Unknown vandals toppled or otherwise damaged as many as 200 grave markers in the largest Jewish cemetery in Bucharest. There is a slideshow of the damage on yahoo news.
From what I can tell from news reports, the cemetery is the vast 20th century cemetery, still in use by the Jewish community, in the far south of the city at Soseau Giurgiului 162. This is where my own great-uncle, Pinkas Gruber, who died in 1980 at the age of 98, is buried.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Jewish spaces and places -- my new Ruthless Cosmopolitan column
My new Ruthless Cosmopolitan column deals with the concept of Jewish space(s) and Jewish place(s). It's a bit peripheral to concrete issues of Jewish heritage and Jewish heritage travel, but it fits within the broad context of the discussion and in the rich tapestry of culture, history and heritage. I also describe some surprising new places to "travel"... (By the way, you can see all my columns aggregated on my Ruthless Cosmopolitan blog.)
Places and spaces: Exploring
what makes up the Jewish tapestry
ROME (JTA) -- We've all played the "Jewish geography" game -- you know, questioning someone we've only just met in order to discover common Jewish connections, friends or even family.
n doing so, we are mapping out our experiences, delineating a sort of Jewish topography of interlinking
backgrounds, histories and far-flung mishpocha.
“Jewish Topographies: Visions of Space, Traditions of Place” (Ashgate Publishing House, 2008) is a collection of essays by a score of international scholars who participated in a six-year research project at the University of Potsdam in Germany.
Called Makom, or "place" in Hebrew, the project aimed to explore the relevance of space and place in Jewish life and culture.
In my own writing, I have dealt frequently with "Jewish space" in the way that the Paris-based historian Diana Pinto framed it. She coined the term in the 1990s to describe the place occupied by Jews, Jewish culture and Jewish memory within mainstream European society, regardless of the size or activity of the local Jewish population.
CLICK TO READ FULL STORY
Places and spaces: Exploring
what makes up the Jewish tapestry
 |
| Ruth Ellen Gruber |
| Avner Gruber, the first cousin once removed of Ruth Ellen Gruber, visits a Jewish cemetery in Hamburg, Germany. |
| Published: 10/23/2008 |
n doing so, we are mapping out our experiences, delineating a sort of Jewish topography of interlinking
Somehow I feel a sense of profound satisfaction when I discover an unexpected link with a stranger. It's like a gift, an almost magical sense of communion with the densely woven tapestry of Jewish life -- or at least with an individual or a place that helps make up that tapestry.
The idea of Jewish topography and the spaces and places -- physical and metaphysical -- in which Jews live, dream and interact forms the basis of a fascinating new book.“Jewish Topographies: Visions of Space, Traditions of Place” (Ashgate Publishing House, 2008) is a collection of essays by a score of international scholars who participated in a six-year research project at the University of Potsdam in Germany.
Called Makom, or "place" in Hebrew, the project aimed to explore the relevance of space and place in Jewish life and culture.
In my own writing, I have dealt frequently with "Jewish space" in the way that the Paris-based historian Diana Pinto framed it. She coined the term in the 1990s to describe the place occupied by Jews, Jewish culture and Jewish memory within mainstream European society, regardless of the size or activity of the local Jewish population.
CLICK TO READ FULL STORY
Lost Wooden Tombstones from Jewish Cemeteries in Eastern Europe
Tomek Wisniewski, the pioneering Jewish heritage expert in Bialystok, Poland, has just published a fascinating article -- with lots of rare pictures -- detailing the lost wooden tombstones from Jewish cemeteries in eastern Europe. The oldest such tombstones date back to the 18th century, he reports -- the photographs he includes, from the World War I period, show evocative views of many such wooden markers, standing side by side with traditional carved and often painted stone mazzevot.
Most of the wooden markers were flat-faced planks. But Tomek includes extraordinary photos of wooden ohels, or shrines, and tombs resembling miniature wooden peak-roofed houses.
Tomek's new book, A History of Lost Jewish Shtetl Cemeteries, will be published in the coming months and will include further information on Jewish wooden grave markers.
In his article, published in the online Jewish Magazine, he writes:
With a few exceptions, small-town Jewish cemeteries in Poland 'exist' only on old maps and old photographs. Their rich artistic heritage has been lost, or survives only in fragmentary or merely symbolic form, e.g. walled cemeteries behind whose walls practically nothing is to be found. The most interesting and impressive tombstones (matzevot) have disappeared. They all met the same fate. The Germans used them to cobble roads and pavements, to reinforce escarpments and clad the beds and banks of rivers. They were used in the construction of flights of stairs and farmers used them as sandstone knife-sharpeners. Despite these years of destruction, tens of thousands of the most beautiful stone tombstones managed to survive in Poland, but not one single wooden one has been preserved.
For centuries the Jews erected wooden tombstones. Typically they were to be found in the poorest communities in areas where stone was in short supply. . . . .
Surviving photographs show that wooden tombstones are very similar to each other, being made from long slender wooden planks of oak or pine whose shape is vaguely reminiscent of a primitive human form. The top resembles a head and the remainder offers just the suggestion of the human body. The slender, elongated, wooden tombstone is unique in shape, in minimalist ornamentation and, especially, in the manner of accommodating the inscription to the narrow register. Although association with the human form may be unintentional, the minimalist ornamentation and accommodation of inscription to the narrow register are clearly deliberate.
Read the Full Article, on jewishmag.com
Most of the wooden markers were flat-faced planks. But Tomek includes extraordinary photos of wooden ohels, or shrines, and tombs resembling miniature wooden peak-roofed houses.
Tomek's new book, A History of Lost Jewish Shtetl Cemeteries, will be published in the coming months and will include further information on Jewish wooden grave markers.
In his article, published in the online Jewish Magazine, he writes:
With a few exceptions, small-town Jewish cemeteries in Poland 'exist' only on old maps and old photographs. Their rich artistic heritage has been lost, or survives only in fragmentary or merely symbolic form, e.g. walled cemeteries behind whose walls practically nothing is to be found. The most interesting and impressive tombstones (matzevot) have disappeared. They all met the same fate. The Germans used them to cobble roads and pavements, to reinforce escarpments and clad the beds and banks of rivers. They were used in the construction of flights of stairs and farmers used them as sandstone knife-sharpeners. Despite these years of destruction, tens of thousands of the most beautiful stone tombstones managed to survive in Poland, but not one single wooden one has been preserved.
For centuries the Jews erected wooden tombstones. Typically they were to be found in the poorest communities in areas where stone was in short supply. . . . .
Surviving photographs show that wooden tombstones are very similar to each other, being made from long slender wooden planks of oak or pine whose shape is vaguely reminiscent of a primitive human form. The top resembles a head and the remainder offers just the suggestion of the human body. The slender, elongated, wooden tombstone is unique in shape, in minimalist ornamentation and, especially, in the manner of accommodating the inscription to the narrow register. Although association with the human form may be unintentional, the minimalist ornamentation and accommodation of inscription to the narrow register are clearly deliberate.
Read the Full Article, on jewishmag.com
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Exhibition on Turkish Synagogues in Istanbul
An exhibition of photographs of historic synagogues in Turkey opened this week at the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul and will run until October 31.
The photographs were taken by Devon Jarvis, and the project as a whole was directed by Joel A. Zack, an architect, author and expert on Jewish heritage in the Mediterranean region. Zack, a former Fulbright scholar, carried out a ground-breaking survey of Moroccan synagogues for the World Monuments Fund that was published in 1993, and he later founded a travel company concentrating on Jewish Heritage tours to Spain, Turkey, Morocco and elsewhere.
The Turkey project documented 50 synagogues and resulted in 30,000 photographs and 130 measured architectural drawings. It is the first such detailed inventory of synagogues in what today is the Muslim country with the largest Jewish population -- some 15,000 to 18,000 Jews, mainly in Istanbul.
Read Full Story in the Turkish Daily News
The photographs were taken by Devon Jarvis, and the project as a whole was directed by Joel A. Zack, an architect, author and expert on Jewish heritage in the Mediterranean region. Zack, a former Fulbright scholar, carried out a ground-breaking survey of Moroccan synagogues for the World Monuments Fund that was published in 1993, and he later founded a travel company concentrating on Jewish Heritage tours to Spain, Turkey, Morocco and elsewhere.
The Turkey project documented 50 synagogues and resulted in 30,000 photographs and 130 measured architectural drawings. It is the first such detailed inventory of synagogues in what today is the Muslim country with the largest Jewish population -- some 15,000 to 18,000 Jews, mainly in Istanbul.
Read Full Story in the Turkish Daily News
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
My Travel Column on Centropa.org is back on line
I'm happy to report that my travel column on centropa.org is back on line after several months out of action while the web site was under redesign.
About a dozen articles are archived and accessible -- from Hungary, the western Balkans, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and elsewhere.
There is also an interactive forum -- and a quick link to this blog and to amazon.com where you can purchase my books...
New articles will be coming soon!
Meanwhile, take a look at the entire centropa.org site, with its trove of family photographs, interviews and other material on Jewish life in central Europe.
About a dozen articles are archived and accessible -- from Hungary, the western Balkans, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and elsewhere.
There is also an interactive forum -- and a quick link to this blog and to amazon.com where you can purchase my books...
New articles will be coming soon!
Meanwhile, take a look at the entire centropa.org site, with its trove of family photographs, interviews and other material on Jewish life in central Europe.
From the Top Tier Gallery, Vienna
As noted in a previous post, I spent much of the High Holy Day period moving around Europe, in a sort of mini-Jewish Heritage tour of Siena, Vienna and Budapest.
Vienna on Yom Kippur provided the most traditional Ashkenazic experience -- services in the historic "Stadttempel," the lovely neo-classical synagogue on sloping Seitenstettengasse, in the heart of the city's core First District. From the outside, the synagogue, built in 1824-26, looks like a plain, anonymous building -- many synagogues across Europe (including that in Siena) are hidden behind featureless outer walls that face the street. This was either for protection or in compliance with edicts that allowed direct access to the street only for churches. (This positioning saved the synagogue during Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938; it was not torched for fear that the entire block could go up in flames and survived World War II almost unscathed. All of the other nearly 100 synagogues and Jewish prayer houses in Vienna were either destroyed or severely damaged.)
What sets the building apart these days is the security outside -- including armed guards.
Designed by the architect Josef Kornhausel, the Stadttempel features a graceful oval sanctuary encircled by two tiers of women's galleries and topped by a sky-blue dome sprinkled with gilded stars. Twelve fluted ionic columns support the galleries and partition the perimeter, and a gilded sunburst tops a rendition of the Ten Commandments that seems to float above the ark.
I arrived in Vienna just in time to enjoy a pre-fast meal with my friend Antonia before we took a taxi to services. We had to climb to the top tier of the women's galleries, where we stood at the back -- if we had been in a theater, we would have been in "the gods." From almost no seat in either of the women's galleries, however, is it possible to see anything of what goes on on the ground floor, where the men are seated. You have to lean right over the edge of the galleries and look down -- not good if you have a fear of heights.
Throughout the service, boisterous and cute little children ran in and out, and the other women around us, unable to see (and only to hear with some difficulty) used the opportunity -- as usual in such cases -- to schmooze. When I could hear, it was a pleasure. (Even though Antonia and I arrived too late to hear Kol Nidre). The cantor was excellent, and the melodies sung in the service here are the same ones I grew up with at my Conservative JCC in suburban Philadelphia...
The crowd was well-dressed and prosperous-looking; all ages represented. Afterward, we milled about on the cobbled street outside, greeting friends in the congregation -- these included Edward Serotta, the director of Centropa.org, the central European Jewish research institute. (I write a travel column for Centropa -- it was on hold for a few months during a redesign of the web site, but is now back up on line.)
Vienna on Yom Kippur provided the most traditional Ashkenazic experience -- services in the historic "Stadttempel," the lovely neo-classical synagogue on sloping Seitenstettengasse, in the heart of the city's core First District. From the outside, the synagogue, built in 1824-26, looks like a plain, anonymous building -- many synagogues across Europe (including that in Siena) are hidden behind featureless outer walls that face the street. This was either for protection or in compliance with edicts that allowed direct access to the street only for churches. (This positioning saved the synagogue during Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938; it was not torched for fear that the entire block could go up in flames and survived World War II almost unscathed. All of the other nearly 100 synagogues and Jewish prayer houses in Vienna were either destroyed or severely damaged.)
What sets the building apart these days is the security outside -- including armed guards.
Designed by the architect Josef Kornhausel, the Stadttempel features a graceful oval sanctuary encircled by two tiers of women's galleries and topped by a sky-blue dome sprinkled with gilded stars. Twelve fluted ionic columns support the galleries and partition the perimeter, and a gilded sunburst tops a rendition of the Ten Commandments that seems to float above the ark.
I arrived in Vienna just in time to enjoy a pre-fast meal with my friend Antonia before we took a taxi to services. We had to climb to the top tier of the women's galleries, where we stood at the back -- if we had been in a theater, we would have been in "the gods." From almost no seat in either of the women's galleries, however, is it possible to see anything of what goes on on the ground floor, where the men are seated. You have to lean right over the edge of the galleries and look down -- not good if you have a fear of heights.
Throughout the service, boisterous and cute little children ran in and out, and the other women around us, unable to see (and only to hear with some difficulty) used the opportunity -- as usual in such cases -- to schmooze. When I could hear, it was a pleasure. (Even though Antonia and I arrived too late to hear Kol Nidre). The cantor was excellent, and the melodies sung in the service here are the same ones I grew up with at my Conservative JCC in suburban Philadelphia...
The crowd was well-dressed and prosperous-looking; all ages represented. Afterward, we milled about on the cobbled street outside, greeting friends in the congregation -- these included Edward Serotta, the director of Centropa.org, the central European Jewish research institute. (I write a travel column for Centropa -- it was on hold for a few months during a redesign of the web site, but is now back up on line.)
Monday, October 20, 2008
New Book on Jewish Cemeteries in Europe
Houses of Life: Jewish Cemeteries of Europe has just been published in England. It is written by Joachim Jacobs, a German landscape architect who has worked on designing or restoring Jewish cemeteries in Germany, with photographs by Has Dietrich Beyer.
The book describes thirty cemeteries in several countries and tells their story, with maps, photographs, paintings and text. They cemeteries chosen date from the Roman period through Islamic Spain and medieval Italy to baroque and 19th-century Germany and present-day Britain and France. (There is a "search this book function on the amazon.com.uk listing.)
Mega Conference on Jewish Art in Poland to Begin
The first Congress of Jewish Art in Poland, a mega-conference drawing dozens of speakers, is due to be held Oct. 27-29 in Kazimierz Dolny, a beautiful town on the Vistula River. It will be devoted to Jewish artists (painters, sculptors, graphic artists, architects) who from the period of the Haskalah until WWII created art centres in Central-Eastern Europe or were connected with these centres, active in Western Europe, Russia, America and the Palestine.
Click here for the program.
Kazmierz Dolny has a long Jewish history and striking Jewish heritage sites.
Holocaust monument at Jewish cemetery, photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber
These include the stone synagogue, originally built in the second half of the 18th century, which stands just off the main market square, and a striking Holocaust Memorial, a mosaic-like wall made of fragments of recovered tombstones, at the site of one of the town's two destroyed Jewish cemeteries.
Click here for the program.
Kazmierz Dolny has a long Jewish history and striking Jewish heritage sites.
Holocaust monument at Jewish cemetery, photo (c) Ruth Ellen GruberThese include the stone synagogue, originally built in the second half of the 18th century, which stands just off the main market square, and a striking Holocaust Memorial, a mosaic-like wall made of fragments of recovered tombstones, at the site of one of the town's two destroyed Jewish cemeteries.
Virtual Shtetl in Lower Silesia
The Museum of the History of Polish Jews has announced that a project called ‘Virtual Shtetl in Lower Silesia, Opole and Lubuskie Regions’ was launched in south-western Poland in September.
The announcement says that the primary objective of the project is to develop an internet portal that will give information on some 60 Jewish shtetls in Lower Silesia, Opole and Lubuskie Regions. The portal will comprise detailed data, including texts and images, on German Jews who resided in those areas up to World War II and on Polish Jews who formed the largest Jewish settlement in Poland after the war.
A catalogue of Judaica from the Lower Silesia, Opole and Lubuskie Regions, a book devoted to Jewish schools in Wrocław, 12 interviews with members of the Jewish community who graduated from the Sholem Aleichem Jewish Common School and Jewish High School in Wrocław will complement the project.
Click the links above for more information on the general ‘Virtual Shtetl’ project -- an internet portal dedicated to the history of Jewish life in small towns within historical Polish borders. It will feature old and recent photographs, preserved Jewish memorabilia, film clips and interviews. It will also give practical information – GPS coordinates, charts, landmark locations.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Good Sukkoth News from Poland
A pre-war Sukkah discovered in the Polish town of Szydlowiec is under restoration by specialists at the Radom Regional Museum.
The newsletter of the forthcoming Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw reports on the discovery of the rare Sukkah, which probably dates from around 1920, as well as on the restoration process. The Sukkah has been donated to the Museum.
The newsletter of the forthcoming Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw reports on the discovery of the rare Sukkah, which probably dates from around 1920, as well as on the restoration process. The Sukkah has been donated to the Museum.
The Sukkah was discovered incorporated into the porch of a house that once belonged to Nuta Ajzenberg, a wealthy tannery owner who also built a small synagogue next to his home for use by his family and his employees.
Szydlowiec is distinguished by its large and important Jewish cemetery, which has some 3,000 or more tombstones, the oldest dating back to the 18th century. Many bear extremely vivid carvings.
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