Spain: More on Barcelona Conference on Jewish Cemeteries

Spain: More on Barcelona Conference on Jewish Cemeteries

Dominique Tomasav Blinder of ZAKHOR has sent a report of the recent conference "Archaeological intervention on historical necropolises: Jewish cemeteries" organized by the Museum of History of Barcelona in Barcelona on January 15-16. Dominique's report can be read here on Tracing the Tribe.

Tracing the Tribe Blogger Schelly Talalay Dardashti includes her own pertinent observations.

I will be posting later this week the Declaration issued by the conference and signed by most (all?) of the speakers. I have problems with the declaration - not its sentiments, but its specifics - and I will address these soon.

Venezuela: Jewish Cemeteries of Caracas

A recent post by Daniel Horowitz on the Jewish Graveyard Rabbit reports on the Jewish cemeteries of Caracas, Venezuela. Caracas has three main cemeteries: "Guarenas," "Cementerio General del Sur" and "Cementerio Del Este."

Poland: Auschwitz Museum Seeks 100M Euro Fund to Maintain Camp

Poland: Auschwitz Museum seeks 100M Euro Fund to maintain camp

(ISJM) Agence-France Presse (February 04, 2009)reports that the Auschwitz-Birkanau Museum at the former Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland has obtained 4.2 million euros (US$5.4-million dollars)in EU funding to help preserve the site.

Conservation needs are considerable at both main sites. The smaller Auschwitz I site has more buildings of more substantial materials, and more exhibitions. Auschwitz-Birkenau, which functioned as a death camp occupies a larger area, and many of the features(some of which are actually post-War reconstructions), include wooden barracks, watchtowers, barbed wire and the remains of the crematoria, require regular conservation work.

In the 1990s an major international efforts was undertaken to get commitments of large donations from European countries to conserve the site, which because of the original temporary nature of much of its infrastructure, and because of the delicate state of preservation of much of the organic matter of the site (i.e. wood) and of the exhibitions (including human hair)is extremely difficult and costly to maintain. The effort was only partially successful. Maintenance of the site, to which over one million people a year visit, is an on-going and perpetual process. The extreme shifts in weather, including harsh winters, also make long-term preservation difficult.

The newly obtained funds will help conserve two brick barrack blocks and another six similar wooden buildings. The Museum hopes to create a 100-million euro (US$129-million-dollar) fund to better maintain the two camp sites. The Polish state-run museum now has an annual budget of around 5.5 million euros, half of which is covered by the Polish government and most of the rest from visitors' fees.

According to the AFP article:

Between three to five percent of the annual budget is also covered by the Lauder Foundation and Germany's regional governments.

Last year it recorded 1.13 million visitors, including 410,000 Poles, 110,000 British citizens, 75,000 Americans, 58,000 Germans and 44,000 Israelis.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum covers an area of 191-hectares (472-acres), including 155 buildings and 300 ruins.

Greece: Vandalism of Jewish Cemeteries in Wake of Gaza War

Greece: Vandalism of Jewish Cemeteries in Wake of Gaza War

(ISJM) According to news reports gravestones were vandalized at the Jewish cemetery of Ioannina in northern Greece last Monday night (January 19). "Three tombs were desecrated and damaged Monday evening in the cemetery," said President of the Central Jewish Council of Greece (KIS) Moisis Constantinis. Constantinis and KIS accused the police of failing to heed calls for increased security at the cemetery, which has been vandalized three times before in recent years (There is a certain irony here, since ISJM has recently received reports that KIS is considering selling some neglected cemeteries elsewhere in the country - reports that need to be confirmed). In general the Jewish cemeteries in Greece are in poor condition, and many have been totally abandoned. The Ioannina cemetery (of which parts were photographed for ISJM by Vincent Giordano) is one of the best preserved in the country.

KIS also reported that anti-Semitic inscriptions were found on tombs in a Jewish cemetery in Athens earlier this month and on a Jewish monument in Corfu four days after the Gaza conflict began. A large segment of the Greek population has long offered large and vocal support for the Palestinian cause. During periods of greatest armed conflict between Israel and Palestinians Jewish sites in Greece have often been targets for expressing anti-Israel (and anti-Jewish) sentiments.

During the Gaza War several sites in Europe have been the targets of anti-Israel and anti-Semiitc vandalism. These include the historic synagogues in Pisa, Italy and Maribor, Slovenia.