Ruth Ellen Gruber's Blog, page 31
August 7, 2010
Poland -- Jewish Presence vs Presence of Jews
My latest Ruthless Cosmopolitan column for JTA again explores the situation in Poland, where the intensity of the Jewish presence dwarfs the number of Jews who actually lives in the country.
In Poland, Shabbatons for non-Jews to combat anti-Semitism By Ruth Ellen Gruber · August 2, 2010
PIOTRKOW TRYBUNALSKI, Poland (JTA...
July 23, 2010
Prague -- New Kosher Shop
There's a new kosher shop in Prague, which Dinah Spritzer writes about in the New York Times. It is located in the Old Jewish Quarter at v Kolkovne 4, around the corner from the kosher King Solomon restaurant, which is run by the same management, the Gunsberger brothers.
As only a few thousand Jews currently live in Prague, the store initially targeted temporary residents who struggled to find Passover staples like matzoh and gefilte fish. But now the Günsbergers want their deli to be a hot...
Hungary -- Bankito festival coming up
My latest article for JTA looks at Budapest's progressive Jewish music scene, as a sort of preview to this year's Bankito Jewish culture festival, held near Budapest August 5-8.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to get to Bankito -- I'm going to southern Italy with my father and brother to attend a conference on the art work that my mother carried out in a small Calabrian village in the 1970s and 1980s.
But the Bankito line-up looks good -- and fun.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to get to Bankito -- I'm going to southern Italy with my father and brother to attend a conference on the art work that my mother carried out in a small Calabrian village in the 1970s and 1980s.
But the Bankito line-up looks good -- and fun.
Jewish fusion music key to Budapest's 'Jewstock'...
July 22, 2010
Lviv Klezmer Festival next Sunday
The second "LvivKlezFest" will take place Sunday in and around the inner Jewish quarter of L'viv, near the ruins of the Golden Rose synagogue -- a final late-night concert will take place in the square next to the ruins.
Participating bands come from Poland, Germany, Israel, Russia, and Ukraine, and there will be workshops, guided tours and other participatory events as well as concerts.
It's wonderful to the the (rather crumbling) district used in this way.
Here's the press release:
The...
July 21, 2010
Ukraine -- Hebrew University research expedition to Galicia begins
Researchers from Hebrew University in Jerusalem have begun another foray into Ukraine as part of the ongoing Jewish Galicia project. The group, headed by Dr. Vladimir Levin, will document Jewish heritage sites, including former synagogues, around the town of Nadvorna.
I posted about the project last year, after I met Levin at a conference in Vilnius. Click HERE for that post.
Read a story about the expedition in Jerusalem Post story by clicking here
I posted about the project last year, after I met Levin at a conference in Vilnius. Click HERE for that post.
Read a story about the expedition in Jerusalem Post story by clicking here
July 19, 2010
India -- Jewish Heritage Trail here, too!
The Jerusalem Post runs a lengthy article by Shalva Weil about a nascent Jewish heritage trail in southern India. It is pegged to the situation of the 17th century synagogue in Parur, which is currently being renovated by public authorities after remaining abandoned and somewhat derelict for decades.
Last month, the government of Kerala, India's southernmost state, armed with a matching grant from the central government, started the reconstruction of the Parur synagogue that used to be...
July 16, 2010
Poland -- New Schindler's Factory museum in Krakow
Schindler's desk. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen GruberWhen I was in Krakow for the Festival of Jewish Culture, I had the opportunity to visit the new Schindler's Factory museum -- a branch of the city's History Museum that tells the story of the Nazi occupation of Krakow in 1939-45 and is located in the administration building of what was Oskar Schindler's enamelware factory.
Photo (c) Ruth Ellen GruberThe museum is a wonderful combination of traditional objects and interactivity and in particular us...
July 14, 2010
Czech Republic -- Singer records Yiddish CD in synagogues
Inside the synagogue in Mikulov, now a museum, Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruberby Ruth Ellen Gruber
The Czech-born Canadian singer Lenka Lichtenberg is recording Yiddish and Jewish liturgical songs for a new CD in several former synagogues scattered around the Czech Republic -- in Prague, Plzen, Radnice, Liberec, Turnov, Boskovice, Mikulov, Polna, Hartmanice. Some of these synagogues are used now as museums.
Lichtenberg told the Czech news agency CTK that she envisaged the CD as a "certain homag...
July 12, 2010
Poland -- Piotrkow Trybunalski cemetery photos
I have posted a photo gallery of images of the Jewish cemetery in the Polish town of Piotrkow Trybunalski on the web site of my (Candle)sticks on Stone project. They show women's tombstones and a variety of candlestick images, including broken candles, as well as mythical animals and other imagery and iconography.
July 6, 2010
Poland -- CNN on Jewish cultural and other revival
CNN has run a piece on Poland's rediscovery of its Jewish past I'm delighted that it mentioned the Jewish culture festival in Bialystok, as well as that in Krakow.
This phenomenon has, of course, been going on for several decades already. By now, at least a score of Jewish culture festivals of one sort or another take place in Poland each year -- I've listed quite a few of them in the sidebar of this blog. Krakow's is the oldest and biggest; founded in 1988 it marked its 20th edition this ...
This phenomenon has, of course, been going on for several decades already. By now, at least a score of Jewish culture festivals of one sort or another take place in Poland each year -- I've listed quite a few of them in the sidebar of this blog. Krakow's is the oldest and biggest; founded in 1988 it marked its 20th edition this ...
