Ruth Ellen Gruber's Blog, page 32
July 6, 2010
Prague/Vienna
I'm slow: still processing my recent visits to Warsaw, Piotrkow Trybunalski and Krakow (and Festival of Jewish Culture.) Meanwhile, here are links to my two latest columns for Centropa.org -- on Jewish Prague and Jewish Vienna.
Prague
by Ruth Ellen Gruber
PRAGUE -- Lying between the Vltava River and the Old Town Square, Prague's medieval "Jewish Town," Josefov, is one of the most popular attractions in a magical "golden city" that draws millions of tourists a year. Here, amid historic...
July 4, 2010
Auschwitz -- US Pledges Aid to Restore Camp
Photo (c) Ruth Ellen GruberOn Saturday, U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton visited the brand new Schindler's Factory Museum in Krakow -- a branch of the city's history museum dedicated to the period of Nazi German occupation in World War II. During her visit she announced U.S. plans to pledge $15 million over five years to help restore and maintain the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, not far from Krakow. The site was made into a memorial/museum after World War II but has s...
June 28, 2010
Poland Backlog
Photo (c) Ruth Ellen GruberI'm in Poland, and I have a lot to post about Jewish heritage in the little (rather depressed and depressing) town of Piotrkow Trybunalski -- and also my impressions from Krakow, where I am attending the latest edition -- the 20th -- of the Festival of Jewish Culture.
I doubt if anyone out there is holding their breath for these reports..... but I'll get to them! Meanwhile a photo or two from the wonderful Jewish cemetery in Piotrkow....
Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber
June 23, 2010
Italy -- Jewish Heritage Route in Pesaro opens
A Jewish heritage route in the Italian city of Pesaro will be operative this summer, as in past years, every Thursday afternoon through September.The route includes the old Jewish quarter, the synagogue, whose complex includes a mikvah and a matzo oven, and the Jewish cemetery.
The synagogue, probably dating from the early 17th century, is noted for its beautifully decorate vaulting, is on via delle Scuole and will be open from 4-7 p.m. .The cemetery is nearby on the San Bartolo hill, and wi...
The synagogue, probably dating from the early 17th century, is noted for its beautifully decorate vaulting, is on via delle Scuole and will be open from 4-7 p.m. .The cemetery is nearby on the San Bartolo hill, and wi...
June 17, 2010
Italy -- Jewish Venice
Chabadniks outside Chabad house in the Ghetto square. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen GruberMy latest Ruthless Cosmopolitan column is about disconnects and complexities of Jewish Venice.
In Venice, a Jewish disconnect between locals and visitors
By Ruth Ellen Gruber · June 16, 2010
VENICE, Italy (JTA) -- It was a Friday afternoon in the heart of the historic Venice Ghetto, and I was chatting with the city's chief rabbi, Elia Richetti, when his cellphone beeped.
"It's a text message from Gam-Gam Goodies...
June 16, 2010
Bosnia -- Jewish cemetery in Zenica
If people know anything about the Jewish history and sites of Bosnia-Hercegovina, it is about Sarajevo, where there is a wealth of fascinating attractions.
Here is link to a collection of photos I have run across about the Jewish cemetery in Zenica, a town in the center of the country, northwest of Sarajevo, which has been cleaned up.
Here is link to a collection of photos I have run across about the Jewish cemetery in Zenica, a town in the center of the country, northwest of Sarajevo, which has been cleaned up.
June 13, 2010
Book -- Catalogue of Synagogues in Lithuania
Two former synagogues in Kedainiai, Lithuania, 2006. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen GruberThe Center for Jewish Art in Jerusalem has announced the publication of the first volume of its ambitious catalogue of Synagogues in Lithuania.
This publication offers a catalogue of the extant synagogues in Lithuania: 96 buildings in 59 cities and towns, among them 17 synagogues built of wood. Until World War II there were about 1,000 Jewish prayer houses in Lithuania, while today only 10% exist, many abandoned...
June 11, 2010
Lithuania -- Jewish Library in Vilnius is Opening
After years of fighting, it looks as if Wyman Brent has won the battle to establish a Jewish library in Vilnius. An article in the Baltic Report covers an inaugural event and says the Library will open this summer.
Brent, a native of San Diego and a Christian, came to Vilnius in 1994 and said he fell in love with the country and with the Jewish history of Vilnius, which stretches back around 700 years. The library currently has no permanent home, but it already has around 5,000 items, which...
June 9, 2010
Greece -- The synagogue in Rhodes
The Jerusalem Post runs a story about the synagogue in Rhodes, the oldest in Greece.
Read more HERE
The spacious, Sephardi-style house of worship has a beautiful wooden bima in the middle of the men's section and an exquisite, traditional white pebble floor with black pebble decorations. Behind the synagogue is a museum, funded by far-flung descendants of the Jewish community, displaying textiles and documents which explain the daily lives and the rituals of the Jews of Rhodes.
Read more HERE
June 8, 2010
Poland --Heidi Szpek explores remaining mikvahs
Once again, I want to highlight a fascinating article by the scholar Heidi Szpek in the online Jewish Magazine. In this piece Szpek, who has written extensively about the Jewish cemetery in Bialystok and also collaborated with the local Bialystok researcher Tomaz Wisniewski, describes her exploration of surviving mikvah buildings in the Bialystok region, particularly that in the village of Bocki.
On my first visit to Bocki in May of 2005 no sign indicated that this was the mikvah; no plaque...
