Czech Republic: Stolpersteine Project Memorializes Shoah Victims in Prague

Stolpersteine in Braunschweig, Germany (photo: Samuel D. Gruber Oct 2007)


Stolpersteine Project Memorializes Shoah Victims in Prague

Ruth Ellen Gruber has linked to a story about the Stolpersteine project ("Stones of the Vanished" or "Stumbling Stones") which began in Germany, and has now spread to the Czech Republic. Holocaust victims remembered by new ‘Stones of the Vanished’ project, describes the beginning of the project in Prague's historic Jewish quarter. The project, originated in 1994 in Cologne by artist Gunter Demnig, embeds small stones resembling cobbles, in the pavements near houses where Jews lived before their deportation out of Germany, or to their deaths.

The stones are actually concrete cubes about 10 cm each ( Four inches), with a thin sheet of brass on top inscribed with: ‘here lived – the name of a person, the date of birth, the date of transport, where that person was deported and the place and date of that person’s murder’. Each stone costs about 95 euro, paid for by contributions.

As of last year, 13,000 "stones" had been placed in 280 cities in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Holland. The largest numbers can be found in Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin.

The project is representative. It makes no attempt to identify and commemorate every deported Jew, homosexual or communist. If it did, some German neighborhoods would be entirely paved with brass.

USA: Mazalos: Kabbalistic Astrology in New York Synagogues

USA: Zodiac (Mazalos): Oct 19 Program on Kabbalistic Astrology in New York Synagogues by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) On Sunday, October 19th (Chol Hamoed Succot) at 11:30 am, The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy and The New York Landmarks Conservancy will present Mazalos: Kabbalistic Astrology in New York Synagogues. This unique presentation, taking place at the Orenstein Center, (15-17 Willet Street), explores Mazalos, a sacred Jewish art form featuring zodiac symbols. A panel of experts including scholar Miriam Aranoff, conservator Beth Edelstein and urban historian Elyssa Sampson will discuss the history and preservation of Mazalos, followed by an optional tour of the zodiac paintings on the Lower East Side. While few examples of Mazalos remain, two prime examples can be found on the sites of the Bialystoker Synagogue and Congregation B’nei Jacob & Anshei Brzezan, (a.k.a. The Stanton Street Shul).


The Zodiac has been one the most persistent motifs in Jewish art, and its use and meaning remain fascinating to scholars, worshipers and increasingly a lay audience. Jewish interest in the movement and meaning of the constellations (Mazalos) no doubt grew out of the highly developed Near Eastern and Egyptian discipline of astronomical observation and calendar calculations. Certainly for Jews, the constellations also were a constant reminder of the heavenly realm, of which they were an obviously active part. Most scholars find that the Jewish use of the Zodiac - that is the collection of symbols representing both specific constellations and months and seasons of the year- is meant in one way or another (no overall agreement on specifics) to invoke awareness, contemplation and even worship of God's realm, and how it in inextricably linked - controlling or controlled by - the tides of time. Such issues that combine the unknowables of infinite space and unending time early found their way into the core of mystical writing in many religions, including Judaism. By the Middle Ages this developed into a "Jewish astrology," linked to esoteric Kabbala and more mundane magical pursuits. The representation of the zodiac, or at least of zodiacal symbols, appeared in the mosaics of many ancient synagogues and in medieval manuscripts. At the very least, it appeared on synagogue ceilings in 18th-century Greater Poland, and in the 19th and early 20th century could be found from Romania (where splendid examples still survive) to immigrant synagogues in America and Canada. The motifs also appeared as wall paintings and in stained glass designs in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

To my knowledge no full list of such representations has even been collated, and many examples have been destroyed. But others remain and are attracting the attention of art historians and students of Jewish worship, folk beliefs and mysticism.



Examples of zodiac wall designs from the Bnai Moses Joseph Zavichost Zosmer Shul at 317 East 8th Street in New York Photos by Samuel D. Gruber (June 2001).

Of course, without documentation, it is difficult for us to know what was in the minds of those who proposed and those who painted these decorations. Probably, like most synagogue ornaments, they spoke to a diverse audience on different levels. Symbols especially could be seen as decoration, or as emblems of stories or specific passages from scripture. Taken together, the zodiac symbols could be read literally as a calender, reminding the viewer of the liturgical calendar, and the passage of the seasons throughout the year. But for others, deeper meanings could be found based Talmud, Nachmanides, and mystical writings.

This October 19 program aims to trace the history of this endangered 2,000 year old synagogue art tradition, which finds its roots in the floor mosaics of second to sixth century Roman synagogues in ancient Palestine, and which made its way to the Lower East Side via immigrants from Galicia (the former Austrian region on the borders of modern-day Poland and Ukraine).

WHEN: October 19, 2008 11:30 AM
WHERE: Orenstein Center- 15-17 Willett/Bialystoker Place.
Refreshments will be served in the Orenstein Succah
FEE: $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $8 students. A $2.00 discount is available with pre-registration For further information, contact LESJ Conservancy: (212) 374-4100 X 1,2 or 3 or e-mail at lesconservancy@aol.com

The Lower East Side Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving, sharing and celebrating the Jewish Heritage of the Lower East Side. Private customized tours available by appointment.

Currently an intern in the Sacred Sites Program of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, Miriam Aranoff pursued Middle Eastern studies at Columbia University and wrote her Master’s thesis on Hammurabi’s Code from Ancient Mesopotamia. M Edelstein, Objects Conservator at The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art., received her degree in Art Conservation from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts. Urban historian, Lower East Side community activist and Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy tour leader Elyssa Sampson will discuss the significance of the mazalos and the way in which they made their way to the Lower East Side via Galicia.

Germany: "Looting and Restitution. Jewish-Owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the Present" Exhibition at Berlin Jewish Museum

Germany: "Looting and Restitution. Jewish-Owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the Present" exhibition at Berlin Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum of Berlin has mounted a major exhibition highlighting the still controversial issues surrounding the looting and restitution of Jewish art during the Nazi period and the Holocaust. The exhibition "Looting and Restitution. Jewish-Owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the Present" narrates the historical events, context, and consequences of the looting carried out by the Nazis throughout Europe. The exhibition will be on view through January 25, 2009.
A special website has been created for the exhibition.

The art and artifacts around which the exhibition is formed are not Jewish art, but art once-owned by Jews. If anything, exhibitions of this type show just how assimilated and conventional Jewish art collectors were in the inter-war period. There is a common perception of Jews as patrons of the avant-garde - and of course there were artistically progressive Jews. But most Jewish collections of art and art objects were stolidly middle-class and bourgeois in their taste in acquisition and presentation. And yet, despite the Jewish predilection for popular and predicable taste, this art as well as the so-called "degenerate art," was fair game for pillage. For the lucky, art was detached from owners by coercion or force, but the owners escaped with their lives. For millions of others all possession were forfeit to official plunderers and illegal scavengers. How to treat this legacy, which continues to circulate in the art market today, remains a persistent and unresolved ethical, legal and practical problem ot this day.

A German language publication has been prepared to accompany the exhibit.

Looting and Restitution. Jewish-Owned Cultural Artifacts from 1933 to the PresentEdited by Inka Bertz and Michael Dorrmann commissioned by the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main.
German language edition only
320 pages, approximately 170 illustrations, paperback
Price: 24.90 euros
Wallstein Publishers, 2008
ISBN-10: 3-8353-0361-9
ISBN-13: 978-3-8353-0361-4

The well-illustrated exhibition book provides extensive information on the historical background to the looting of cultural artifacts and how their loss through persecution is handled today.
Two essays by Dan Diner and Constantin Goschler explore the historical, political, and moral dimensions of confiscation. Seventeen authors, among them experts of international renown such as Michael Bazyler, Patricia Grimsted, Jürgen Lillteicher, and Frank Kuitenbrouwer examine the procedures used by Nazi looting organizations and the often disreputable role of museums, libraries, and art dealers. The first restitutions of cultural artifacts by the Allies just after the war and the restitution procedures of the 1950s and 60s are described, as is the revival of the theme in Europe since the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the Washington conference in 1998.

These articles present the facts of the 15 case stories described in detail in the book. They tell of the often intricate paths from "looting" to "restitution." Involved parties such as heirs, lawyers, museum representatives, and politicians have their say in interviews.

Click here for an account fo the exhibit by AFP.

Click here or a brief description of the exhibition at Artdaily.org

Art: Jozef Israels Painting Donated to Israel Museum

Art: Jozef Israels Painting Donated to Israel Museum

The Jerusalem Post reports that children of the prominent Italian Jewish Bedarida and Toaff families have donated a Jozef Israels (1824-1911) painting to the Israel Museum.

To read article and see photo.

The painting is Fisherwomen of Zandvoort, from 1890, and it will be the eighth Israels' work in the Museum's European art collection.

Israels is one the most important painters of the 19th century, a leader in the realist school that sought to depict the lives and occupations of the lower and working classes. This work is one of many that depict rural workign scenes, and which were highly prized as emblematic of the virtues of hard working (and sometime long-suffering) Dutch laborers. He also painted urban scenes and his work greatly influence other leading european artists such as his friend Max Lieberman. Israels did not classify himself as a "Jewish artist," but nor did he shrink from his Jewish roots and associations. Several of his works were included in the 1901 fifth Zionist Congress Exhibition in Basel, Switzerland. He successfully straddled Jewish, Dutch and European cultural boundaries, to be acclaimed by many of his contemporaries as the "new Rembrandt."

Israels' 1903 painting the Jewish Wedding in the Rijksmuseum is one of the most widely reproduced modern paintings on a Jewish theme.

The donated painting belonged to art collector and scholar Guido Bedarida of Livorno, Italy (d. 1962) and his wife Tia Toaff (d. 2002), who was the sister of Elio Toaff, the emeritus chief rabbi of Rome. Her father was Alfredo Sabato Toaff, chief rabbi of Livorno.