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Macedonia --Jewish Cemetery in Shtip to be Restored

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Good news -- the web site balkantravellers.com reports that the abandoned Jewish cemetery in Shtip (or Stip) Macedonia will be restored. Announcement of the project was made last month by the Institute and Museum of Shtip, which is in eastern Macedonia.

“The money for the reconstruction project was secured by the government, and with the project the Jewish cemetery will become a monument of culture,” Zaran Chitkushev, head of the Shtip Institute and Museum told the Dnevnik newspaper today.

The project involves the building of parking lots, pedestrian alleyways, benches, monuments, and the whole area of 14,000 square metres will be fenced by a wall.

“We are in constant contact with the European community in Macedonia. We will also invite an archaeologist from Israel as an associate,” Chitkushev added.

According to the jewish-heritage-europe.eu web site, there are about 120 gravestones still visible in the cemetery, but all have been vandalized and heavily damaged. There are probably many fragments scattered along the slope.

UPDATE -- Sam Gruber has posted pictures of the Stip cemetery -- click HERE.

Jewish settled in Stip in the 16th century -- as in much of the region, they were Sephardic Jews fleeing Iberia. In 1943, along with almost all the other Jews of Macedonia, the 560 Jews in Stip were deported to Treblinka death camp.

There is a Holocaust memorial in Stip, but as far as I know, no Jews live in the town anymore -- or maybe there are one or two still there. Eight or nine years ago, when I was in Macedonia for the annual ceremony marking the anniversary of the deportation of Macedonian Jews, I met a man who was described at the time as the last Jew in Stip....

Today, about 200 Jews lived in Macedonia, virtually all of them in the capital, Skopje, where there is a small, functioning synagogue. A Holocaust memorial museum and education center is under construction.

Elsewhere in Macedonia, renovation of the gateway to the historic Jewish cemetery in Bitola was recently completed -- see pictures on Sam Gruber's blog.

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I thought this was pretty fitting. It was at a tavern in Mt Angel

Romania -- Late News on a Jewish Heritage Conference

Siret synagogue, Romania. 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I just found out today about what could have been an interesting conference on Jewish heritage that took place this past week in Bucharest. I'm posting it in the "it's frustrating, but better to know about it late than never" category. This category, alas, is a big one! So many initiatives take place on an individual level that it is often hard (or impossible) to keep track.

The program as a whole looked terrific. Many of the topics were of particular interest to me because of my own research and writing -- and my own interest in regarding Jewish heritage as part and parcel of national, regional and European heritage -- and also because of my new "(Candle)sticks on Stone" project centering on the respresentation of women on Jewish tombstones, particularly on the richly carved stones in the Jewish cemeteries of Radauti and other towns in northern Romania.

Annual International Conference on JEWISH HERITAGE
PART OF THE WORLD AND NATIONAL HERITAGE
Bucharest, May 28-29, 2009

The University of Bucharest and the Goldstein Goren Center for Hebrew Studies
invite you to the annual international conference on Jewish Heritage Part
of the World and National Heritage.

Prominent scholars from Romania and abroad (Israel, France, Hungary, Turkey) will
lecture and debate on the Jewish intellectual heritage - its influence on local
and world culture and the current state of rehabilitation, restoration and
conservation options; a special panel will be dedicated to the Jewish monuments
of worship, synagogues and their art.

The event is open to the public and will take place on May 28-29, 2009, at the
Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest (5-7 Edgar Quinet St., room 120 and
Council Hall).

On the occasion of the conference, the photo-documentary exhibition "Colors of
Time: The Synagogues of Moldova", belonging to the Romanian Cultural Institute
in Tel Aviv, will be on display.

The photographs presented in the exhibition are the work of Teodor Rafileanu, a
journalist and a photographer. These photographs were taken in the spring of 2007,
during the trip for the research of synagogues in Romanian Moldova, in which he
accompanied Dr. Ilia Rodov, lecturer at the Department of Jewish Art, Bar-Ilan
University. This tour was part of a research project supported by the Romanian
Cultural Institute in Israel.

----

JEWISH HERITAGE –
PART OF THE WORLD AND NATIONAL HERITAGE
Bucharest, May 28-29, 2009

Partners: Academia Romana – Institutul de Istorie a Religiilor
Federatia Comunitatilor Evreiesti din Romania – Centrul pentru Studierea Istoriei Evreilor din Romania
Institutul Cultural Român – Tel Aviv

Thursday, May 28, 2009
Opening, Council Hall
Chair: Andrei Oisteanu, Institutul de Istorie a Religiilor, Academia Romana – Romania

9.30 – 9.45
Welcome address by Prof. Dr. Liviu Papadima, Dean, Faculty of Letters/ Director, The
Goldstein Goren Center for Hebrew Studies, University of Bucharest

9.45 – 10.00
Welcome address by Traian Basescu, President of Romania, delivered by Dr. Bogdan Tataru-Cazaban, State Counselor for Culture and Religious Affairs

10.00 – 10.15
Welcome address by Prof. Dr. Aurel Vainer, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania

10.15 – 10.30 Coffee break

Morning Session, Council Hall
Jewish intellectual heritage and its influence on local and world culture
Chair: Felicia Waldman, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

10.30 – 10.50
“Patrimoniul cultural evreiesc – document istoric prea putin uzitat”
Liviu Rotman, SNSPA; Centrul pentru Studierea Istoriei Evreilor din Romania, FCER – Romania

10.50 – 11.10
“ ‘In Nehardea There Are No Heretics’ – The Purported Jewish Interaction with Christianity in Sasanian Babylonia”
Barak Cohen, Bar Ilan University – Israel

11.10– 11.30
“From Monologue to Dialogue: the Varying Relationships of Jewish Thinkers to European Intellectual Culture”
Raphael Shuchat, Bar Ilan University – Israel

11.30 – 11.50
“Jews and Central Europe – A Double Legacy”
Raphael Vago, Tel Aviv University – Israel

11.50 – 12.10
Discussions

12.10– 14.15 Lunch break

Afternoon session, Council Hall
Jewish monuments of worship – Synagogues and their art
Chair: Mariuca Stanciu, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

14.15 – 14.35
“Ars brevis, vita longa: On Preservation of Modern Synagogue Art”
Ilia Rodov, Dept. of Jewish Art, Bar Ilan University – Israel

14.35 – 14.55
“Tradition and Innovation in the Romanian Synagogues – Structure and Decoration”
Ariella Amar, Center for Jewish Art, Hebrew University of Jerusalem – Israel

14.55 – 15.15
“The Great Synagogue of Budapest”
Rudolf Klein, St. Stephen University, Budapest – Hungary

15.15 – 15.35
“The Mural Painting of Romanian Synagogues – a surprising documentary source”
Mariuca Stanciu, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

15.35 – 15.55
“Sinagogile din Bucuresti – perspective arhitecturala”
Alina Popescu, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

15.55 – 16.15
Discussions

Friday, May 29, 2009
Morning session, Council Hall
The Jewish Cultural Heritage – A Multifaceted Approach
Chair: Liviu Rotman, SNSPA; Centrul pentru Studierea Istoriei Evreilor din Romania, FCER – Romania

9.30 – 9.50
“The transformed Jewish Heritage of Târgu Neamţ – Romania”
Felicia Waldman, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

9.50 – 10.10
“Patrimoniul iudaic din Romania – reabilitare, restaurare si optiuni de conservare”
Rudy Marcovici & Lucia Apostol, Federatia Comunitatilor Evreiesti din Romania

10.10 – 10.30
“Reportajul interbelic prin textele lui F. Brunea Fox, ilustrate de Iosif Berman ”
Anca Ciuciu, Centrul pentru Studierea Istoriei Evreilor din Romania, FCER – Romania

10.30 – 10.50
“Evolutia artei funerare evreiesti din Cimitirul Filantropia – Bucuresti in secolele XIX-XX”
Gabriela Vasiliu, Centrul pentru Studierea Istoriei Evreilor din Romania, FCER – Romania

10.50 – 11.15
Discussions

11.15 – 11.30 Coffee break

Midday Session, Council Hall
Jewish heritage lost and found
Chair: Raphael Vago, Tel Aviv University – Israel

11.30 – 11.50
“Spatiul corpului si irealitatea targului”
Voichita Horea, University of Bucharest – Romania

11.50 – 12.10
“The preserved Jewish Heritage of Bursa – Turkey”
Bulent Senay, Uludag University, Bursa – Turkey

12.10 – 12.30
“The entirely lost Jewish heritage of Ştefăneşti – Romania”
Laurenţiu Ursu, Al. I. Cuza University, Iaşi – Romania

12.30 – 12.45
Discussions

12.45 – 14.45 Lunch break

Afternoon session, Council Hall
Jewish heritage lost and found (continued)
Chair: Carol Iancu, Paul Valery University Montpellier III – France

14.45– 15.05
“The lost and found Jewish heritage of Montpellier – France”
Michael Iancu, Moses Maimonides Institute, Montpellier – France

15.05-15.25
“Patrimoniul evreiesc din sudul Franţei – exemplul sinagogilor din Carpentras si Cavaillon”
Carol Iancu, Paul Valery University Montpellier III – France

15.25 – 15.45
“Intre exclusivism şi inclusivism: CazulRonetti Roman”
Michael Shafir, Babes Bolyai University, Cluj – Romania

15.45 – 16.05
“Romancero sau Istoria unei comori de suflet”
Cristina Toma, Societatea Română de Radiodifuziune – Romania

16.05 – 16.25
“Leaving the Jewish heritage behind: Wartime Jewish emigration from Romania”
Mihai Chioveanu, Goldstein Goren Center, University of Bucharest – Romania

16.25 – 16.45
Discussions

Poland -- Chmielnik Jewish Festival Program

Inside the Chmielnik synagogue, 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I put information on this blog's Jewish Culture Festival page, but I don't post the schedules for all Jewish culture festivals I learn about. I thought I would point out the festival in Chmielnik, Poland, however. This year -- June 19-21 -- marks the seventh edition of the festival, which is organized by some enthusiastic local activists in the village of Chmielnik, not far from Krakow.

Before the Holocaust, some 10,000 of the town's then-12,000 residents were Jewish. Today, only 4,000 people live there -- none of them Jews. As the festival's organizer, the local historian Piotr Krawczyk, once put it succinctly: "No Jews here; no people."

Chmielnik synagogue, 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

A large synagogue building, which is under sporadic restoration, dominates the town center and is the focus of the festival. It is a large masonry structure with barrel vaulting, originally built in the 1630s. The Nazis turned it into a warehouse, but the interior still retains traces of lovely decoration, including 18th century stucco work and frescoes of lions, geometric forms, and the signs of the zodiac. There are also two Jewish cemeteries -- one has been recently restored, with a monument to the destroyed Jewish community.

This year, the festival takes place in Chmielnik and also in Szydlow, another small village nearby where there is a massive, fortress-style synagogue.

Krawczyk is one of dozens -- scores? hundreds? -- of non-Jewish Poles who have made a mission of recovering and promoting awareness of a past that was destroyed by the Nazis during the Shoah and then suppressed under communism. He has written a book about local Jewish history and spearheaded efforts to restore the synagogue and broaden knowledge of local Jewish history -- which, as he and others have often noted, is actually the history of the town itself.

VII MEETINGS WITH JEWISH CULTURE IN CHMIELNIK

19 june 2009 – Szydlow
19-20-21 june 2009 – Chmielnik

Friday 19 june 2009 – Chmielnik

Time: 15:00 (3 pm)
Movie projection in the House of Culture in Chmielnik:
“PO-LIN. Memory scraps”. Director Jolanta Dylewska, music Michal Lorenc, narrator Piotr Fronczewski. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReAZir_l3zc)

Friday 19 june 2009 – Szydlow

Time: 17:00 (5:00 pm)
Open the exhibition of the painting-sculpturing of the Plastic Arts Association in Kielce.

Time: 17:45 (5:45 pm)
Official open the ceremony in the Synagogue.

Time: 18:00 (6:00 pm)
The “Chmielnikers” Team concert from Chmielnik in the Synagogue.

Time: 19:15 (7:15 pm)
Open of the Jewish exhibition in the Synagogue.

Time: 20:00 (8:00 pm)
Theatrical performance called “NIGHT – TURNO” made by Poem Theatre “In Radziwill” from Szydlowiec.

Time: 20:40 (8:40 pm)
Theatrical performance called “Shabbat Supper” made by school children from Szydlow.

Saturday 20 june 2009 – Chmielnik

Time: 17:00 (5:00 pm)
Meeting with the Leopold Kozlowski in the House of Culture in Chmielnik.

Time: 18:30 – 19:30 (6:30 – 7:30 pm)
On the Chmielnik’s Market – Jewish dance training with the dancing show made by the children of the Elementary School in Chmielnik.

Time: 19:30 (7:30 pm)
On the Chmielnik’s Market – Show of the Hola-Hola Cabaret.

Time: 20:30 (8:30 pm)
On the Chmielnik’s Market – dancing show inspired by the Jewish music made by girls from the Basic School in Chmielnik.

Time: 21:00 (9:00 pm)
On the Chmielnik’s Market – band “SHARENA” concert.

Sunday 21 june 2009 – Chmielnik

Time: 12:00 (12 noon)
The solemn holy mass in the Church in Chmielnik.

Time: 13:15 – 13:30 (1:15 – 1:30 pm)
At the Synagogue put the wreath and inflammation before board ever-burning fire commemorating Jews of Chmielnik.

Time: 13:30 – 16:00 (1:30 – 4:00 pm)
In the Synagogue:
- Open the exhibition called “I see faces, hear steps” made by Malgorzata Gladyszewska and Andrzej Peczalski.
- Theatrical performance made by Elementary and Basic School children from Chmielnik.
- The Slawa Przybylska recital, Jan Krzyzanowski recite, Janusz Tylman accompaniment.
Time: 16:00 (4:00 pm)
On the Chmielnik’s Market – dancing show inspired by the Jewish music made by girls from the Elementary School in Chmielnik.

Time: 16:15 – 17:00 (4:15– 5:00 pm)
Ending of the First Youth Jewish Songs Contest in Chmielnik.

Time: 17:00 – 17:30 (5:00– 5:30 pm)
On the Chmielnik’s Market – Dance practice part 1.

Time: 17:30 – 18:00 (5:30– 6:00 pm)
On the Chmielnik’s Market – children show from the Basic School in Wola Jachowa.



Time: 18:00 – 19:00 (6:00– 7:00 pm)
On the Chmielnik’s Market – Results of the First Youth Jewish Songs Contest in Chmielnik and the “Chmielnikers” Team concert.

Time: 19:00 – 20:00 (7:00– 8:00 pm)
On the Chmielnik’s Market – Dance practice part 1 and dancing show inspired by the Jewish music made by girls from the Basic School in Chmielnik.

Time: 20:30 – 22:00 (8:30– 10:00 pm)
On the Chmielnik’s Market – band “Klezmafour” concert.

At the time: 13:00 - 20:00 at the Synagogue on the Sienkiewicza and Wspolna street will be the introductions of handicraft, Jewish food, plastic performances as well as the demonstrations of Jewish art of boiling, illumined the performance of klezmer team called the "Klezmafour".

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Sarajevo -- Bob Cohen (and me) on Jewish Sarajevo

Ashkenazic synagogue interior, Sarajevo. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Bob Cohen is back in Budapest after a trip to Sarajevo, and he has posted a colorful account of Jewish life and history in the Bosnian capital on his Dumneazu blog.

Today, the Ashkenazic Synagogue is the center of Sarajevo Jewish life, although the majority of the congragation is of Sephardi origin. The Jews of Sarajevo - as in most of former Yugoslavia - lived in a culturally tolerant world almost devoid of the antisemitic atmosphere that prevailed in pre-WWII Europe, and it all the more tragic that they were almost entuirely destroyed during the Holocaust. Local Muslims and Christians, however, were active in saving the lives of many Jews, and Jews were prominent in the Yugoslav Partisan movement, such as Moshe Pijade, Tito's right hand man. There is a photo in the Jewish museum of a Jewish Woman - wearing a Jewish star armband - walking along the main street of Nazi-occupied Sarajevo arm in arm with her Muslim friend, a woman maintaining the tradition of a complete face veil.

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I haven't been to Sarajevo for several years. But my last visit there coincided with the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, when the 16th-century Old Synagogue, turned into a Jewish museum after World War II, was reconsecrated as a house of worship.

Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

As I wrote in an article at the time:

A mezuzah was nailed to the door of the austere stone building, from whose windows the slim minarets of neighboring mosques in Sarajevo’s Old Town are clearly visible. Services were held and the traditional melodies of the Sephardic Jewish liturgy were sung there for the first time in more than 60 years. “To be honest, all my life I’ve lived in Sarajevo, and this was the first occasion to have a service in the Sephardic synagogue,” said Jakob Finci, the head of the Bosnian Jewish Community. “This was the first time to have it on the right place on the right way. That means really a lot. Let’s hope that it becomes a tradition and not only for the High Holy Days but also for some regular Shabbats.” Originally built in 1581, the Old Synagogue was one of 15 that functioned in the city before the Holocaust, when Sarajevo was a major Balkan center of Sephardi culture and the city’s 12,000 Jews made up nearly 20 percent of the local population. Eighty-five percent of Sarajevo’s Jews were killed in the Holocaust. In 1965, during ceremonies marking 400 years of Jewish presence in Bosnia, the Old Synagogue, though still owned by the remnant Jewish community, was converted into a city-run Jewish museum. Jewish communal activities were shifted to an Ashkenazi synagogue, a grand, Moorish style temple built a century ago, which was converted to include offices and function rooms as well as a sanctuary. When the Bosnian War broke out in 1992, the Jewish Museum was closed and became a storage place for collections from other museums in the city. It remained closed until this summer, when it was reopened as a museum, under new management that includes Jewish-community as well as city representatives.

I was told at the time of the plans to update and convert the synagogue into a facility that would serve as a cultural and educational center for the Jewish and non-Jewish public, as well as a museum. The ground floor was to remain a consecrated synagogue where services would be held on special occasions, with an exhibition of ritual objects and Jewish religious traditions. The two upper floors, consisting of arched stone balconies surrounding the sanctuary area, were to house historical exhibits. Part of the museum was to show the richness of pre-Holocaust Jewish life. But for the first time, there would be a “huge” section on the Holocaust — as well as a section detailing the operation of the Jewish community during the Bosnian War.

Bob visited the completed new museum and reports on some of the exhibitions.

It is interesting to note that when the post-war conversion of the Ashkenazic synagogue took place, the lofty sanctuary was cut in half horizontally -- offices and function rooms are on the ground floor, and the synagogue sanctuary is on the upper floor. But, as you can see by the photo at the top of this post, all that remains is the upper horseshoe part of the arch over the Ark. It looks a little weird, with strange proportions, but it's functional -- and still ornate.

When I was in Sarajevo, Jakob Finci reminisced about the experience of the Jewish community during the Bosnian War, when -- as Ed Serotta has written in his book, Survival in Sarajevo -- the Jewish community came to the aid of their city.

During the war, the tiny local Jewish community and its social welfare arm, La Benevolencija, won international renown as a key conduit of nonsectarian humanitarian aid to all ethnic groups involved in the conflict. They ran a soup kitchen, medical and communication services, and organized exit convoys for refugees from besieged Sarajevo. “We have just 700 members, among them 180 survivors of the Holocaust, so we are an aging community,” Finci said. “At the same time, during the war we succeeded in helping at least 10,000 people.” Finci and other Jewish leaders transformed themselves from middle-aged, white-collar professionals into daring coordinators who juggled identification papers and navigated checkpoints, often risking death in the process. “It was really like a James Bond movie,” Finci recalled. “But if you ask me now if I would be ready to repeat it, the answer would be no. Because it’s only now that I realize how dangerous it was. At the time, it was a strange feeling of responsibility."

Read full Interview

Last year, Finci was named Bosnia's Ambassador to Switzerland.

ADD ON -- P.S.

In his blog, Sam Gruber reminds me I forgot to mention Sarajevo's most famous Jewish relic -- the Sarajevo Hagaddah, long a symbol of Jewish presence and survival in the Balkans! Handwritten and illuminated in 14th-century Spain, the lavishly illustrated 109-page manuscript was brought to Sarajevo after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and remained intact through years of conflict and upheaval. It served countless family seders over the centuries, and wine stains mar some of the pages. Owned by the Bosnian National Museum since 1894, it escaped the Holocaust, hidden away in a remote mountain village. It also survived the brutal Bosnian War of the 1990s, either locked in a bank vault or stashed away in private custody. In December 2002, the book went on display at the museum in a special room (although the copy on display now is, I believe, a facsimile -- a fullscale facisimile of the book was produced a couple of years ago and is currently on sale).

Sarajevo Hagaddah. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Hagaddah and its story figured in the recent award-winning novel by Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book. Ed Serotta detailed the history of the Haggadah in a Nightline program.

To see a more complete account of Jewish heritage in Sarajevo and Bosnia, which I wrote (with Sam Gruber and the help of Ivan Ceresnjes) click HERE.