Jewish Heritage Europe: Retooled, Redesigned and Relaunched

Jewish Heritage Europe Retooled, Redesigned and Relaunched

Jewish-Heritage-Europe.eu, an ambitious website intended to collate new and information about Jewish historic, religious and cultural sites in Europe funded by the Rothschild Foundation and active especially in 2006-2007, has been entirely redesigned and updated. The version of the site which is much more user friendly and contains more up-to-date information and news was given a "soft-launch" in Prague in December.

The new site will include most of the old site detailed information on Jewish sites in European countries, but will update and expand this information, include many more photos, and link this material to news items, new publications and broader topics ad issues relevant to the study, preservation, protection and presentation of Jewish sites.

According to new home page:

"Jewish Heritage Europe is a comprehensive web site aimed at facilitating communication and information exchange regarding projects, initiatives and other developments concerning Jewish heritage and Jewish heritage sites: restoration, funding, ongoing projects, best-practices, advisory services and more. We hope to foster contacts among Jewish communities, private individuals or bodies, foundations, state and civic organizations, monuments protection authorities and other stakeholders and interested parties.

As a project of the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe, our goal is for JHE to be a clearing house for a variety of such information and a go-to online resource for people involved or interested in Jewish heritage to find addresses, contacts and news. You can also find us on Facebook and follow our Twitter feed."

To contribute information to Jewish-Heritage-Europe.eu write here.

Ruth Ellen Gruber's JTA column about our friend Maros Borsky:

Ruth Ellen Gruber's JTA column about our friend Maros Borsky:

In Slovakia, being strategic about preserving Jewish heritage

By Ruth Ellen Gruber · August 28, 2011

Maros Borsky, vice president of the Bratislava Jewish community, standing in the Orthodox synagogue in Zilina, Slovakia. The shul is one of the sites on his Slovak Jewish Heritage Route. (Ruth Elen Gruber)

RUTHLESS COSMOPOLITAN

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (JTA) -- In 1989, on the eve of the fall of communism, the American poet Jerome Rothenberg published a powerful series of poems called "Khurbn" that dealt with the impact of the Holocaust on Eastern Europe.

In one section, he recorded conversations he had had in Poland with local people who had little recollection of the flourishing pre-war Jewish presence.

"Were there once Jews here?" the poem goes. "Yes, they told us, yes they were sure there were, though there was no one here who could remember. What was a Jew like? they asked.

"No one is certain still if they exist."

I often think of this poem when I travel to far-flung places in Eastern and Central Europe, and it was certainly on my mind on a trip to Slovakia this August.


That's because yes, there are still Jews here, and the post-Communist revival has reinvigorated Jewish communities in the region.


But also, despite this, numbers are still so small that even in many places where Jews once made up large parts of the population, Jewish history and heritage have been, or run the risk of being, forgotten.


"Look," my friend Maros Borsky reminded me in Bratislava. "Kids who were born after 1989 don't even remember communism."

Borsky is trying to do something about this -- which is why I was in Slovakia.


Read the entire story here.

Slovakia -- Trencin and the mixed emotions of visiting Jewish sites

My sister Ruth Ellen Gruber has recently been traveling in Slovakia with our friends Maros Borsky, Rabbi Andrew Goldstein and others. Read her thoughts about the trip, and check out her blog for more reports. In May, 2011, not knownig Ruth was taking this trip, I encouraged people to do the same and wrote about some of Slovakia's outstanding Jewish buildings, including the ones Ruth writes more on here.

Slovakia -- Trencin and the mixed emotions of visiting Jewish sites

Synagogue in Trencin, 1993. Monotype by Shirley Moskowitz (c) estate of Shirley Moskowitz

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

There usually comes a time when you visit sites of Jewish heritage in Eastern and Central Europe when the impact of the past -- the destruction wrought in the Holocaust -- breaks through and grabs you. I have experienced this often: I love looking at the synagogue buildings and admiring the architecture and recalling the richness of Jewish history and recognizing their importance to the cultural heritage of society at large and applauding the way that many by now have been restored for cultural use. Likewise when I thrill to the wonderful carving on Jewish gravestones and appreciate the creativity and aethestic verve that produced them. Still, I sometimes find myself unexpectedly choked up, even weeping.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I wrote about these contradictory feelings at length in the introduction to my book Jewish Heritage Travel.

And Rabbi Andrew Goldstein touched on this theme in the sermon he gave after our trip to Slovakia this month following the Slovak Jewish Heritage Route (which I posted HERE). That is why he and his wife, Sharon, held informal "services for synagogues" in a couple of the synagogues we visited -- notably the still semi-ruined one in Liptovsky Mikulas and the Status Quo synagogue in Trnava, now an art gallery.

Read the entire blogpost and see more of Ruth's pictures here.

Romania: Radauti Synagogue Restoration

Romania: Radauti Synagogue Restoration

by Samuel D. Gruber

My sister Ruth Ellen Gruber recently reported on her Jewish Heritage Travel Blog that our ancestral synagogue in Radauti, Romania is under restoration, a process that appears to be proceeding quickly - a rare occurrence in Romania - where the Jewish community is overwhelmed with care for so many sites and is always strapped for funds.

Radauti, Romania. Synagogue interior. Photos: Ruth Ellen Gruber

I has a special fondness for the Franz Josef Synagogue - as it is known in memory of the Austrian emperor especially beloved by Bukovina Jews. Not only is it the site of my grandfather's bar mitzvah, but it is one of the first "historic" (by which I mean pre-modern) synagogues I ever visited. I was there with my parents on a trip to Romania in 1972. I was a skinny teenager with longish hair, but taller than any remaining Jew we met in the town (see picture). I remember well how one of the men who showed us the synagogue was amazed (real or feigned) over my hair.

When told I was a great-grandson of Anschel Gruber, he expressed skepticism (in part because of my hair), and said - "Well, Anshel Gruber was a very pious Jew, if you are his grandson, than read..." and he opened a siddur and stuck it in front of my face. Fortunately, my Junior Congregation and bar mitzvah Hebrew was good enough, and I passed the test.

Radauti, Romania. Two views of my visit in 1972. That's me on the bottom left, with my mother Shirley Moskowitz next to me. Note the Moorish-style horseshoe arches on the Ark and Ark wall. Photos: Jacob W. Gruber.

The next time I came to the synagogue was in the bitterly cold winter of 1978, in the company of Ruth, then UPI bureau chief in Belgrade, and Romania's chief Rabbi Moses Rosen (and retinue). Ruth and I accompanied the rabbi on his annual whirlwind Hanukkah pilgrimage to the Jewish communities of Romania. This time the old synagogue was filled with people, brilliantly lit, and filled with song from the children's choir that accompanied Rosen's roadshow. Since then much has changed in Romania - for its diminished Jewish community and for the entire country. But the synagogue still stands and is finally receiving a new lease on life. It is one of the surviving synagogues in the country deemed "operating," and by all accounts it will remain dedicated as a synagogue. How often and when it will be used is uncertain, for there are few Jews left in the area.

Radauti, Romania. Synagogue, interior decoration. The inclusion of instruments is a common occurrence in synagogues of the region - and elsewhere - illustrating the 150th Psalm. Photos: Arthur Schankler.

Slovenia: Maribor Synagogue Becomes Independent Jewish Culture and Research Institute

Maribor, Slovenia. Medieval synagogue restored as museum and cultural center.
Photo courtesy of Kulturni Center Sinagoga Maribor.

I last wrote at length about the medieval synagogue of Maribor, Slovenia in September 2009. Ruth Ellen Gruber now reports the latest from Maribor on her blog Jewish Heritage Travel:

Maribor Synagogue Becomes Independent Jewish Culture and Research Institute; Calls for Participants in Arts Competition:

The medieval synagogue in Maribor, Slovenia, which was restored 10 years ago to become a culture center, was transformed last month into "an independent public institution serving as a museum and a cultural and research center dedicated to preserving the heritage of what was once a thriving Jewish community in Slovenia."

To celebrate both the 10th anniversary of the restoration and the new independent status of the institution, the Maribor Synagogue - the Center of Jewish Cultural Heritage has issued a call for artists to take part in an international competition called "Images of the Maribor Synagogue".

The synagogue is one of Slovenia's most important Jewish heritage sites and one of the oldest known synagogues in Europe.

Read more here.

jewish-heritage-travel: Stones and Stone-carver images from a century ago

Stones and Stone-carver images from a century ago
(cross posted from http://jewish-heritage-travel.blogspot.com)

Ruth Ellen Gruber keeps posting interesting material on the history of Jewish gravestone carving.

See: jewish-heritage-travel: Stones and Stone-carver images from a century ago

In this post she shows images by Jewish artist Solomon Yudovin (1892-1954). a talented artist born near Vitebsk (where Marc Chagall was born). Yudovin was one of the artists who participated with An-Sky in the Jewish ethnographic expeditions through Volynia and Podolia (Ukraine). Yudovin photographed and copied the many of the Judaica objects and artworks discovered and collected and he later used many of these same themes in his won work - adapting by continuing Jewish traditional art motifs, themes and iconography.


One of my favorite Yudivin works is "Shabbat." Ruth should like this for all the candlestick imagery. I often show this image when I speak of the architecture and imagination of the shtetl.

Romania: Iasi Synagogue in Restoration

Iasi, Romania. Synagogue. Photo: ISJM files, photographer and date unknown.

Ruth Ellen Gruber writes on her blog that the historic Great Synagogue in Iasi, in northern Romania, is under restoration. The 1671 synagogue was the oldest surviving synagogue building in Romania. Iasi had scores of synagogues before the Holocaust.

Ruth writes: "The synagogue has simple lines and tall dome and is set in a small garden, almost totally surrounded by new buildings. Inside, a huge, elaborate Ark, surrounded by frescoes, fills one end of the hall. The former women's gallery for years housed a small exhibit on local Jewish history, organized in the 1980s."

Ruth Ellen Gruber Looks at Contemporary Jewish Cafe Culture in Krakow and Budapest

Ruth Ellen Gruber Looks at Contemporary Jewish Cafe Culture in Krakow and Budapest

by Samuel D. Gruber

In my line of work I hear many of the same remarks over and over. Two common ones are "Jewish culture (or Yiddishkeit) isn't just about synagogues and cemeteries," and "Why care about old monuments where there is no Jewish life." There are many variants on these remarks - and depending on the place, time and my mood (optimistic or frustrated) my replies vary a lot.

My sister and colleague Ruth Ellen Gruber spends much more time in Central and Eastern Europe than I do (she lives part-time in Budapest), so she gets asked these questions more frequently. In several of her articles in recent months she's given some sense of what she sees in non-synagogue/cemetery contemporary Jewish life in two of the liveliest of the region's Jewish cultural centers. These articles are view from the cafes (which for many European Jews are still considered quintessential Jewish institutions) of Krakow and Budapest.

Though the articles are not about the presence, protection or preservation of Jewish monuments per se, it is clear that the presence of the tangible pieces of past Jewish culture - religious and secular - are essential components for defining contemporary Jewish identity and ensuring new developments and creativity in contemporary Jewish life by Jews - and appreciation for Jewish culture by people of other religions and faiths and of non-believers. The physical remains create something recognizable as a Jewish space, and the lives led there are free to develop (or not) some version, new or nostalgic) or Jewish culture.

One cannot predict the cultural results of any effort to save of piece of the past. But one can - with some certainty - predict that some things will not develop - if no effort to remember and preserve the past - including its physical remnants - are made. The preservationists active in the 1990s in Krakow's Kazimierz and Budapest's Seventh District created hte canvas upon which new Jewish activities and interactions now take place.

Ruth's most recently article is from Krakow in Moment Magazine (Jan/Feb 2010):

Scenes from a Krakow Cafe

"It's a sunny morning in early July, and I'm having breakfast at an outdoor cafe table in Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter of Krakow. I have been sitting at cafes in and around Szeroka Street, the main square of Kazimierz, for nearly 20 years, watching the paradoxical Jewish components of post-communist Poland unfold, and Kazimierz itself evolve from a deserted district of decrepit buildings—some with grooves on their doorposts from missing mezuzahs—into one of Europe's premier Jewish tourist attractions, a fashionable boom town of Jewish-style cafes, trendy pubs, kitschy souvenirs and nostalgic shtetl chic...."

click here to read full story

In December, Ruth had stories in the International Herald Tribune and online New York Times and in Hadassah Magaziune about celebrating Hanukah in Budapest's historic Jewish Seventh District.

A Nod to Budapest’s Future in a Grass-Roots Celebration of Its Past

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Published: December 8, 2009

Night and Day in Jewish Time

by Ruth Ellen Gruber

Hadassah Magazine (December 2009/January 2010 Vol. 91 No. 3)

"With a new wave of cultural hot spots, dance clubs and restaurants catering to them—not to mention the growing numbers of spiritual and religious venues created to assist with questions of faith and identity—for young Jews in Budapest these may be the best days of their lives."

Hungary: Hanukah & Urbanism in the 7th District

Hungary: Hanukah & Urbanism in the 7th District


Ruth Ellen Gruber has an good and instructive piece in the New York Times on the upcoming Hanukah festival in the Seventh (and Sixth) districts of Budapest. First time that this festival has expanded to include more than 30 local businesses, including clubs, pubs and restaurants and well as Jewish institutions.

Read the article here:

A Nod to Budapest’s Future in a Grass-Roots Celebration of Its Past

by Ruth Ellen Gruber

Romania: Restored Piatra Neamt Synagogue to be Re-Dedicated on December 14, 2009

Romania: Restored Piatra Neamt Synagogue to be Re-Dedicated on December 14, 2009

The Cathedral or “Baal Shem Tov” Synagogue of Piatra Neamt, Romania has been restored after an eight year effort, and will be re-dedicated on December 14, 2009, according to an announcement by Dr. Aurel Vainer, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania (FedRom) and of the President of Jewish Community of Piatra Neamt. The restoration of the historic synagogue is fittingly scheduled for Hanukah.

The oldest surviving part of the synagogue complex was erected in 1766 and is listed as a State Historic Monument in Romania. It is the only surviving wooden synagogue in Romania, and was built utilizing the stone foundations of an earlier synagogue. There are many stories and legends associated with the synagogue, many of which concern the Ba’al Shem Tov, the found of Hasidism, who local tradition relates lived for a time in the area and sometimes prayed (in the previous) synagogue.

The simple square-plan timber building appears low from the outside, probably in order to conform to the heights of nearby buildings. The sanctuary is reached by descending steps (from a later approximately 100-year old brick annex structure) to a floor 7.5 feet below ground level, allowing a much higher-than-expected interior (about 16 feet high), surmounted by a wooden ribbed dome. A free-standing octagonal bimah, under an oval canopy, is set in the sanctuary opposite the Ark, near the west entrance.

A 2-level women’s gallery, actually a separate room, is on the north wall, and there is a one-level gallery on the west wall, above the entrance stairs. A space on the south wall is said to have been for children.

In 2001 the Federation of Jewish Communities initiated a restoration program for the synagogue, recognizing a number of serious problems including a damp and mold in the walls, a leaking roof, a wall off-axis, and a deteriorated floor and ceiling among other problems. The masonry synagogue also needed repair. It required the installation of an appropriate water-handling system, including roof replacement, as well a replastering and painting.

According to Ruth Ellen Gruber, who has visited the synagogue on several occasions: “Chandeliers hang from the ribbed wooded dome arching over the dull, brown-green walls decorated by pale stenciled flowers. Carved and gilded lions, griffins, bunches of grapes, and other decorations ornament the compact but elaborate Aron Ha Kodesh, built in 1835 by Saraga Yitzhak ben Moshe" (Jewish Heritage Travel, 2007, 269).

Very close by is the larger masonry Great of Leipziger Synagogue, built in 1839 and rebuilt after a fire in 1904.

Hungary: Continuing Struggle to Save Budapest's Seventh District

Budapest, Hungary. Kazinczy Street in the 7th District, with Orthodox synagogue. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, 2000.

Budapest: Continuing Struggle to Save the 7th District
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Ben Harris of the Jewish Telegraphic agency brings us up to date with a new story on the struggle to preserve some historic and community character in Budapest's Seventh District- the traditional home of much of the city's Jewish population, and the site of much Jewish history and culture. Ever since the fall of Communism 20 years ago, the District has been the target of development - much of it badly planned and short sighted. The destruction of the historic character of the District is estimated as high as 40%. The area is prized by office and condo developers especially because of its immediacy to the center of Budapest.

While many of the well-known synagogues in the areas have been restored, much of the urban fabric - including great apartment blocks - has been altered, or entirely replaced be new construction. Apart from its Jewish past, the area's urban and cultural role in Budapest has been much like that of New York's Upper West Side, and similar to the Upper West Side, change has come quickly after decades of relative architectural and social stability.

You can read the article here:

Coalition fights real estate development in Budapest’s Jewish quarter by Ben Harris • November 24, 2009

Ruth Ellen Gruber has followed the changes in the District over two decades. She comments on her blog about Ben Harris' article, and on some of the changes. You can read a JTA story by Ruth about the topic from 2004 here.

Jewish Symbols: Candle Sticks (Romania)

My sister Ruth Ellen Gruber at the tomb of our great-great grandmother Chaya Dvoira Herer Halpern, in the Radauti Jewish cemetery. She died Feb. 22, 1905 at the age of 69.

Jewish Symbols: Candle Sticks Author (and my sister) Ruth Ellen Gruber has contributed a piece to Tablet Magazine about her recent work documenting and contemplating the representation of women on Jewish gravestones in northeastern Romania. While there, Ruth has also indulged in some family history, which she has reported on her travel blog Jewish-Heritage-Travel. You can read the Tablet piece, illustrated with a luscious gallery of photos, here: Sticks and Stones: Representations of women in Romania’s Jewish cemeteries The images available to symbolize Jewish women were more limited than those for men. Still, an examination of funerary art demonstrates an array of symbols, and many variations on the most common - candle sticks and birds. 

Ruth has been exploring the variety of Sabbath candle sticks on gravestones in Bucovina and other parts of Romania. Some of the depictions are fairly literal, but many have evolved into complex and highly decorate designs reflecting not just local folk art motifs but also more "studied" designs, especially reflective of trends in Central European Art Nouveau or Jugenstil art. This mix of influences from local traditions and major art centers can also be seen in the synagogue art of the period. 

Ruth first made this trip in the company of her little brother (me) back in 1977, when we accompanied Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen on his annual "Hanukah pilgrimage" around the Jewish communities of Romania. I had just come up from working on a dig in the Israeli desert, and confronted a bitter cold Romania winter. Here is a picture of me at my great-grandmother's gravestone in Radauti's Jewish cemetery, looking very "old world" in my improvised winter gear. I had previously been to Radauti (and much of Romania) on a trip with my parents in 1973. Though only 22 at the time, the 1978-79 trip was already my third extended trip to then Communist "Eastern Europe." As I continue to report on this blog, many things have changed ...but some things, especially when it comes to Jewish cemeteries, have not.

Sam Gruber at the grave of his great-grandmother Ettel Gruber in the Jewish cemetery in Radauti, Romania (photo Ruth E. Gruber, 1978). A rare photo of Ettel as a younger woman is below.

Romania: Ruth Ellen Gruber Reports from Botosani Cemetery

Romania: Ruth Ellen Gruber Reports from Botosani Cemetery
by Samuel D. Gruber

In the overgrown Jewish cemetery in Botosani, Romania, the lion is truly the king of the forest.
Photo: Ruth Ellen Gruber, September 2009

(ISJM) Last April, the Jewish cemetery in Botosani, Romania was terribly vandalized, with many gravestones smashed. Ruth Ellen Gruber recently revisited the site as part of trip to study (Candle)sticks on Stone," a look at women's gravestones in Romanian cemeteries.

You can read her report and see new photos here.

Ruth's visit coincides with a strong statement issued this past week by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania (FedRom) defending itself against charges made by many Haredi groups that FedRom is negligent in its care of cemeteries and other sites. FedRom makes the case that it presently has the responsibility to care for 88 synagogue buildings and 821 Jewish cemeteries and the logistical and financial difficulties involved in this task are overwhelming.

I can testify that despite mixed record on Jewish hertiage protection and care in the past, FedRom has in the past two years made a renewed and concerted effort to professionalize its approach. The task, however, is daunting. Romania is looking at how other countries are managing their cultural hertiage assets, but even with the best intentions and plans, the number of sites, the amount of accumulated maintenance and repair required, and the tiny budget makes even maintaining the status quo difficult.

I'll post this memo and write about the situation in Romania in an upcoming post.

Slovenia: New Exhibition on Jewish Heritage in Slovenia to Open in Maribor Synagogue

Maribor, Slovenia. Medieval synagogue restored as museum and cultural center.
Photos courtesy of Kulturni Center Sinagoga Maribor.

Slovenia: New Exhibition on Jewish Heritage in Slovenia to Open in Maribor Synagogue
by Samuel D. Gruber

On September 6, 2009, the occasion of the European Day of Jewish Culture a new exhibition on the Jewish heritage of Slovenia will open in the restored medieval synagogue of Maribor. According to researcher Janez Premek a major part of the exhibition is based on research carried out by Ruth Ellen Gruber and myself in the 1990s and first published in 1996 (updated 2005) in a report by the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. The exhibition will open at 11 in the morning on the 6th, and Premk will give a tour of the exhibition at noon as part of the opening ceremonies.

At that time the first release of the US Commission sponsored survey (1996) the government of Slovenia pledged to produce a book or booklet using this material to present and promote the Jewish history and sites of Slovenia – something that never came to pass. Meanwhile, the former medieval synagogue in Maribor has been restored and developed as a center of Jewish culture. It is appropriate that this exhibition be held in this space, and I hope that something lasting – in print or on line – comes of Janez’s efforts. He tells me that in recent years some additional site have been identified, and (partly through his efforts) more archival materials relating to the Jewish history of the region have been found. Dr. Premk tells me that there is a project in the planning stage to create an Institute for Jewish Studies in Maribor, perhaps as early as 2010. When I learn more about this, I will report more in detail.

The Maribor synagogue is one a handful former medieval synagogues that have been rediscovered and redeveloped in the past decade. This building, probably originally a double-nave synagogue similar in plan to those in Worms, Prague and Vienna, also served for many centuries a church after the expulsion of the Jews from Maribor in 1493.

Top: Piran, Slovenia. Zidovski trg., Bottom: Koper, Slovenia. Former Zidovska ulica.
Photos: Ruth Ellen Gruber/U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (ISJM archive).

Other events will take place in Slovenia on September 6th in Lendava, where the former 1866 synagogue (now a cultural center) will be open with a small exhibition. There will also be tours of the Jewish history and sites of the town.

Lendava, Slovenia. Former Synagogue, now cultural center. Photos: Lendava municipality (posted on web at time of Center inauguration, link now dead).

For the most complete account of Jewish heritage sites in Slovenia see the jewish-heritage-europe.eu Slovenia page.

For more on the Maribor synagogue and cultural center see also:

Kulturni Center Sinagoga Maribor
(Maribor Synagogue Cultural Centre)
Židovska Ulica 4
2000 Maribor
Slovenia
http://users.volja.net/zemljicbo/
http://www.pmuzej-mb.si/stran.php?sinagoga-predstavitev

For links to events in other countries click here.

Lithuania: Update on Pakruojis Wooden Synagogue

Lithuania: Update on Pakruojis Wooden Synagogue

Ruth Ellen Gruber has posted an update on the condition of the wooden synagogue in Pakruojis, upon which I have previously reported on this blog. You can see new pictures and read a description here:

Lithuania -- update on fire damaged Pakruojis wooden synagogue.

So far, no good plans have been put forward to save the former synagogue, but there has been talk. As usual the issues are responsibility and jurisdiction, long term care and use, and of course, money.

Poland: Ruth Ellen Gruber on "Dark Tourism" & Auschwitz

Dachau, Germany. Crematorium on Display. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber

Poland: Ruth Ellen Gruber on "Dark Tourism" & Auschwitz

I recommend an essay by Ruth Ellen Gruber posted today on her blog. Her topic deal with the term and phenomenon now known as "Dark Tourism," and how visits to Jewish sites deserve this rubric. In this context, she describes her most recent visit to Auschwitz earlier this month.

Poland -- Dark Tourism at Auschwitz

Several years ago I gave a paper entitled "Sites of Shame: How We Remember Places We'd Rather Forget" at a conference called Framing Public Memory. My paper was not specifically about Jewish sites, but certainly they were part of the discussion. I never published that paper, but in reponse to Ruth's post, I will look it again, and think of new ways to address this question.

Italy: New website about Cherasco (Piedmont) Synagogue Restoration

Italy: New Website about Cherasco (Piedmont) Synagogue Restoration
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Ruth Ellen Gruber has posted links to a new web site of the De Benedetti-Cherasco 1547 Foundation, dedicated to the Jewish heritage of Cherasco, in northern Italy's Piedmont region, and in particular its elegant little synagogue, located in the heart of the former ghetto, which was reopened in 2006 after a full restoration. The site's photo galleries have extensive documentation of the entire restoration process, which was sponsored by the Foundation.

The Foundation will open the synagogue to the public on the following scheduled dates.

• Sunday 7, 14, 21, 28 June 2009
• Sunday 30 August 2009
• Sunday 6, 13 September 2009
• Sunday18, 25 October 2009
• Sunday 1 November 2009

Opening hours: from 14.30 to 18.30

The 18th-century synagogue has a beautifully carved Ark and bimah, with the spiral columns typical of the region. The small synagogue is perhaps the most typical of the older synagogues in Piedmont because of its location, its approach, its articulation and decoration.

As I wrote (before the restoration) in an essay about the synagogues in Piedmont recently published in catalogue Ebrei Piemontese: The Jews of Piedmont (New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 2008) (with beautiful photos by Alberto Falco):

[Cherasco] is one of a series of small upper-floor square-plan sanctuaries with ornate centrally placed tevahs. The Cherasco Synagogue is on the third floor of a building entered through the ghetto courtyard of the small town. From a small stair landing one enters directly into the sanctuary -- marked by a dedication plaque from Nathan and Abraham Benedetto. The inscription, dated 1797, reads "I will wash my hands with purity, I will encircle your Altar, O Most High! (Psalms 26:6). Below the inscription is a sink to allow the ritual purification before entering. On the wall to the right is the Ark, with finely carved gilded doors, upon which are inscribed the Ten Commandments. The Ark is impressive in its use of the twisted columns -- which appear in three sizes: small colonettes flanking the ark doors; slightly larger columns supporting an inscribed entablature; and large columns which flank the cabinet proper and support an ornate Baroque broken segmental pediment, in the center of which is set a small oval window, surmounted by a crown. The whole framing arrangement is similar to contemporary church altars. On the walls, instead of the common Biblical verses in Hebrew, one finds in Hebrew the names of the people who live in the ghetto

To read a previous blog entry on the restoration of the synagogue of Vercelli (Piedmont) click here.

For a panoramic view of the comparable Piedmontese synagogue of Carmangola click here.

Poland: Jewish Heritage on view in Bielsko Biala

Poland: Jewish Heritage on view in Bielsko Biala

(ISJM) In her most recent JTA column, "Poland’s Jewish heritage is about more than just death," Ruth Ellen Gruber writes about the contradictions in the recognition and presentation of Jewish heritage in the southern Polish town of Bielsko Biala. One interesting point that Ruth hits is that when Jewish heritage is recovered, repackaged and presented, its the result of several factors. There is altruism - a real interest in history and culture, and perhaps a genuine sense of remorse and shame; then there are economic factors - what can possibly help a local economy. Lastly, and importantly, there is demand - what do people - Jews and non-Jews want and how do they ask for it? Jewish travelers - whether tourists, Holocaust and/or religious pilgrims, genealogists, or whatever - need to ask for more. We need more contemplation, less kitsch. - SDG

Czech Republic: Tour the former Jewish Quarter of Trebic

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?).

Romania: Jewish cemetery in Botosani, Romania Vandalized in April

Romania: Jewish cemetery in Botosani, Romania Vandalized in April

The Jewish cemetery in Botosani, Romania was vandalized on April 23 (?), 2009. According to architect Lucia Apostol of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania, (as reported to Ruth Ellen Gruber) "the desecration was reported in local and national media. In all, 24 tombstone stones were destroyed, 21 of them very badly and two of them so badly smashed that it is impossible to tell whose graves they marked. Total damage is estimated at $10,000. Police suspect four teenagers of the attack -- two of them 14 years old and two of them 16."

For more and picture see:

Romania -- Jewish cemetery in Botosani Vandalized