Judaica Europeana Provides a Unified Digital Presence for Judaica Collections

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

Judaica Europeana Provides a Unified Digital Presence for Judaica Collections

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

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

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

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

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

Budapest, Hungary. Jewish Museum. Photo: Samuel Gruber

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

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

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

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

Slovenia: More on Exhibition in Maribor

Slovenia: More on Exhibition in Maribor

(ISJM) I've received more information about the exhibition set to open in Maribor, Slovenia on September 6th. Curator Janez Premk informs ISJM that the exhibition consists of 13 information panels (see the first panel, above)that collate much of the documentary information - including archival sources, building measurements, etc.- carried out by Dr. Premk, Ivan Ceresnjes and a research team from the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University, beginning in 2000. The work builds on the Commission report that I co-authored with Ruth Ellen Gruber in 1996 and that I mentioned in my previous post, but it includes much more priomary source material and has involved much closer scrutiny of existing sites, including measured drawings. This material now is part of the Jewish Archive of Slovenia.

It is expected that the exhibition will be on view at Maribor for about two months, and then it will probably move to Lendava. The exhibition may be available for further travel - if interested please contact Dr. Premk directly. Eventually, the exhibition may return to Maribor for a more permanent installation. - SDG

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.

UK: Synagogues and Historic Sites Nationwide Open Doors For European Day of Jewish Culture

UK: Synagogues and Historic Sites Nationwide Open Doors For European Day of Jewish Culture

London, England, UK. Two of the synagogues open to the public on September 6th. Above, the magnificent Victorian-era New West End Synagogue designed by George Audsley and built form 1877-79 and below the Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, actually a simple East End Synagogue, built in 1899 and still in use. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber.

Manchester, England, UK. Visitors will be welcome at the Higher Crumpsall & Higher Broughton Hebrew Congregation, built 1928-29 (above) and at the Manchester Jewish Museum in the former Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, designed by Edward Salomons and built 1873-4 (window dtl from 1913, below). Photos: Samuel D. Gruber

Across the United Kingdom Jewish organizations, institutions and congregations are joining forces for the tenth straight year to open their doors to the broad public as part of European Days of Jewish Culture and Heritage. The annual event was first organized in 1996 by the B'nai B'rith Lodge in Strasbourg, France. It has now spread to 27 countries, and approximately 200,000 people participate each year. In the UK, B'nai B'rith UK is the primary organizer, with support from Jewish Heritage UK and dozens of local organizations. This year, over 90 events are offered, including open synagogues and tours, historic and architectural walking tours, concerts, exhibitions and lectures. It is impossible for one individual to take advantage of more than a handful of activities, but the organizers have wisely spread events over the period of more than an entire week, beginning September 6th with some events offered as late September 16th.

London, England, UK. The former Spitalfields Great Synagogue on Brick Lane was built as a Huguenot Chapel and is now a Bengali Mosque. A visit is scheduled on a walking tour of the Jewish East End.

If you live in are are visiting the UK have always wanted to visit a particular synagogues - this is your chance. If you can't decide, then take a look at the popular guidebook Jewish Heritage in the England: An Architectural Guide. Or better still, try on of nine different walking tours offered in London on September 6th, or tours in Richmond or York. In addition to 12 synagogues open in London on Sunday, September 6th, you can also visit synagogues in Bangor, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Chatham, Cornwall, Lincoln, Liverpool, Manchester, Ramsgate, and Reading.

Click here for full UK program

For links to events in other countries click here.

European Day of Jewish Culture

European Day of Jewish Culture, Sunday September 7th, 2008

This coming Sunday, September 7, is the 9th edition of the European Day of Jewish Culture. This year the theme is Music, "inviting the public to discover the place of song and music in Judaism, as well as the cultural diversity characteristic of Jewish music, or the Jewish contribution to the world of music." In the United Kingdom the event is called "European Days of Jewish Culture and Heritage", because events and activities are scheduled over a period of three weeks.

As I wrote in an earlier posting: "The day is a celebration of Jewish heritage sites and culture across Europe and is now observed in 30 countries. Developed following a program in Alsace that arranged for dozens of usually inaccessible synagogues, former synagogues and cemeteries to be open to the public, the Day of Jewish Culture now includes almost every conceivable type of cultural event including lectures, concerts, tours, and seminars. But access to Jewish sties for a wide (and mostly local public) and instruction about them remains at the heart of the celebration."

Ruth Ellen Gruber writes in this month's Hadassah Magazine (go to current issue) an introduction to and reflection upon The European Day of Jewish Culture

Ckick here to see the schedules of events in different countries. When you arrive at the page click the different countries on the map, or click here for each of the 19 countries whic has posted its schedule on-line:

Belgium, Czech-Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

Europe: September 7th set for European Day of Jewish Culture

Visitors to Jewish sites in Florence, Italy on European Day of Jewish Culture, 2003
photos: Samuel D. Gruber

Europe: September 7th set for European Day of Jewish Culture

(ISJM) This year’s European Day of Jewish Culture has been set for September 7, 2008. The day is a celebration of Jewish heritage sites and culture across Europe and is now observed in 30 countries. Developed following a program in Alsace that arranged for dozens of usually inaccessible synagogues, former synagogues and cemeteries to be open to the public, the Day of Jewish Culture now includes almost every conceivable type of cultural event including lectures, concerts, tours, and seminars. But access to Jewish sties for a wide (and mostly local public) and instruction about them remains at the heart of the celebration.

This year, the theme is “Testimonies”, chosen to highlight the cultural “imprint” left by the Jews wherever they have lived in Europe. Thus, the Cultural Day unites those places which retain active Jewish communities and those Jewish spaces without Jews.

Participating countries include Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom. In past years throughout Europe as many as 1,000 volunteers joined to organize and coordinate events.

The official program for the day is posted as it is developed, at www.jewisheritage.org

Each country arranges its day differently. For some, it is the only time that certain places are open. Elsewhere, the Day is used to draw attention to otherwise little-known sites that are now accessible year-round.

Since 2004, the event has being co-organized by B’nai B’rith Europe, the European Council of Jewish Communities and Red de Juderías de España. For more information: www.jewisheritage.org; details of the events online from June 2007 onwards.