Conference Call for Papers: Ukrainian and Jewish Artistic and Architectural Milieus of Lwow...

Call for Papers

L'viv, Ukraine. Tzori Gilod Synagogue. Ceiling/wall painting, dtl.  (before 'restoration').  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2006)

The Ukrainian and Jewish Artistic and Architectural Milieus of  Lwow/Lemberg/Lviv

International Conference, to be held in Lviv, Ukraine, on November 5-7, 2012,
organized by:

Center for Urban History of East Central Europe (Lviv, Ukraine)
Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Jerusalem, Israel)
Polish Institute of World Art Studies (Warsaw, Poland)
The Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry (Jerusalem, Israel)
Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Initiative (Toronto, Canada)

The following call for papers is posted by the organizers:

The period between Ausgleich and Holocaust (1867-1939) witnessed the rapid modernization of Galicia, and especially its metropolis, Lwow/Lemberg/Lviv. Citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and then of the Second Polish  Republic headed in a diversity of paths, leading from the segregated traditional societies towards the modern integrated one, and at the same time, to a number of nationalist perspectives. These uneasy political and cultural conditions presented challenges for every group, and especially for their creative individuals, the artists.

L'viv, Ukraine. The Temple Synagogue (from postcard).  Liwicki, architect (1840-46).

The conference focuses on artists and architects, who defined themselves or were defined as Ukrainians and Jews, and thus were the representatives of the two largest non-dominant groups in Lviv before World War II. Their modern identities were shaped, in respect or contrast to, but almost always in the context of the Polish dominance in the city, and - from the last third of the nineteenth century - in the context of Polish national resurgence.

Ukrainian and Jewish artists were haunted by stereotypical views and self-views, both similar and dissimilar: while none of them had had any "national art," the former were known as indigenous builders and artisans, though confined to the peasant's background, the latter as "an artless people," "isolated in ghetto for centuries."  For some artists it was an existential choice to acknowledge or oppose the stereotypes. Another artists' challenge was the ubiquitous modernization, reflected in the diversity of  available concepts, whether evolutionist, "renaissance," or revolutionary. How artists constructed their artworks, their selves, and their group affiliations in relation to this changing world and specific urban environment, will be the topics of the conference.

 L'viv, Ukraine. The Jewish Hospital, dtl. of dome.  Kazimierz Moklowski, arch. (1898-1902).  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2006)

We invite scholars to present their studies of artistic and professional strategies within the highly prolific Ukrainian and Jewish communities  of artists and architects.  We invite papers questioning how artists and architects articulated their belonging to different groups, how this influenced their work and their social position, how interaction with other artists in the multi-ethnic environment of the city have influenced ideas and concepts of art and its role in society.

Moreover, we would like to learn how the social position and perception of artists and architects varied in different ethnic communities, and how they changed over time. While individual papers may only focus on the artistic life and architectural practices within one community, Ukrainian or Jewish, we aim to bring a comparative perspective by inviting scholars to discuss narratives and strategies of these two groups together.

We hope for insights in three chief directions: making and socializing the art; retaining, constructing, and re-constructing bonds with the ethnic-religious groups; shaping the cultural elites by non-dominant groups.We also invite papers dealing with the question of interaction between the urban environment and artistic milieus. Inquiries into the role of Lwow/Lemberg/Lviv, but also perceptions and reflections of the city by  Jewish and Ukrainian artists and architects are thus especially encouraged.

The conference participants are encouraged to discuss a broad variety of
matters concerning creative individuals and groups, including, but not limited to:

1.    Emancipation and education: artists, architects, and engineers.
2.    Individual professional activity and career: graphical arts, painting, sculpture, photograph, decorative art, architecture and engineering; interaction of arts; religious and secular art; funerary art.
3.    Architectural presence and visibility in the cityscape: representation of minority in modern city; leaving and retaining the frameworks of the traditional environment.
4.    Education in traditional arts and crafts. Individual and group
reaction to the numerus clausus restrictions.
5.    Defining and shaping heritage: documentation, preservation, and promotion of landmarks
6.    Artistic and professional milieus of a non-dominant group: professional unions; associations; exhibitions; competitions; art critics; press.
7.    Supportive communities: welfare and social care, from orphanages to academic houses and spas.
8.    Art collecting and patronage. Private collectors. Jewish Museum and National Ukrainian Museum. Libraries.
9.    Circles of identities: local, imperial, national, and universal identity. Loyalty and nationalism in art.
10.    Relations with the "others": tutorship, co-operation, sympathy, competition, and separation.
11.    Prejudices in the realm of art, architecture and beyond: anti-Semitism, ethnic and religious discrimination.
12.    Constructing "national styles": defining Jewish and Ukrainian art and architecture.
13.     Destiny of Jewish artists and their works in Holocaust. Ukrainian artists and architects in the wars and under occupations: World Wars I and II.
14.     Post-Lviv/Lemberg/Lwow stories: artists and architects outside of Lviv.

Languages of the conference: English and Ukrainian.

Abstracts (up to 200 words) of a twenty-minute presentation with a short CV should be submitted (as an attached MSWord documents) by April 1, 2012 to Dr. Iryna Matsevko, the Academic Coordinator of the Center for Urban History at i.matsevko@lvivcenter.org, with "Conference" in the subject header.

Applicants will be notified of the decision regarding their proposals by May 1, 2012.

Limited funds for reimbursement of travel expenses and accommodation are
available. No conference fee will be charged.

Publication: The Turei Zahav (Golden Rose) Synagogue in L'viv

Publication: The Turei Zahav (Golden Rose) Synagogue in L'viv

L'viv, Ukraine. Golden Rose Synagogue ruin. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2008).

Ukraine-born, L'viv-trained and Israeli-based architectural historian Sergey R. Kravtsov, has been studying the history and architecture of Golden Rose Synagogue, destroyed in the Second Wold War and surviving as a ruin, for at least a decade.  He has now produced a handy history of the building based on a variety of source materials and recent archaeological excavations that must be the starting point for any consideration of its future conservation, rebuilding and use -- for religious, commemorative or cultural purpose.

Sergey R. Kravtsov,   Di Gildene Royze. The Turei Zahav Synagogue in L’viv (Petersberg: Michael Imhof Verlag, 2011) Kleine Schriften der Bet Tfila – Forschungsstelle für jüdische Architektur in Europa, herausgegeben von Aliza Cohen-Mushlin und Harmen H. Thies. Band 3. ISBN 978-3-86568-138-6 

L'viv, Ukraine. Golden Rose Synagogue.  Commemorative plaque at synagogue ruin. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2008).

L'viv, Ukraine. Golden Rose Synagogue ruin.  Sergey Kravtsov discussing the building's history and architecture. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2008).

    

The book is the newest publication on historic synagogue architecture from Bet Tefila - Research Unit for Jewish architecture in Europe.  Bet Tefila is a joint effort of the Technische Universität Braunschweig and the Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

The future treatment of the ruins of the Turei Zahav Synagogue in L'viv, Ukraine  (Lemberg, Lvov) is still being debated.  For the last three years at least the historic synagogue has been a focal point for all discussions of commemoration, preservation, and development in the Old Jewish Quarter of the historic, once multi-ethnic,  Renaissance planned city.  The discussion is an important one for the future of the building, for the memory of a lost population and for the direction this beautiful city will take in coming years.  Will it be a welcoming city of art and culture on the border between east and west?  Or, will it be an insular, xenophobic, and nationalist center.  In truth, the future L'viv will probably be a combination of both, and much will depend on broad political and economic trends in Ukraine and Europe as on rational or emotional appeals. But the ground work has been laid since 2008 for a progressive and inclusive recognition of the city's diverse and complex past, and how this past can serve present and future needs.

L'viv, Ukraine. Golden Rose Commemorative plaque at synagogue ruin. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2008).

L'viv, Ukraine. Golden Rose Synagogue ruin. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2008).

Kravtsov's well-illustrated account shows the synagogue in the city maps, architectural drawings, photographs, and numerous works of art depicting the structure during particular stages of its history. As much as possible, computer-aided reconstructions recreate the synagogue in its original state.

Ukraine: Golden Rose Synagogue ruins NOT under threat of demolition (though as has been the case for years, longterm care remains uncertain)

L'viv, Ukraine. Remains of Golden Rose synagogue. Photos: Samuel Gruber, 2008).

L'viv, Ukraine. Explaining the archaeology at the Gold Rose synagogue. Photo: Samuel Gruber, 2008.

Ukraine: Golden Rose Synagogue ruins NOT under threat of demolition (though as has been the case for years, long-term care remains uncertain)

There has been a lot of concern about the fate of the ruins of the Golden Rose Synagogue in L'viv, Ukraine, based on the circulation of a misunderstood that implied the imminent destruction of the site. That is not the case... the construction is on an nearby site...and includes archaeological investigations that I, among others, requested. However, overall concern for the long-term future of the entire former old Jewish quarter of L'viv is justified, and this occasion is a good opportunity to widen the discussion beyond the small number who for many years have advocated protection and preservation of the area.

For now, read Ruth Gruber's recent JTA article for the current situation. I will post more about the background and future of the areas in upcoming days.

--- Sam Gruber

Ukrainian mayor says synagogue ruins are not threatened

September 9, 2011

WARSAW (JTA) -- The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Lviv denied reports that the preserved remains of the historic Golden Rose synagogue were being destroyed to make way for a controversial hotel.

"I want to reassure everyone that no construction has ever taken place at the site of the Golden Rose," Lviv's mayor, Andriy Sadovyy, said in his statement.

"Construction of a hotel in the neighboring Fedorova Street, which has drawn criticism from some civic organizations’ representatives, has nothing to do with the site of the former Synagogue,” he said.

The mayor also said that plans were going ahead for new memorials to Lviv Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

The Golden Rose synagogue was largely destroyed during World War II; what remains are its foundations and a wall bearing arches.

On August 19, a Lviv district court ordered the Ukrainian Investment Company, the hotel's builder and investor, to "stop any preparatory and construction works on the plot" on Fedorova Street and "vacate building machines from this territory."

The site of the envisaged hotel does not directly touch the Golden Rose ruins. But critics charge that it could compromise a mikvah, the foundations of a former kosher butchery and other buildings in the old Jewish quarter.

“It is a disgrace,” said Meylakh Sheykhet, the Ukranian director of the Union Council of ex-Soviet Jews, in a statement. “They are building the hotel over the very places where there are Jewish artifacts buried and where the mikvah once stood.”

The mayor's press office said that his statement had been issued in response to an article by Tom Gross published by The Guardian newspaper and other international media outlets. Gross' article was headlined "Goodbye, Golden Rose."

In The Guardian, Gross wrote: "Last week I watched as bulldozers began to demolish the adjacent remnants of what was once one of Europe's most beautiful synagogue complexes, the 16th-century Golden Rose in Lviv."

Although the "adjacent remnants" to which Gross referred apparently did not mean the actual preserved ruins of the synagogue building, many readers were left with the impression that the synagogue itself was threatened. Other media outlets picked up the story and reported that the synagogue was being destroyed. Even Wikipedia at one point stated, "It [the Golden Rose Synagogue] was illegally demolished by the government of Ukraine in 2011 to build a hotel."

“After the publication of this information we have received inquiries from various countries of the world about the situation of the ruins of the Golden Rose Synagogue," Sadovyy said.

Sadovyy's statement noted that Lviv staged an international architectural competition last year for memorials to mark three sites of Jewish history in the city. Winners, announced in December, came from Israel, the United States and Germany.

One of the sites, the so-called Synagogue Square, includes the ruins of the Golden Rose and the space in front of it where another synagogue and a beit midrash once stood. Sadovyy said that an international group of experts "is at work" on this project. JTA has learned that Jewish representatives and city officials will meet in Lviv next month to discuss how and when to implement construction of the memorial there.

"It is extremely important to us, that, together with the Jewish community, civic organizations and everybody concerned with the fate of Lviv heritage, we resolve the issue of Synagogue fragments’ conservation as well as the issue of their worthy setting," Sadovyy said.

Exhibitions: Mark Epstein. Return of Master (Kiev, National Arts Museum)

Exhibitions: Mark Epstein. Return of Master (Kiev, National Arts Museum)

The Centre for Studies of the Culture and History of East European Jews in Kiev has organized an art exhibition of the work of Ukrainian-Jewish avant-garde artist Mark Epstein (1899-1949). The exhibition, Mark Epstein: Return of Master opened at the National Arts Museum in Kiev in mid-December and includes about 100 works and is on view until the end of this month. The exhibition is the first of Epstein's work, which was not exhibited during his lifeitme during the Societ period. In conjunction with the exhibition the Centre has published an album of about 60 Epstein works including graphics, paintings, scenographic works an sculpture.

National Art Museum of Ukraine, 6 Grushevskogo St., 278-13-57, 278-74-54, www.namu.kiev.ua, until Jan. 30

Leonid Finberg, Director of the Centre for Studies of the Culture and History of East European Jews of the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla academy” sent the following note:

Mark Epstein was a notable figure in the artistic life of Kyiv during the 1920’s. In 1928, having just finished the Kyiv Arts College, he immersed himself into the progressive arts movement of that time. He attended O. Exter’s art studio where his newest creative ideas were polished. Mark Epstein’s cubic-futurist works of the beginning of the 1920’s – Violoncellist, Family, Tailor, The Two, A Woman with a Yoke – have become part of the history of modern Ukrainian art.

Epstein was one of the founders of the artistic section of the Culture League – an association whose aim was the development of Jewish culture. Members of the section also included O.Tishler, El Lysytsky, J. Chaikov, S. Nikritin, and others. Marc Chagall, N. Altman, R. Falk, and D. Sterenberg also cooperated with the Culture League. In their effort to create new Jewish art, members of the Culture League synthesized images of traditional art with Ukrainian avant-garde ideas.

Epstein took an active part in this work. Unfortunately, only the graphic works of Epstein have been preserved from the 1920’s; representations of his sculptures have survived only as photos, while his paintings have been totally lost.

The work of the Culture League was terminated in the middle of the 1920’s. In 1932, Epstein had to move to Moscow. He took practically no part in exhibitions there, but worked a great deal. However his attempts to adjust his talent to the requirements of the times bore no evident fruit.

Here is a small selection (compliments of Flickr) of Epstein's innovative graphic designs using new forms of Hebrew lettering and composition.

Cover of the magazine "Freyd" (Joy). Kiev, Kultur-Lige, 1923, No 8, Yiddish. 27,1 x 21,5. Design: Mark Epstein Location: Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme, ParisSource: Hillel (Gregory) Kazovsky, The Artists of the Kultur-Lige, Jerusalem; Moskau 2003.

Cover of L. Reznik's "Ufstand" (Uprising). Kiev, Kultur-Lige, 1928, Yiddish. 22,5 x 13,2. Design: Mark Epstein
Location: Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme, ParisSource: Hillel (Gregory) Kazovsky, The Artists of the Kultur-Lige, Jerusalem; Moskau 2003.

Cover of a "Theather-bukh" (Book on the Theater). Kiev, Kultur-Lige, 1927, Yiddish. 23.5 x 16,5. Design: Mark Epstein Location: Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme, ParisSource: Hillel (Gregory) Kazovsky, The Artists of the Kultur-Lige, Jerusalem; Moskau 2003.

Ukraine: Apartment Building to Rise on Kremenets Mass Grave Site?

Ukraine: Apartment Building to Rise on Kremenets Mass Grave Site?

Local sources in Kremenets, Ukraine have confirmed that the City has sold the site of a Holocaust mass grave to a developer who plans to construct an apartment building (or buildings) on that location. Local Jewish activists have obtained a three month injunction that has stopped activity at the site for now, but the injunction only has only 2 more months to run.

I do not yet know which of the several known mass grave sites in the vicinity of Kremenets this is. To my knowledge, only one of these sites has been adequately marked with a monument (see: http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/hme-ukraine.htm).

For several years there has been an international effort to protect and preserve the extensive Jewish cemetery of Kremenets and Jewish cemeteries in nearby towns.

To recevie updates on the situation contact Dr. Ron Doctor, Co-Coordinator, Kremenets Shtetl CO-OP/Jewish Records Indexing-Poland An activity of the Kremenets District Research Group (rddpdx@gmail.com).

Sniatyn, Ukraine. (top) Garbage piled in front of Jewish cemetery prior to cleaning and (bottom) cemetery after cleaning: Photo: courtesy Sofia Dyak (July, 2009)

Sniatyn, Ukraine. Local courtyard paved with Jewish matzevot. Photo: courtesy Sofia Dyak (2009)

Ukraine: Sniatyn Jewish Cemetery Cleaned and Subject of Local Exhibition
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Last summer the Center for Urban History in East Central Europe in Lviv organized a student project called "Sniatyn- Archeology of Memory: Discovering and Reviving the Historical Heritage of Galician Town." The project was created within the framework of the program "Memoria", initiated by the foundation "Memory, Responsibility and Future" together with the Stefan Batory Foundation. The southern Galician town of Sniatyn was chosen for the project as an example of a border city. It is located near Bukovina (now Ukraine, Moldova and Romania), an area of rich multi-cultural history, where Ottoman, Austiran and Polish-Ukrainian cultures intermingled. According to researchers from the Center, “statistics from the first half of the 20th century suggest that close to two fifths of the population was formed by Ukrainians (Ruthenians), more than a third were Jews, and one fifth was made up of Poles. Other than these three main groups, there was also a small number of Germans, Armenians and Czechs.” Bukovina was also home to an especially fine tradition of Jewish cemetery art, which can still be seen at many extant sites, but is also remembered in photographs of now-lost carved matzevot (gravestones).

Thanks to project coordinator Sofia Dyak, I am posting photographs from the camp – which was organized as a two-week as a history and conservation seminar, illustrating some of the work done. (It I now snowing out my window, so I savor these summer photos – and hope that the organizers will sponsor similar events and opportunities in 2010).

Sniatyn, Ukraine. Jewish cemetery, cleaned matzevah, presumably - because of the pitcher - of a Levite.
Photo: courtesy of Sofia Dyak (2009)

According to Dyak, “the goal of the project was to return the attention of the inhabitants of Sniatyn to the multi-national and multi-religious heritage of their city with the help of the two week program of a volunteer camp made up of youth from Ukraine, Poland and Germany” Most of the 19 participants were students from the Institute of Architecture in Lviv. The group studied and worked on conservation projects on the adjacent Jewish and Christian cemeteries and learned more about the heritage of the region, but also the contemporary life of Sniatyn. The Christian cemetery is still in use, but since the destruction of the local Jewish community in the Holocaust, the Jewish cemetery was abandoned and neglected; many gravestones had been robbed, and those still in situ were endangered by spreading tree root and excess vegetation.

Students cleaned the cemeteries and also discovered Jewish gravestones paving a courtyard. During and after the Second World War Jewish gravestones were frequently used for paving (see for examples, the polychrome matzevot recently discovered in Radom, Poland. Other examples are known from Kazimierz Dolny, where they were retrieved and erected into a monument, and from Kremenets, Ukraine).

Sniatyn, Ukraine. Conservation of matzevah at Jewish cemetery. Photo: courtesy Sofia Dyak (2009)

The project also arranged for translation of about 80 inscriptions from the Jewish cemetery. This inscriptions, as well as study of symbolic imagery used on the stones was of great interest to the students, and was also used as tool to engage wider local interest in the history and care of the site.

Sniatyn, Ukraine. Exhibition on main square, culminating project. Photo: courtesy Sofia Dyak (2009)

The two-session culminated in the presentation of an outdoor exhibition on the main city square displaying the results of volunteers’ work to engage and inform the local inhabitants. Dr. Khrystyna Boyko (National University "Lviv Polytechnic") was the academic leader of the project.

For more information click 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.

Ukraine: Jewish Foundation of Ukraine and Lo Tishkach Plans Cemetery Survey by Young People

Ukraine: Jewish Foundation of Ukraine d Lo Tishkach Plan Cemetery Survey by Young People
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM)The Jewish Foundation of Ukraine (JFU) and the "Lo Tishkach" Foundation will begin a joint research project on Jewish cemeteries and mass graves of Holocaust victims of the Chernihiv region of Ukraine. Similar surveys backed by historical research, local interviews and education projects are also to be launched at hundreds of sites across the Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine with a national teacher-training program on the subject across the country.

According to the JFU, a key objective of the project is to draw the attention of young people to Jewish history and values and “to build cross-cultural communication, to foster tolerance in society and help [Jewish] young people connect to their past.” Project participants will explore all the Jewish cemeteries and known places of execution of Jews in the area. In this, the groups will follow in the footsteps of the young people of the Jewish Preservation Committee of Ukraine, which was active in the 1990s, and first identified many of these sites, including 44 cemeteries in the Chernihiv Region.

The project will begin this month (November 2009) and continue until August 2010. One-day seminars will provide training in research, and also instruction about the history of Jewish life of the region, Jewish traditions, and the history of the Holocaust.

At the conclusion of the project there will be a seminar for all participants, which will present the results of the research, and plan for the future of memorial sites in the region.

UK: Synagogue in Sunderland by Marcus Kenneth Glass For Sale

UK: Synagogue in Sunderland by Marcus Kenneth Glass For Sale

The last intact synagogue by Anglo-Jewish architect Marcus Kenneth Glass is for sale. The 1928 synagogue on Ryhope Road (Hendon) in Sunderland (Northeast England) has been vacant since 2006 when the dwindling congregation ceased using the large vaulted structure for regular worship. The building was listed as a Grade II historic structure in 1999 which has helped stave off the wrecking ball, and now the Jewish charitable trust which bought the building from the congregation has but it on the market for what it hopes will be a sensitive adaptive reuse.

Sharman Kadish treats the Sunderland Synagogue at length in her Jewish Heritage in England : An Architectural Guide (English Heritage, 2006, pp. 182-185 with 6 pictures). She describes the interior - the part of the synagogue most likely to be compromised by any reuse, as "spanned by a deep barrel vault over the central aisle, which was originally painted to imitate a star-spangled sky. The gallery runs around three sides carried on slender iron columns with palmette capitals. The plasterwork Ark canopy is highly decorative, painted and gilded. It is classical in form but features decoration of Islamic and Byzantine origin, especially the cushion capitals to the columns and the chevron patterns on the shafts..." In other words, Glass's design is highly eclectic and colorful, typical of the what Kadish calls a "cinematic art deco style." It it is hoped the however purchases the building will keep the large sanctuary space intact, including the fine stained glass.

The asking price price is £295,000 to buy or £27,500 annual rent.

Two other synagogues designed by the still little-known Newcastle architect have been substantially altered in recent years. In 2006, only the facade of the Clapham Federation Synagogue (1931-32) in London was saved (see Kadish, 31). In Newcastle Upon Tyne, The Jesmond Synagogue on Eksdale Terrace, designed by Glass in 1915, has been transformed into a school, but its exterior has been conserved, including its facade stained glass windows (see Kadish, 187-88).

For a photo and to read more see the story by Jane O'Neill in the Sunderland Echo (June 8, 2009).

Ukraine: Memorial Dedicated at Kammeny Brod, Ukraine

Ukraine: Holocaust Memorial Dedicated at Kammeny Brod, Ukraine

(ISJM) Allan Dolgow has passed on news reported by Michael Savin, of the press service of the Russian Jewish Congress, about the recent (May 24, 2009)inauguration of a new memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in the village of Kammeny Brod, Ukraine, a small town which once had three synagogues. During the German occupation the Jews of the town were killed.

The president of the Russian Jewish Congress, Yurij Kanner, who was born and grew up in Kammeny Brod, and he initiated of the creation of the memorial, which is also dedicated to the memory of his many relatives killed in the village.

Representatives of the local administrations, activists of Jewish communities, and rabbis of Berdichev, Gitomir (Zhitomir), Lvov and Chmelnitsk were present during this ceremony.

It is not clear from the report where the new monument is located. The survey of Jewish sites in Ukraine by the sponsored by the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad reported in 1996 that there was a Jewish cemetery in the town and at least two mass graves of Jews executed in 1941.

The first mass grave is located at 1.5 km to Northeast from Kamenny Brod, and was unmarked in the pine forest. The second mass grave is located to the northeast, 500m from a faience factory, reached by crossing Zovtnevaya Street. It was fenced (c. 1950?), and at least in the 1990s it was kept moderately clean and the marker/monument was kept in repair.

ISJM welcomes more news of this and simlar monuments and events.

Ukraine: Haaretz Article About Father Patrick Desbois's Search for Holocaust Mass Graves on the Occassion of his Visit with Pope to Israel

Ukraine: Haaretz Article About Father Patrick Desbois's Search for Holocaust Mass Graves on the Occassion of his Visit with Pope to Israel

On the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Israel last week, Israeli newspaper Haaretz has run a long story about French priest Patrick Desbois, who continues to make headlines internationally about his search for Jewish mass graves in Ukraine.

Father Desbois was in Pope Benedict's entourage, whether on his own initiative or as part of the Pope's public relations campaign is unclear. In any case, the continued exposure of Father Desbois allows the Vatican to show it really cares about the Holocaust. In fact, Desbois's work is a natural extension of Pope John Paul II's initiatives - in which he challenged Catholics in Poland and elsewhere to care for Jewish cemeteries and to acknowledge what has happened to the Jews who had formerly cared for them. Pope Benedict XVI has been less forthright in his addressing Holocaust history.

For many year's I have been ambivalent about Desbois's work. After being engaged for many years supervising the work of young Jewish Ukrainians documenting cemeteries and mass graves on a shoe-string budget in the 1990s, I am pleased that any work continues to discover the locations of mass graves, and to learn about the lives and fates of the murdered victims buried their, and to make efforts to protect and preserve these places. Still, I had hoped that such an effort would be a more formal one - involving both Ukrainian government leaders and agencies in partnership with Jewish communities. I wasn't looking for an Argentinean style "truth Commission," - but I did hope for more government recognition of the legitimacy of this history, and that it is part of the national story of Ukraine. Even more so, I hoped for belated recognition that the fate of the victims was due to their being Jews, and that their memory must also include some Jewish component.

I am afraid that much of Father Desbois's work - or at least the public interest in it, tends to more about him and his story (of a Catholic priest) - than about the stories of those whose grave he seeks. For many, his search has become as much about Catholics as about Jews. He sets a good example for Catholics, but I'm reminded how the public discussion of the Holocaust in places like Latvia often seeks to balance the noble actions of few hundred "Righteous Gentiles" (who are rightly recognized) with the fate of tens of thousands of Jews who met their deaths. The singular act of heroism is usually more memorable, or more easily tellable, than tales of horrific events - especially when horror was on such a large scale. In a similar way Desbois heroism - for what he is doing is heroic - risks overshadowing what he discovers. For in truth, for those knowledgeable about the Holocaust the story Desbois is revealing is not new; only the details are. But the for press, Desbois himself is now - and therefore noteworthy.

From the Haaretz article it seems that Father Desbois's efforts have taken a new direction - and have moved into a more systematic and institutional mode. Perhaps this will no longer be one man's quest - but something a society at large can embrace and even participate in. I hope that Father Desbois will make the effort to expand his efforts to include more Ukrainians and Ukrainian Jews. Only if this is done can his expeditions lay the ground work for on-site care of these graves, with more comprehensive planning for their marking, legal protection and long-term care. If only for the press coverage - this task cannot just be about Patrick Desbois - it must be about the victims of the crimes, and the those of the coming generations who must live near their remains.

French priest interviews Hitler's willing executioners in Ukraine

18/05/2009

By Cnaan Liphshiz

A horrific page of history unfolded last Monday in Ukraine. It concerned the gruesome and untold story of a spontaneous pogrom by local villagers against hundreds of Jews in a town south of Ternopil in 1941.

Not one, but five independent witnesses recounted the tale, recalling how they rushed to a German army camp, borrowed weapons and gunned down 500 Jews inside the town's Christian cemetery. One of them remembered decapitating bodies in front of the church.

The man heading the research that led to this discovery discussed it in Israel last week; Father Patrick Desbois was in Pope Benedict XVI's entourage.

Desbois is a French Roman Catholic priest. His team has been investigating mass executions in the former Soviet Union during the Holocaust for more than six years. In 2004, he founded Yahad-In Unum, a Paris-based organization devoted to Christian-Jewish understanding.

Oral testimonies from these events in Ukraine and Belarus are but a part of Desbois' research. Using metal detectors, his team uncovers German-made cartridges and bullets as well as victims' jewelry from killing pits. The findings are transferred to an archive in Paris, where the testimonies are translated.

Earlier this year, Desbois helped start the first Holocaust masters program at the Sorbonne, focusing on the extermination in the former Soviet Union.

To Desbois, there are two holocausts: a western one and an eastern one. The western holocaust was more organized, whereas the eastern one, "the one that happened away from Berlin," was chaotic, decentralized and undocumented.

"German officers wanted to appear efficient, so they documented one mass grave and declared the place judenfrei. In reality, the killings went on for years," he says. "The only way of documenting these [other] graves is asking the locals. Time's running out, and we're the only organization on the ground there."

Read the full story here

Ukraine: Lo Tishkach Foundation Issues Report on Jewish Cemeteries

Ukraine: Lo Tishkach Foundation Issues Report on Jewish Cemeteries

(ISJM) The Lo Tishkach Foundation has published another in its series of legislative and practice reports, that examine the situation – especially the legal situation - of Jewish burial grounds in different countries in Europe. The Preliminary Report on Legislation & Practice Relating to the Protection and Preservation of Jewish Burial Grounds was prepared by Andreas Becker for Lo Tishkach with the support of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany & the Conference of European Rabbis. It uses as its starting point the 2005 report Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues, and Mass Grave Sites in Ukraine, published by the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. If someone is interested in obtaining a copy, they may contact Lo Tishkach at info@lo-tishkach.org.

The Lo Tishkach European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative was established in 2006 as a joint project of the Conference of European Rabbis and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. It aims to guarantee the effective and lasting preservation and protection of Jewish cemeteries and mass graves throughout the European continent. Identified by the Hebrew phrase Lo Tishkach (‘do not forget’), the Foundation is establishing a comprehensive publicly-accessible database of all Jewish burial grounds in Europe, currently featuring details on over 9,500 Jewish cemeteries and mass graves. Lo Tishkach is also producing a compendium of the different national and international laws and practices affecting these sites, to be used as a starting point to advocate for the better protection and preservation of Europe’s Jewish heritage.

The following summary text is extracted form the report:

Report Findings

• Numbers: According to surveys carried out in 1995-1996 by the Jewish Heritage Preservation Committee under the umbrella of VAAD and in co-operation with international research institutes, there are currently about 1,200 known Jewish mass graves and up to 1,000 Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine. Since the Soviet Union did not hold records on Jewish cemeteries, the Committee’s survey is currently the most comprehensive list of Jewish burial grounds in Ukraine.

• Ownership: Municipalities own the majority of cemeteries in Ukraine. The land of mass grave sites may also be privately owned. Many Jewish burial grounds, however, are abandoned, not recognised as such and receive no legal protection. Only a very small number of burial grounds are Jewish-owned.

• Maintenance: Pursuant to Ukrainian burial legislation, municipalities are required to maintain the burial grounds that they own. Typically, special municipal companies take care of this. However, since many Jewish burial grounds are not recognised as such, they receive no public maintenance whatsoever or have to rely on private initiatives.

• Legal situation: A number of provisions in different bodies of law may be used to campaign for better protection and preservation of Jewish burial grounds in Ukraine.
They include the Ukrainian constitution, legislation on the freedom of conscience and religion, burial legislation, cultural heritage legislation as well as the criminal code. However, the lack of identification and municipal and state recognition of numerous Jewish burial grounds remains the single most important obstacle to extending legal protection to these sites.

• Recommendations:

• Identification of all Jewish cemeteries and mass graves in Ukraine;

• Legal recognition of all burial grounds as such in order to protect these sites from future development and other threats;

• A negotiated solution between the Jewish community, municipalities and the national government on ownership and maintenance of currently unrecognised Jewish burial grounds;

• Demarcation and signposting of currently abandoned burial grounds, both to
afford better protection and to protect the memory of those who perished in
the Holocaust

Ukraine: Zhovkva Historic Photos

Ukraine: Zhovkva Historic Photos

(ISJM) Sergey Kravtsov of the Center for Jewish Art has sent these historic photos of the synagogue of Zhovkva. The two interior photos of the Aron-ha Kodesh wall provide a reminder of how richly sculpted and painted the interiors of the synagogue was - although much of the decoration including the musical instruments and the view of Jerusalem probably date to the late 19th or first decades of the 20th century. Such motifs were common - almost ubiquitous in Polish synagogues (and synagogues founded by Polish immigrants in America and elsewhere) of the time. The view of the Ark, however, shows it in all of its Baroque splendor.

The photo of the destruction of the synagogue raises the issue of exactly how and when the synagogue was destroyed. Was it set afire (as we see here) or was it blown up? Both fates are possible. Many synagogues went through multiple destructions during the German occupation. First they were pillaged and burned, and then later, when empty, if no other use was apparent, they were blown up. Many of the big masonry synagogues, however, were so strongly built, with walls often more than a meter thick, that even when exploded much of the original structure remained. Wooden synagogues, of course, were burned, and therefore we have few of those left.

There is disagreement over whether Germans or Ukrainians burned the Zhovkva synagogue. I don't know the details, but it is possible that some of the local population helped set the synagogue afire under the protection, and possibly the direction of the Germans, who are shown in this photo.

Ukraine: Progress (Slow but Steady) for Zhovkva Synagogue Restoration

Restoration work continues on the 17th century synagogue in Zhovkva, Ukraine (photo: Samuel Gruber 2008)

Ukraine: Progress (Slow but Steady) for Zhovkva Synagogue Restoration
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) On my recent visit to Ukraine I had the opportunity to stop briefly en route to Lviv to visit the great synagogue of Zhovkva, a site that I have returned to several times since I first urged the restoration of the building*. Work has been continuing on the historic “fortress” synagogue by the Zhovkva State Historical-Architectural Reserve and the Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments of Zhovkva, under the direction of Mr. Mychaijo Kubai. The empty and severely damaged building was listed by the World Monuments Fund on its list of 100 most endangered sites for 2000, leading to a start-up grant from WMF, and subsequent contributions for consolidation and restoration work from the Ukrainian State agencies. In 2006 (?), a partnership was established with four engineering offices in Bavaria (Germany) which are underwriting all planning costs for the project through the "Bavaria Technology Consult of the Bavarian Chamber of Civil Engineers." Since 2007, development in the town comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Regional Development, and this has brought in new money and purpose to the synagogue and other projects.

Evening was approaching as my colleagues Sergey Kravtsov (Center for Jewish Art, Jerusalem) and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (Museum of the History for the Jews in Poland) stopped in Zhovkva unannounced, but we could see work taking place removing old plaster and mortar from an exterior wall. I later learned from Ruth Ellen Gruber (see Ruth's account) and Rudolf Klein, who visited the site a few days later, that the plan calls for two walls to be treated this year, and two next year). While to the casual visitor it may appear that little has been done to date, and that the synagogue is still a ruin, there has, in fact, been substantial stabilization of the building’s foundations and walls and repair of the roof and some other aspects pf the water handling system. Expensive repairs are still needed before full restoration and any reuse begins – as much as is possible given the state of the building – but the structural integrity of the building is now secure. Future work will be expensive (the total cost of the project will be at least $US 2 million), and unless there is a single large infusion of funds it will be long. Serious discussion about what the interior should look like and purpose it will serve is still needed. The purported purpose is to establish a Central Museum of Jewish Culture of Galicia in the synagogue to consolidate dispersed holdings, but many competing museum claims need to be resolved before such a plan can be put into effect.

Founded as a Renaissance town private town before 1600, Zhovkva (Polish: Żółkiew) is an important component of Ukrainian, Polish, and Jewish culture and history. The Jewish community began with the town’s founding. The Jewish center was established in the northern part, where the synagogue (1687) and other Jewish public buildings were eventually built. Zhovkva preserved its Renaissance appearance until the Second World War, during which the town suffered serious damage. At that time the town's Jewish population of approximately 4,000 was mostly murdered in a series of local executions, or deported to their deaths at Belzec and elsewhere. A sign tells the history of the synaoggue in multiple languages, but as historian Omer Bartov points out in his recent book Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present Day Ukraine (Princeton, 2007) their is no history, monument or other commemorative or educational indication of the history or fate of Zhovkva's Jews.

In 1941, the synagogue was blown up by Zhovkva’s German occupiers. The walls survived, but main hall columns, vaulting, and the annexes were ruined and/or completely destroyed. In 1955-1956, the synagogue was partially rebuilt and the entrance door and windows were recreated. The southern annex, however, and the vault of the second floor of the western annex were not restored. In 1963 the building was listed on the National Register of Architectural Monuments and Town Planning Ukraine, Protected Number 389. The synagogue facade was partially repaired in 1992-1993, and in 1994 the government listed central Zhovkva, in which the synagogue is located, as a State Historical-Architectural Reserve. Forty sites in the town are listed on the State Register of Architectural Monuments and Town Planning.

All older repairs were made using poor materials, and when I first visited the building in 2000 the roofs and other elements – old and new – were obviously rapidly deteriorating. Masonry walls and vaults and timbers set within the load-bearing walls were overly damp, causing new problems – clearly visible - due to micro-organisms, frost and a general weakening of structural elements. Accumulated debris around the synagogue allowed the accumulation of water, increasing the dampness in the structure. Brick-work at the bottom of the south wall and inside of the building was deeply corroded, or entirely lost.

Interior view of Zhovkva Synagogue (photo: Rodolf Klein, November 2008, posted with permission)

In the past five years work has moved forward on phases I and II of the project. These included a full building examination and preparation of a preservation plan with preliminary designs for the introduction of mechanical systems (installation of which must wait until after Phase III when future use of the site and user needs are fully determined), include substitution of the roof structure and covering; lowering of the exterior ground level to allow proper drainage; the drying of the load-bearing walls; the restoration of brick-work in the southern wall. Work is now proceeding to remove old plaster from exterior walls and check all masonry and mortar, and to replace external windows and doors. Only when all this work on the shell of the building – all that remains – will work on the interior begin.

This future (and to my knowledge still unfunded) work will include the continued study of historical, architectural and natural aspects of the synagogue and its site; the preparation of project-design documentation for the interior restoration and adaptation for museum purposes; restoration of the vault above the second floor of the western annex and making a roof above it; restoration of the wall and roof structures of the lost southern annex; installation of mechanical systems (i.e., electric, heat, water, sewage; communication and security); restoration of the synagogue interiors; restoration of the attic and the external plaster painting of the facades; clearing the obstructions and restoring the basements below the vestibule-lobby; and establishment of museum and/or other functions.

It remains to be seen what will happen in Zhovkva. Certainly, the town has taken more of an interest in its Jewish past than most towns and cities in Western Ukraine. But there remains a long way to go. Just as there is no memorial to the town's murdered Jews, there is also obvious disrespect - or at least ignorant neglect - of Jewish history as evidenced by the continued use of the Jewish cemetery as a marketplace. As I explained to Mr. Kubai and others on my first visit to Zhovkva many years ago, "it is good to restore the synagogue, but if you want the support of Jews for this project, you need to reclaim the cemetery, too."

* See:“Zhovkva Synagogue: Future Museum of Galician Jewry?” in Jewish Heritage Report, II:3-4 (1998-1999); Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues and Mass Graves in Ukraine (US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, 2005) . For more recent accounts see Ruth Ellen Gruber, Jewish Heritage Travel (Washington, 2007), and Omer Bartov, Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present Day Ukraine (Princeton, 2007), and Ruth Ellen Gruber, Ukraine -- Restoration Works on the Synagogue in Zhovkva (Nov 7, 2008).

Ukraine: Ruth Ellen Gruber's Observations on Jewish Heritage Remnants in Ukraine

Ukraine: Ruth Ellen Gruber's Observations on Jewish Heritage Remnants in Ukraine

I have an unusual relationship with my big sister - journalist and author Ruth Ellen Gruber. Not only are we siblings, but we are friends and colleagues. A series of unexpected career turns 20 years ago have made us both "professional Jews," in that we are both been active participants (and sometimes observers) in the worldwide resurgence of interest in the fate of Jewish material culture.

Two weeks ago, however, we participated as speakers at the same conference for only the second time (that we can remember). Ruth gave the keynote address at the conference in held in L'viv, and I spoke about "Can Lviv be Developed as a Jewish Heritage Center." Since the conference Ruth has posted several interested pieces on her blog. The latest: "Ukraine - On its Crumbling Jewish Heritage," which I recommend (and not just because it mentions my own work) includes some passages from her keynote address.