Christian Science Monitor Article on Jewish Heritage

Check out Michael J. Jordan's article in the Christian Science Monitor about the issue of caring for Jewish hertiage in Europe. Michael sat in on some of the sessions at the March seminar on Jewish heritage in Bratislava, but the story runs as an advancer before this weekend's Holocaust Assets conference in Prague.

Bratislava, Slovakia - For architectural historian Maros Borsky, the story begins five years ago.

He was documenting the synagogues of Slovakia, which, like the rest of post-Holocaust Eastern Europe, saw its countryside depopulated of Jews, with most provincial synagogues abandoned. Slovakia itself has seen a war-time community of 137,000 shrink to some 3,000 Jews today, with only five of 100-plus synagogues functioning.

In the course of his work, Mr. Borsky came across a donor who wanted to renovate a rural synagogue. But which one?

"I realized it's important to create an audience for these synagogues, for Jews, non-Jews, locals, and tourists to learn there once was a community here – and what happened to it," he says.

The result of Borsky's work, the "Slovak Jewish Heritage Route" will soon connect 23 restored synagogues.

The Slovak project will be just one of scores discussed this weekend in Prague as representatives from 49 countries convene for the landmark Holocaust-Era Assets Conference. The agenda ranges from charting the progress made in returning Nazi-looted artwork and restituting Jewish property to caring for elderly survivors of the camps.

Read full article

Belaus -- Pictures of Luban Synagogue Being Demolished

Sam Gruber has posted a series of pictures, forwarded by Dovid Katz in Vilnius, showing the actual demolition of the synagogue in Luban, Belarus (which I wrote about in earlier posts). Here is one of them:



Writes Sam:

Can this be a wake-up call for better policies in Belarus and elsewhere? This was not a derelict building. It was not a ruined. It was not a forgotten site. It was sacrificed to the demands of contemporary development pressures where expediency and short term gain (to the public tax rolls or to a local politician's campaign war chest or private account) mean more than protecting history and architecture. No community in the world is immune to these pressures. Nor should every old building be saved. But there needs to be in place - in every community - procedures that allow time for review and reflection, and time for world to get out that a building is imperiled.

Italy/New York -- Sam Gruber to speak on Venice Jewish history

For those of you in New York, Sam Gruber, the president of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments (ISJM), will be speaking in New York May 7 on the "prehistory" of the Venice Ghetto.

The lecture will be at the Colony Club in New York on Thursday, May 7th, at 6:30 pm, followed by cocktails. Tickets are $40 and must be purchased in advance from Save Venice. Mail checks to 15 East 74th Street, New York, NY 10021.

Its not a talk about the Ghetto per se, but of the social, political and topographical background of Venice in the late 15th and early 16th century that encouraged the Ghetto's creation.

For full information click HERE

Belarus -- More on Luban Synagogue Destruction

On his Jewish arts and monuments blog, Sam Gruber has posted more detailed information about the demolition of the historic former synagogue in Luban, Belarus -- as well as pictures of what he rightly describes as an "impressive vernacular building." The wooden synagogue, built in the 19th century, is being demolished to make way for some sort of commercial development.

Former Luban synagogue, c. 2005 -- photo courtesy of the Jewish Heritage Research Group in Belarus

Sam writes that according to Yuri Dorn of the Jewish Heritage Research Group in Belarus:

the Luban authorities did not inform Belarus Jewish community about planned demolition. He did not speculate why, but presumably they were either ignorant of the need to do so, or of any likely interest in the fate of the building, or they suspected that if word got out that their would be complaint. Based on my long experience in historic preservation I would assume the worst, and that is the reason for the rush to demolish, so that any protest will be too late. In 2004, the Jewish Community of Belarus tried unsuccessfully to include the Luban Synagogue building on the official registry of landmarks, but was unable to do so because of insufficient archival documentation about the building's history. Presumably it was deemed eligible on architectural grounds alone.

Sam also includes a picture of the English/Russian/Hebrew commemorative plaque on the building.