ruth Gruber writes about the Jewish sites in Trebic and links to a recent radio story that tours the former Jewish quarter. Trebic was one of the Czech success stories of the 1990s, Interest in the historic town including its Jewish sites transcended the strictly Jeiwsh audience - in a sense Trebic's "Ghetto" (much like the Jewish quarter in Prague) broke out of the Jewish tourism "Ghetto," that so many Jewish find thems trapped in - unrelated to broad treams of tourist interest and revenue.
New EU funding - soon to be announced in detail - is intended to remedy this situation at several other important Jewish centers in the Czech Republic. More on this important development when it is officially announced (later this summer?).
Venice, Italy. New Jewish Cemetery on the Lido, Memorial to Jewish soldiers killed in WW I. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber, 2006.
Malady Boleslav, Czech Republic. Monument in Jewish cemetery to Jewish soldiers who died in WW I. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, 2009.
Gyongyos, Hungary. World War I Memorial in Jewish Cemetery. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2005.
Jewish War Memorials by Samuel D. Gruber
(ISJM) Today is Memorial Day in the United States. It's a holiday that began after the Civil War as Decoration Day to commemorate those who died - on both sides of the conflict - during that long and bloody confrontation. Jews, too, died for the North and South. And there were Jewish civilian casualties as well. I'm thinking of a little girl's grave I once saw in Vicksburg, Mississippi. She was a casualty of the Union shelling of the Confederate town. I have a slide of that somewhere, but it is not digitized, so its posting will have to await another time. I know there are memorials to American Jewish soldiers in synagogues and cemeteries across the country, but I have not made a point of collecting these.
I recall with sadness seeing almost 20 years ago the marble memorial plaques left behind by a congregation on Coney Island when they abandoned their old synagogue - and let it fall into ruin. At that time I couldn't find any musuem or archive interested in rescuing these heavy marble plaques. I assume they were later destroyed with the building. I'm going to keep my eyes open now for other examples, and I encourage my readers to send me examples they know.
Meanwhile, I'm posting some Jewish war memorials in Europe I have visited recently - since the advent of digital photography. Here are examples of monuments to Jewish soldiers who died in the First World War from cemeteries in just three countries - Italy, the Czech Republic and Hungary. There remains a common misconception that Jews were frequent draft-dodgers from this conflict. These monuments tell a different story. I know many more such monuments exist throughout Europe and I think it important to inventory and document these. Besides being an act of rescuing a little remembered history, and of remembering the fallen themselves, this collection is an interesting and valuable reminder of an already begun process of artistically distinctive commemorative monuments made by Jews in the years before the Holocaust. This is a tradition that was then revived immediately after the Holocaust by survivors, and then again on a large scale in more recent decades.
Happily, all three of these monuments are in cemeteries that are now well cared for. The great one of the noble lion pierced by spears is from the Hungarian town of Gyongyos, where the cemetery was restored since this photo was taken (it was part of a reconnaissance project prior to finding a donor). There is also a large and impressive Holocaust memorial on the site.
Add-on:
Ruth Gruber has posted more examples of Jewish War Monuments on her blog. Click here.
Top: Shirley Moskowitz. Interior of Synagogue, Pinczow (Poland) and Below: Cemetery, Rymanow (Poland). Monotypes, 1993. Collection of Jacob W. Gruber.
Synagogues and Cemeteries by Shirley Moskowitz Gruber by Samuel D. Gruber
It’s a day after Mother’s Day, but I would like to say something about my own mother, the artist Shirley Moskowitz Gruber (1920-2007). She was a great person and a great mom, but for the purposes of this blog (Jewish art and monuments) I’ll mention some of her artwork. Though she was best known for her landscapes and cityscapes – and especially her work in Italy from the 1970s until shortly before her death in 2007, she also over the years produced a significant number of works devoted to Jewish themes. Shirley was an artist who was Jewish – but not ostensibly or exclusively a Jewish artist. In fact, she never, as far I can recall created any Jewish ritual art or had much interest in it. She did over the years, however, produce several works the subjects of which were Jewish ceremonies. A good example of this is the lino-cut print of children in a Simchas Torah procession made in the early 1960s. This work, like much her output in those years centered on children – especially her own.
Shirley Moskowitz (n.d., early 1960s) Simchath Torah. Lino-cut print. Collection of Samuel Gruber & Judtih Meighan)
Much later, beginning in the 1990s, she came back to Jewish themes because of the work of two of her children – my sister Ruth and I. In June 1993, she took a break from her work in Italy and traveled with Ruth by car through the Czech Republic and Slovakia to Poland, on her way to surprise me there (where I was leading a tour with Carol Herselle Krinsky sponsored by the World Monuments Fund). Along the way Ruth and Mom stopped at a lot of cemeteries and synagogues which Mom sketched or photographed, and then when she returned to her press in Morruzze (Italy), she produced a series of vivid monoprints recording and interpreting these scenes. A few year later, a visiting friend from Poland saw some of these works and insisted they be shown in Poland, and that began a ten-year traveling itinerary for the works organized by the Jewish Cultural Center in Krakow, that ended at the then-new Jewish Museum in Galicia.
These works have now returned to the family, but I thought I would show some of them here. Today, these scenes and many like them are well-known, but in 1993 they were still a representation of a lost and mostly forgotten world. Its importnat to me that Shirley viewed the remains with a sense of loss, but she also treated them as parts of the landscape as she did the ruins of Italy (or derelict buildings in Philadelphia) which she often painted.
For those who would like to know more abut the life and art of Shirley Moskowitz Gruber, the family has recently created a website. On this you can read an essay about her work that I wrote in 1996 for a retrospective exhibition on the occasion of her 75th birthday. There is also a lovely eulogy by Rabbi Laura Geller, and a memorial essay by Ruth Ellen Gruber. This is a work in progress – we are gradually locating her work and having it photographed. If any of my readers have memories of Shirley or her work, we invite you to contribute these to the site.
Michelle Obama, Leo Pavlat and Micheala Sidenberg at Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague; Michelle Obama at Tomb of Rabbi Loew; Michelle Obama and Prague Jewish leaders at Altneushul. Photos: Prague Jewish Museum
Michelle Obama in Prague's Old Jewish Quarter
By Samuel D. Gruber
(ISJM) We know that US First Lady Michelle Obama has a cousin who is a rabbi in Chicago, and is no stranger at Chicago's TempleIsaiah-KAM, located right across the street from the Obama's Hyde Park House. But now Mrs. Obama has added some history to her Jewish Studies curriculum by visiting Prague's Jewish quarter, and spending time at the Pinkas Synagogue and Altneushul, and at the Old Jewish Cemetery. Read the Prague Jewish Museum press release here.
I am a big fan of Michelle Obama, and not just because we are both Princeton alumni. I just think she smart, cool, elegant, beautiful and seems to know how to have fun, too. My admiration grew this week as Michelle took the time on the presidential European tour to visit some of the landmarks of Prague’s Jewish quarter. Her interest was probably a politically smart move, but I think her interest is real, and her understanding is deep enough to know that these sites – though very old – resonate with meaning and still carry great relevance today. Indeed, every generation can retell the story of Prague Jewish monuments and their history and learn new lessons. For the most part the Prague Jewish Museum and the Czech Jewish community have done a good job doing this. But in this recession, visitorship to the Museum has been down. I hope Mrs. Obama’s visit stirs new interest.
Congratulations to my colleagues in Prague - especially Prague Jewish Museum Director Leo Pavlat who was Michelle's guide, -but also to Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic Jiří Daníček, and Executive Director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic Tomáš Kraus, whose hard work and dedication for almost 20 years laid the foundation for the "Czech Jewish Miracle," that has seen the revival of Jewish life, and also an amazing organizational commitment to the protection and preservation of Jewish sites throughout all of the Czech Republic (I had the pleasure of being in the Czech Republic a few weeks ago and seeing some of the newest achievements, and I will be writing about them soon).
Mrs. Obama visited the 16th-century Pinkus Synagogue built up against the old cemetery. It is an important example of the mix of Gothic and Renaissance styles, but today is mostly celebrated as an extremely effective and moving memorial to the approximately 78,000 Czech Jews sent to their deaths in the Holocaust. This monument – with the inscribed names and dates of birth and death of the victims, was first created in the 1950s as one of the earliest Holocaust memorials. Its form – the long lists of names - has been copied in many subsequent memorial monuments (including Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC), not far from the Obama’s new residence. But the names were destroyed and the memorial was closed from 1968 until the Velvet Revolution in 1989. One of the first acts of new President and former dissident Vaclav Havel was to promise the memorial’s renewal – a task carried out between 1992 and 1995. I don’t know if Mrs. Obama was told all this, but the Pinkas is now a monument to Jewish life in the Prague Ghetto, a Memorial to the Holocaust and a monument to contemporary democratic ideals. The building was damaged again in the floods that hit Prague in 2003. It was quickly restored with help of local and international donors (including the Jewish heritage Program of the World Monuments Fund).
Mrs Obama spent time in the upstairs exhibitions at the Pinkas Synagogue, where copies of artworks of the child victims of Terezin and Auschwitz are on view. I am sure that she will with her many lessons – though no doubt she is already intensely aware of them – about the preciousness of children, the madness of bigotry, and power of art.
Mrs. Obama then visited the Old Jewish cemetery. She stopped at the grave of Rabbi Loew, the MaHaRaL, the most famous gravestone in the cemetery. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of the Rabbi Loew, and a major exhibition about his life, work and times will open in Prague this coming August (more on this later).
I hope that Mrs. Obama was also shown the elaborate gravestone of Hendl, the wife of Jewish financier (and first Jew raised to the nobility) Jacob Bashevi, from 1628. This is the only elaborate sarcophagus style tombstone for a woman in the entire Old Jewish Cemetery. Hendl was honored (as was Michele) for being the wife of a famous leader (but she may have been honored in her own right for her learning and charitable deeds). The epitaph states in part:
“…The gracious Hendl, daughter of Ebrl Gerorim, may the memory of the just be blessed, wife of the head and noble leader of his generation, k’m’r’ Jacob, son of k’m’r Abrahamb(at)’ Sche(eba), may the memory of the just be blessed. And Jacob set up this memorial I sorrow / and all the people cried and lamented / over this noble lady, our leader / buried and hidden here / gone is her glory, gone her magnificence / as the voice of the crowds in the city of the faithful / we all follow her paths / Alas! for the pious, the model of humility / virtue, chastity and purity / she left this world as pure as when she entered it / hastening to fulfill the commandments, the lesser and the greater / and ever stood in the front rank / hastening morning and evening to prayers / and her heart was turned towards God in faith / in awe, in pious modesty, with clear speech / in the order and according to the commands of Rabbi Hemenun / commandments for a light and learning for a torch / her hand stretched out, her right hand grasping firmly / …(translation from Milada Vilimjova, The Prague Ghetto (Prague: Aventinum, 1990), English edition translated by Iris Urwin, 1993), p. 178.
Perhaps Mrs. Obama was also shown the grave of Rivka, daughter of Meir Tikotin, who died in the early 1600s. She is known as the first Jewish woman author in Prague. Her works (known only in fragments) on infant and child care, and her handbook for midwives and young mothers, might resonate with Michelle in her role as “First Mom”
Mrs Obama ended her visit to the Jewish Quarter with a visit and presentation ceremony at the Altneushul, the Jewish treasure of Prague. Needless to say, the group photo was taken in the main sanctuary, with Czech Jewish leaders lined up along the north wall. As this was a visit, it was OK for Mrs. Obama to view the space, though of course no woman can enter here for prayers. I wonder if Michelle was shown the little “listening window” visible in the photo to the upper left.. It’s the window from the women’s annex.
There are many inscriptions on the walls of the Altneushul, mostly abbreviations of well known passage from scripture. I hope Mrs. Obama was also shown the abbreviation recalling Psalm 34:15: “Shun evil and do good.” This may already be the Obamas’ motto. If not, it should be.
The Prague Daily Monitor has reported that a memorial to Holocaust victims was installed in the Czech town of Liberec, 90 kms NNE of Prague, on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht. The Renaissance-Revival style synagogue of Liberec, built in 1889 was set afire by the Nazis in 1938 and then demolished. Before the Holocaust 1600 Jews lived in Liberec. Only 37 survived.
The new memorial is located in the former ceremony hall of the Jewish cemetery, built in 1900 and used as a storage space until this restoration (which cost 7 million Czech crowns, about 250,000 euro). The cemetery, opened in 1865 and expanded in 1896, has also been restored in recent years. In addition to graves of local Jews, the cemetery also has graves of many World War I era refugees from Galicia, and a mass grave of 11 women prisoners from the labor camp in Bílý Kostel n. Nisou.
According to the Prague Daily Monitor, Czech Senate chairman Premysl Sobotka said such memorials must be built for people not to forget about the past and not to allow anything like this to repeat.
For the restoration of the cemetery hall and the creation of the memorial, the municipality contributed 4.75 million crowns, the regional authority provided 2.5 million crowns. The remainder came from private donors and the Holocaust victims foundation.
For more information on Czech Jewish sites, the best comprehensive source remains Jiří Fiedler's Jewish Sights of Bohemia and Moravia (Prague: Sefer, 1991). I hope that Jiří, who is curator of documentation at the Prague Jewish Museum, is considering publishing a new edition updated to include all of the important restoration and commemoration work done in the Czech Republic in the past 20 years. In my experience, the Czech Republic has led the way in the scope and quality of their work in protection, preserving and presenting Jewish heritage.
Ruth Ellen Gruber reports about Hermanuv Mestec (Czech Republci), where Simhat Torah will be celebrated on October 22nd in the restored neo-Romanesque synagogue (designed by architect Frantisek Schmoranz and built in 1870).
The event will be a joint celebration by Prague's liberal Bejt Simcha congregation and the ProgressiveTemple Sinai congregation from Wellington, New Zealand. TempleSinai has a Torah scroll that comes from Hermanuv Mestec, which it received through the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust, of which I have written before.
Go to Ruth's blog for more information and photos of the synagogue.
UK: New Czech Scrolls Museum To Open in London, September 17th, 2008
The Memorial Scrolls Trust has entirely redesigned and reinstalled is facilities at Kent House in London to create a new Czech Scroll Museum, to open to the public with a reception on the evening of September 17th. The previous exhibition has been in place since 1988. I have written about the story of the scrolls before but it is a story that merits retelling.
In 1964, 1,564 Torah Scrolls arrived at Kent House in London, the home of London's Westminster Synagogue. After intense negotiations, they were brought from a dilapidated synagogue in Prague where they had moldered since they were collected from the Jewish congregations of Moravia and Bohemia at the time of their destruction. In London, during the next four decades, in a suite of rooms above the synagogue at Kent House, many of the scrolls were restored for synagogue service while others made suitable for use a memorials. Almost all the scrolls have sent out to communities across the world, where their use and exhibition is a constant reminder of the Holocaust.
The existence of the Torah scrolls is a constant reminder of the murder of Czech Jews and the destruction of Czech Jewish communities and synagogues in the Holocaust. The survival of the Torah scrolls and their rescue and repair and subsequent distribution to Jewish communities throughout the world, is in its simplest terms, testimony to the resilience of Judaism and the Jewish people. The new museum, which is the product of the energy and commitment of Evelyn Friedlander, Chair and Curator of the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust, and German designer Fritz Armbruster, tells these stories, and more. The Jewish Museum in Prague has provided support, information and contributed exhibition objects on loan.
In addition to commemorating those tens of thousands of Czech Jews killed in the Holocaust, Evelyn Friedlander writers in the Trust’s newsletter that “The Museum is also a memorial to two groups of people; the Jews of the Prague Jewish community who worked at the Central Jewish Museum and who proposed the plan that enabled so many ritual objects to be saved. The second group to be honored in our new exhibition is those founder members of Westminster Synagogue, who, under the leadership of Rabbi Harold Reinhart, enabled these Scrolls to be brought to London. Here, they were returned to life and distributed to communities all over the world.” The new museum shows the various stages of the story of the rescue of the Scrolls, from the tragedy of the Czech Jewish community under the Nazis, to the arrival of the Scrolls in London, the subsequent work done by professional scribes, the sending out of the scrolls to their new Jewish (and non-Jewish homes) and the present-day research undertaken by those recipients to explore the background of their Scroll.
Among the exhibits are the remaining scrolls lying on the original wooden racks where they were placed when they arrived, and an display of some of the Torah binders which were tied around the scrolls. The exhibition also show’s the scribe’s table where he worked meticulously upon the scrolls, together with his ink, pens and other equipment.
The Museum will open on 17th September and thereafter will be open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 4 pm.? Groups are asked to contact the Trust to arrange party visits.
Address: Westminster Synagogue, Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge, London SW7 1BX
Restoration of Baroque Synagogue in Jičín (Czech Republic) complete.
By Samuel D. Gruber (ISJM) (June 20. 2008)
Following nearly eight years (2001-2008) the restoration of the magnificent Baroque synagogue in Jičín, North Bohemia (Czech Republic) is complete. The Prague Jewish Community will officially open the building to the public on Thursday, June 19, 2008. The restoration project is part of a continuing effort by the Czech Jewish Community to reclaim, protect and preserver its historic, cultural and artistic heritage.
A Jewish settlement is known to have existed in Jičín in the second half of the 14th century, but Jews were expelled from the town in 1542-45 and again in 1557-63. The now-restored synagogue was erected in 1773, more than a century after Jews are known to have been readmitted to the town. According to Dr. Arno Pařík of the Prague Jewish Museum, "this is an exceptionally pure example of a small, late Baroque synagogue." It is a rectangular building, approximately 12.5 meters long and 8.2 meters wide, with a fairly high saddle roof over a barrel-vault, supported on traverse arches and 90 cm. thick walls. The sanctuary is well-lit by three tall arched windows on the south and north walls. Smaller windows are set in the west (façade) and east walls, the latter dominated by the well-preserved masonry Ark, flanked by twisted columns. The vivid wall paintings – mostly in reds and blues – have been restored to their 1840 appearance.
These photos taken in May 2008 near the end of restoration work are provided by Dr. Arno Pařík and the Jewish Museum of Prague. Additional photos of the restored building will be posted soon at www.isjm.org
The building is now one of best preserved late Baroque synagogues remaining in Central Europe.
The restoration of the synagogue was supervised by engineer Mojmír Malý at Matana a.s., Administration of Buildings and Cemeteries. Heritage supervision is provided by the Zecher Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Monuments through Dr. Arno Pařík, and the National Heritage Institute – specialist department in Pardubice. Financing has been provided by the Jewish Community of Prague, the Czech Ministry of Culture, the District Authority of Hradec Králové, and the Municipal Government of Jičín. Financial support for the synagogue renovation has also been provided by the Jewish Heritage Program and World Monuments Fund.
A Torah scroll from Jicin is now in the possession of Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, Massachusetts (USA).
For more on the history and architecture of the building see Arno Pařík, "History and Renovation of Jičín Synagogue," Judaica Bohemiae (40/2004), 104-122.
This blog provides news and opinion articles about Jewish art, architecture and historic sites - especially those where something new is happening. Developed in connection with news gathering for the International Survey of Jewish Monuments website (www.isjm.org), this blog highlights some of the most interesting Jewish sites around the world, and the most pressing issues affecting them.
I am available for public lectures and presentations as well as private tours and consulting. To learn more click here.
Recent and upcoming talks, lectures and tours:
"Tent, Tabernacle, Synagogues: A Modern take on an Ancient Form,” Paper to be presented at European Association of Jewish Studies, Krakow, Poland (July 18, 2018)
"Arnold W. Brunner (1857-1925) and the First Generation of American-born Jewish Architects."
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