Poland -- New Virtual Shtetl Resource

The Museum of the History of Polish Jewry has just launched the beta version of its “Virtual Shtetl” project, which aims to be an ever-growing online archive and database of photographs, video, texts, old postcards, maps and other reference material on Jewish history and heritage in towns, cities and villages in Poland. Users will have the possibility of adding their own material.

Check out the site by clicking HERE.

The web site states:

The Virtual Shtetl Portal is devoted to the local history of Jews. Although at the moment of the Portal launching it contains a lot of information, its future is based on the cooperation of Internauts using Web 2.0 solutions. Thus a medium is created which constitutes a sort of bridge between the history of Polish Jewish towns and the contemporary, multicultural world.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews has been creating this modern tool at the time when the construction project of the museum building is just beginning. The Virtual Shtetl is a museum without walls, a logical consequence of the initiative to build the Museum , it also provides the answer to social expectations.

The Virtual Shtetl depicts the history of Polish Jews, which in great part was created in towns (Yiddish: shetl). On the Portal one can find the information pertaining to the past but also to the present, to little towns, but also to large cities. The Portal presents both contemporary and also pre-war Poland. The English version will enable the Polish Jews and their descendants scattered all over the world to use the Virtual Shtetl Portal.

A full picture of Polish-Jewish history and relations has been and will be presented thanks to the effort of many institutions, organizations and private persons. Due to the richness of the subject the list of initiatives to be taken up is unlimited. A source of precious information has been provided by the Polin Portal as well the local community portal Jewish.org.pl. In the execution of the Virtual Shtetl Project the experience of the following Internet projects has been used: izrael.badacz.org and Diapozytyw (Adam Mickiewicz Institute) as well as many years' cooperation of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews with the Jewish Historical Institute.

The Virtual Shtetl is not a place, but the community by which it is created. Let us take pictures and look for the relics of the past, let us listen to accounts. Let us exchange information and encourage one another to take up initiatives. Let us get to know one another and act.

In some ways, the site is similar to the Polin portal of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (Fodz). (And in fact, some of the material appears to be the same — looks like there is the same little video of the Jewish cemetery in Bielsko Biala.)

Poland -- New Virtual Shtetl Resource

The Museum of the History of Polish Jewry has just launched the beta version of its “Virtual Shtetl” project, which aims to be an ever-growing online archive and database of photographs, video, texts, old postcards, maps and other reference material on Jewish history and heritage in towns, cities and villages in Poland. Users will have the possibility of adding their own material.

Check out the site by clicking HERE.

The web site states:

The Virtual Shtetl Portal is devoted to the local history of Jews. Although at the moment of the Portal launching it contains a lot of information, its future is based on the cooperation of Internauts using Web 2.0 solutions. Thus a medium is created which constitutes a sort of bridge between the history of Polish Jewish towns and the contemporary, multicultural world.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews has been creating this modern tool at the time when the construction project of the museum building is just beginning. The Virtual Shtetl is a museum without walls, a logical consequence of the initiative to build the Museum , it also provides the answer to social expectations.

The Virtual Shtetl depicts the history of Polish Jews, which in great part was created in towns (Yiddish: shetl). On the Portal one can find the information pertaining to the past but also to the present, to little towns, but also to large cities. The Portal presents both contemporary and also pre-war Poland. The English version will enable the Polish Jews and their descendants scattered all over the world to use the Virtual Shtetl Portal.

A full picture of Polish-Jewish history and relations has been and will be presented thanks to the effort of many institutions, organizations and private persons. Due to the richness of the subject the list of initiatives to be taken up is unlimited. A source of precious information has been provided by the Polin Portal as well the local community portal Jewish.org.pl. In the execution of the Virtual Shtetl Project the experience of the following Internet projects has been used: izrael.badacz.org and Diapozytyw (Adam Mickiewicz Institute) as well as many years' cooperation of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews with the Jewish Historical Institute.

The Virtual Shtetl is not a place, but the community by which it is created. Let us take pictures and look for the relics of the past, let us listen to accounts. Let us exchange information and encourage one another to take up initiatives. Let us get to know one another and act.

In some ways, the site is similar to the Polin portal of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (Fodz). (And in fact, some of the material appears to be the same — looks like there is the same little video of the Jewish cemetery in Bielsko Biala.)

Jewish War Memorials

In honor of Memorial Day in the United States, Sam Gruber has posted pictures on his blog of war memorials to Jewish soldiers who fell while fighting for their (varied) countries in Europe….

Like Sam, I, too, have long been intrigued by these memorials and the stories that they tell — at least the stories that they hint at. When you see a memorial in a Jewish cemetery in Germany, honoring Jewish soldiers who died fighting for Germany in World War I, a conflict that ended just 20 years before Kristallnacht and the start of the Holocaust, it does make you think.

Last week, in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, I photographed the World War I memorial in the town’s Jewish cemetery.

Bielsko-Biala, 2009. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Israeli political scientist Sholmo Avinieri, who was born in Bielsko-Biala and who has restored the tombs of his grandparents in the cemetery, told me that the list of names included those of three Muslims — two Bosniak Austrian soldiers (Dedo Karahodic and Bego Turonowicz), and one Muslim Russian prisoner of war (Chabibulin Chatybarachman) who died in an adjacent POW camp. “Who would bury them if not the Jews?” Shlomo commented.

One of the most poignant such War Memorials is in the wonderful, and historic, Jewish cemetery in Mikulov, Czech Republic — it was founded in the 15th century and has about 4,000 tombstones. The oldest legible dates from 1605.

The World War I memorial honors 25 Jewish soldiers. “Oh, how the heroes have been cut down!” it reads, in German. The names of the dead include Moriz Jung, Max Fedsberger, Heinrich Deutsch, Hans Kohn, Emil Spitzer…

Mikulov. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Mikulov. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Jewish War Memorials

In honor of Memorial Day in the United States, Sam Gruber has posted pictures on his blog of war memorials to Jewish soldiers who fell while fighting for their (varied) countries in Europe….

Like Sam, I, too, have long been intrigued by these memorials and the stories that they tell — at least the stories that they hint at. When you see a memorial in a Jewish cemetery in Germany, honoring Jewish soldiers who died fighting for Germany in World War I, a conflict that ended just 20 years before Kristallnacht and the start of the Holocaust, it does make you think.

Last week, in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, I photographed the World War I memorial in the town’s Jewish cemetery.

Bielsko-Biala, 2009. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Israeli political scientist Sholmo Avinieri, who was born in Bielsko-Biala and who has restored the tombs of his grandparents in the cemetery, told me that the list of names included those of three Muslims — two Bosniak Austrian soldiers (Dedo Karahodic and Bego Turonowicz), and one Muslim Russian prisoner of war (Chabibulin Chatybarachman) who died in an adjacent POW camp. “Who would bury them if not the Jews?” Shlomo commented.

One of the most poignant such War Memorials is in the wonderful, and historic, Jewish cemetery in Mikulov, Czech Republic — it was founded in the 15th century and has about 4,000 tombstones. The oldest legible dates from 1605.

The World War I memorial honors 25 Jewish soldiers. “Oh, how the heroes have been cut down!” it reads, in German. The names of the dead include Moriz Jung, Max Fedsberger, Heinrich Deutsch, Hans Kohn, Emil Spitzer…

Mikulov. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Mikulov. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

One Colorado Vacation Planner Excludes Boulder

En route back from Hawaii (more posts from that trip to come), I picked up a copy of the “Colorado Summer Vacation Planner 2009″ (top right) at Denver International Airport this morning. A bit spacy after a full day on the Big Island and a red-eye nonstop flight from Kailua Kona International Airport, I thumbed through it on the ride home. There were the usual towns, resorts and counties in almost-alphabetical order: Aspen, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Cañon City, Chaffee County — all the way to Winter Park.

Then I looked again. No Boulder! No Boulder? I know (and have repeated) the one-liner about “the People’s Republic of Boulder,” but as far as I knew, Boulder hadn’t actually seceded from the State of Colorado, nor had Boulder been kicked out. Colorado towns as small as Ouray (population under 900) and even non-towns like Gateway, which is actually a resort development called Gateway Canyons Resort, near the Utah state line, get their own chapters. But no Boulder — except in the lodging listings, where 11 properties are given.

I looked again through bleary red-eye flight eyes and finally noticed that this vacation planner is not the one issued by the Colorado Tourism Office, but rather by the Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association. The CTO’s “2009 Official Sate Vacation Guide” (lower right) does not feature specific destination chapters, so low-keying Boulder is not quite so obvious. (I’m sorry that there’s no larger image downloadable from the CTO’s site, but you can see it here.) The covers of the two planners are similar: blue sky dome above a wildflower-filled meadow, with a couple of hikers on the CHLA’s planner and a romantic couple lounging (off-trail) amid the flowers on the CTO’s planner.

But back to omitting Boulder, oversight? Maybe. Deliberate? Maybe, perhaps because of an insufficient level of advertising support by city interests for state-wide tourism promotion efforts. Too bad? For sure.

Hommage to Captain Cook with a Hot, Humid Hike

Sea-level obelisk can be seen easily from the sea — or step by step on a hiking trail

We have seen the monument to Captain Cook, the 18th century English navigator who met his end on February 14, 1779, at Kealekehua Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii. His Wikipedia entry is worth reading. An unhappy Valentine’s Day for the adventurer who on his third epic voyage.

Monday was a cool day (for Hawaii). In fact, Lihue on Kauai registered a record low temperature of 61 degrees for the day. What better day for a sea-level hike? The trail to the Captain Cook monument is off a side road north of the eponymous town of Captain Cook. It is unmarked. Cars park along the road, reeking from sewer pipes under the pavement. The trailhead is across from three tall palm trees. I’m not kidding. A few steps and the sewerage strench is mercifully gone. Rooster and wide bird seranades accompany hikers who descend through rows of old sugarcane fields.

The cane fields give way to open woods and then to stark lava flows. The current Kiiuea erputon is on the other side of the island.

The vegetation thickens near the shore, where sea kayakers pull up. Authorities are concerned about damage to corral, and kayaking is probably going to be banned soon from Kelalekahua Bay.

A short spur trail leads to the monument, which is officially on British soil to this day. Note to the Queen: Send someone to repaint the monument. It’s peeling.

Here is the inscription on the base of the obselisk. A couple of other, small commemorative plaques have been placed around the platform too.

The hike isn’t too long (a tad over two miles each way, with about a 1,300 elevation difference), but coming up was miserable. No matter what the thermometer registered, it felt beastly hot — at least for people like us who live in a low-humidity place. But even as we took sweaty step after sweaty step, it was the least we could do to recognized one of the important navigators who began mapping the world as we know it. I won’t get into the political aspects of these voyages, “discoveries” and conquests. I’m just honoring the curiosity and courage required to make the trips.

Poland -- Warsaw Museum Inches Ahead, More Quickly

The new Museum of the History of Polish Jews is one step closer to realization. The Museum reports that a contract has been signed with a Polish construction company, and actual work could commence as early as next month. The deal was made April 30.

Here’s what the Museum says:

Five companies answered the call for tenders issued by the Warsaw City Development Board.The winning bid, estimating Museum construction costs at PLN 152,3 mln gross (USD 43.5 million as of 30.04.09), came from the Polimex-Mostostal/Interbud-West consortium. After accepting the offer when asked to comment, Robert Supeł, Museum Deputy Director for Finance and Operations, could not contain his excitement: "If yesterday's decision is not contested, the contract with the consortium will be signed before the end of this month and construction will start very soon thereafter. This means that the Museum of the History of Polish Jews will open in the summer of 2012 at the latest." Under the contract, the builder has 33 months to complete the project. After the building is completed, a few months will be devoted to equipping it and completing installation of the multimedia core exhibition – already being developed by an international team consisting of scientific experts from Poland, United States and Israel and designers from the UK.

Polimex-Mostostal is Poland's largest engineering-construction company with experience especially in steel constructions which is very important when it comes to the construction of the unique free form wall of the Museum. The company posted an income of PLN 4.3 billion in 2008 (15% more than in 2007) and is among the 20 blue chip companies quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. It carries out both large construction and industrial projects (motorways, railways, power plants, Legia stadium in Warsaw, Wisła stadium in Kraków) as well as special cultural projects (the Chopin Centre and the University Medical Library in Warsaw, the Artistic Education centre in Gorzów Wielkopolski).

mn

Warsaw, 9.05.2009

Warbud S.A. which also participated in the tender filed an appeal on May 8. The company's offer was worth PLN 163.3 million. The appeal is under consideration. It should be resolved within 10 days.

Follow-Up to Epic Delay

A few days ago, I posted an item called “Air Travel — Fun or None?” detailing an delay in San Francisco, connected from Denver to Maui on the same aircraft (different flight numbers). Cynic that I am, I was not expecting more than a a verbal apology from United. Much to my surprise, the airline did not charge for food or drinks on the long-delayed flight — a delay that was nearly five hours by the time the aircraft finally pushed back. Much to my greater surprise, I received an E-mail offering a $250 credit on a future flight, some kind of upgrade oppotunity or a credit of 10,000 Mileage Plus miles. I picked the $250 credit.

Air Travel -- Fun or None?

One short delay and one long one from Denver to Maui via San Francisco

I have a refrigerator magnet showing a woebegone Charle Brown saying, “Someday, my ship will come in, and with my luck, I’ll be at the airport.”

Just call me Charlie Brown.

Dateline: San Fransciso International Airport, May 15, 2009, 4:15 pm. PDT

United Flight 415 - DEN-SFO

Boeing 767, fully loaded,departed from Denver 40 minutes but landed in San Francisco on time. So far, so good. We arrived at Gate 87, which is the same gate our Maui flight was departing from. Hooray, we thought. They can’t lose our luggage — assuming it was on our plane to begin with.

United Flight 37 - SFO-OGG

Boarded aircraft, scheduled to depart at 1:1o p.m.. Sat and sat and sat. Captain announced a “small drip” from the left engine cowling. Mechanics going to check it out, and “we should be on our way shortly.” Hah!

Flight attendants passed out water and started the movie. Then we were told to get off the plane with all our carry-ons. They didn’t say, “change of aircraft,” but that is what it turned out to be. We moved from Gate 87 to 85, where eventually, a smaller aircraft pulled up. United started prospecting for volunteers to leave tomorrow (free roundtrip ticket, free hotel in San Fransciso). We’re going to a wedding tomorrow so couldn’t accept.

Rescheduled Flight 37 was supposed to depart at 4:00, then 5:00 and now 5:30. It is supposed to arrive in Maui at 7:40. United still needs to offload 14 people and asked for volunteers willing to “leave in 20 minutes” for Honolulu and transfer to an interisland flight from there, arriving in Maui at 9:00-something p.m. And bags would not be transferred but would be waiting at the airport. In theory.

Right now, I have a confirmed seat on Flight 37, while my husband — according to the status monitor — is #12 on the list awaiting seat assignments. If we only have one seat, I’ll give mine to him and try to join him tomorrow. It’s his brother whose wedding we are going to.

Just call me Charlie Brown.

Berlin -- Jewish Museum to Expand

This news dates from a couple weeks ago, but I am just catching up — the Jewish Museum in Berlin has announced it will expand its space considerably, taking over space across the street where the Central Flower Market is currently located to provide space for educational programs, and the archive, library and research facilities. The Market Hall, dating from the 1960s, will not be demolished, but it will be modified to suit the Museum’s needs.

Here’s the full press release, from April 29:

A hope the Jewish Museum Berlin has had for some time is now to be realized: The Museum will be granted its much-needed expansion into the area on the opposite side of the road which currently houses Berlin’s Central Flower Market. The space provided by expansion into the market hall will satisfy the Museum’s urgent need for additional room for educational programs, the archive, the library, and research. André Schmitz, State Secretary for Cultural Affairs in Berlin, has approved the project, ensuring that the state of Berlin will hand over the use and management of the whole hall to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg District Authority is seeing to the alteration of the land-use plan for the area between Lindenstrasse and Friedrichstrasse, in which the Central Flower Market premises are currently a designated "mixed-use" area. This will enable the hall to be used as a cultural center in future.

Hall Conversion Financed Through the Generous Support of the State and Private SponsorsThe building planned by the architect Bruno Grimmek between 1962 and 1965 will not be demolished, but merely modified to suit the requirements of the Jewish Museum Berlin. Construction work can begin in 2010 when the approximately 6,000 m² hall will be vacated by the Berlin Central Market, which will move to the Beusselstrasse. The costs are estimated at 10 million euros, of which the state – under the direction of Bernd Neumann, Minister of State for Cultural and Media Affairs – will cover 6 million. The remaining 4 million euros will be raised by the Jewish Museum Berlin through sponsors. Amongst the Museum’s supporters are a generous sponsor from the US and the American Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin: Their gift to the Museum is the design for the hall’s modification, for which it is hoped the Daniel Libeskind Studio can be won. Berlin’s Kreuzberg district would thus gain a further architectural attraction, which alongside the Libeskind Building and Libeskind-inspired Glass Courtyard would complete the Lindenstrasse ensemble – without burdening public coffers with the expense of a star architect’s design.

Education and Research Will be Under One RoofThe expansion has become necessary due to the growth of the education and research areas at the Jewish Museum Berlin. The new building is to bring the education department, the archive, and the library under one roof, thus creating synergies between scientific research and educational work. Direct access to information, a clearer overview of what is on offer, and more room for exchange, transfer of knowledge, and encounters – the new location will ensure all these. The objective is to establish in the Lindenstrasse in Berlin one of the most important research and education centers on the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry.

Increasing Demand for the JMB’s Educational ProgramsSince the opening of the Jewish Museum Berlin in 2001, its educational work has more than doubled. In addition to the roughly 7,000 guided tours each year, the Museum holds around 300 educational events such as training courses, seminars for students, vacation programs, workshops on special exhibitions and Jewish festivals, workshops about the archive featuring talks with witnesses, theater workshops, programs against antisemitism, project days, and training courses for teachers. Over 100,000 visitors per year come to these events. Furthermore, at least 10 times a year the Jewish Museum Berlin hosts large-scale educational events with up to 300 school pupils, for example as part of international youth meetings or commemoration days for schools such as the Anne Frank School.

This diverse range of activities and the increase in demand, particularly where whole-day activities are concerned, has resulted in a space shortage that will be solved with the expansion into the Central Flower Market hall. It will enable more events to be held at the same time and a clearer representation of findings. More space will also be available for educational work on a theme the Museum intends to bring into sharper focus: Integration, understanding, and tolerance in a multiethnic society. Moreover, the spatial proximity of the archives, library, seminar rooms, workshops, and multimedia activities will ensure more efficient logistics in the organization of events. Last but not least, it will take the pressure off the flow of visitors into the Old Building and the Libeskind Building, which are frequented by more than 750,000 people a year visiting the permanent and special exhibitions.

Growing Archives and Intensification of Scientific ResearchThe archival holdings of the Jewish Museum Berlin have likewise more than doubled since its opening. Further growth is expected in the near and mid-term future, since the last generation of Holocaust survivors is passing away. The Jewish Museum Berlin (JMB) has the task of conserving this heritage by continuously adding to its collections. Furthermore, the archive would like to expand its holdings on postwar history of Jews in Germany.

In addition, there are the dependencies of important archives on German-speaking Jewry housed at the JMB: The holdings of the dependency there of the Leo Baeck Institute New York Archive have quadrupled since 2001. The Jewish Museum Berlin opened a dependency of the Wiener Library London in 2008. In cooperation with the British partners, the holdings, which have so far not been inventoried, are to be made accessible at the JMB.

The number of users has also risen appreciably: The holdings of the Jewish Museum Berlin, the Leo Baeck Archive, and the Wiener Library are in international demand. Inquiries from researchers come not only from Europe, but also from other parts of the world such as Israel, the USA, and Canada. The extension will not only ensure improved conditions for using the materials, but will also provide more space for collaboration with universities and other scientific institutions – an area that is to receive sharper focus. Alongside a fellowship program, more scientific events such as conferences, meetings, and lectures are planned.

Library Expansion and Improved Conditions for UsersThe library at the Jewish Museum Berlin will also move into the extension. Initially planned as a reference library for employees, it originally housed around 70,000 media and has been used as a specialist reference library since 2001. The holdings have trebled in the past 10 years. As well as literature on German-Jewish history, culture, literature, music, art, and other humanistic sections, it also boasts a historical collection whose oldest book dates back to the 14th century. In 2005, the library began to collect audiovisual materials and thus became a media center.

Hidden away at the back of the Libeskind Building, the current library is not in a part of the Museum to which the public has free access. Therefore prior notification is required of its visitors, who are then accompanied by staff to and from the reading room. In the new building on the opposite side of the Lindenstrasse, the library rooms will be freely accessible making use of them easier and thus more attractive.

European Airline Consolidation Continues

You can’t tell the airlines without a scorecard anymore. Mergers, consolidations, bankruptcies, start-ups, alliances and code shares make the airline industry very confusing — more so with each day’s headlines. The US led the way, and Europe is recently followed.

In the US, airline consolidations go back a long way, but consolidation fever . The present Continental was forged from an agglomeration of old carriers such as the original Frontier, Eastern, People Express and New York Air. Merger fever, economies of scale, Wall Street paper moving and so on have essentially left us with United and its current partner, U.S. Airways (that long ago took over the old Mohawk and Allegheny and recently AmericaWest), Delta (including Northwest) and American (which absorbed TWA) — plus fast-growing, customer-friendly Southwest that currently seems to be the smartest carrier in the American skies. Along the way, other legacy domestic carriers disappeared. Think Pan Am (which had previously absorbed National) and Braniff. And these are just the ones that came to mind.

Similar consolidations, mergers and takeovers have raked European flag carriers too, but there, things are dicier because national pride is emblazoned on fuselages that are hard for airlines to relinquish, even as they are in dire financial straits. A merger between Belgium’s SABENA and the former Swissair imploded or exploded after the national airline of Switzerland not only had its own financial problems by mismanaged SABENA. Brussels Airlines rose from its ashes but is a shadow of its predecessor

Air France and KLM (above right) are part of the same Dutch-controlled operating group that also owns 25 percent of Alitalia. Lufthansa, Germany’s airline, owns SWISS, which succeeded Swissair after that carrier’s bankruptcy; is a large stakeholder in Brussels Airlines and could take it over completely by 2011; bought BMI, and has just announced their takeover of Austrian Airlines. I could make a tasteless joke about an Anchluss in the air, but let’s pretend that I didn’t. There’s also talk that Lufthansa might buy or merge with SAS — or something. Stay tuned.

European Airline Consolidation Continues

You can’t tell the airlines without a scorecard anymore. Mergers, consolidations, bankruptcies, start-ups, alliances and code shares make the airline industry very confusing — more so with each day’s headlines. The US led the way, and Europe is recently followed.

In the US, airline consolidations go back a long way, but consolidation fever . The present Continental was forged from an agglomeration of old carriers such as the original Frontier, Eastern, People Express and New York Air. Merger fever, economies of scale, Wall Street paper moving and so on have essentially left us with United and its current partner, U.S. Airways (that long ago took over the old Mohawk and Allegheny and recently AmericaWest), Delta (including Northwest) and American (which absorbed TWA) — plus fast-growing, customer-friendly Southwest that currently seems to be the smartest carrier in the American skies. Along the way, other legacy domestic carriers disappeared. Think Pan Am (which had previously absorbed National) and Braniff. And these are just the ones that came to mind.

Similar consolidations, mergers and takeovers have raked European flag carriers too, but there, things are dicier because national pride is emblazoned on fuselages that are hard for airlines to relinquish, even as they are in dire financial straits. A merger between Belgium’s SABENA and the former Swissair imploded or exploded after the national airline of Switzerland not only had its own financial problems by mismanaged SABENA. Brussels Airlines rose from its ashes but is a shadow of its predecessor

Air France and KLM (above right) are part of the same Dutch-controlled operating group that also owns 25 percent of Alitalia. Lufthansa, Germany’s airline, owns SWISS, which succeeded Swissair after that carrier’s bankruptcy; is a large stakeholder in Brussels Airlines and could take it over completely by 2011; bought BMI, and has just announced their takeover of Austrian Airlines. I could make a tasteless joke about an Anchluss in the air, but let’s pretend that I didn’t. There’s also talk that Lufthansa might buy or merge with SAS — or something. Stay tuned.

Prague -- Yet More Golemania....

Dinah Spritzer writes the latest in the NYTimes orgy of Golemania…..

The golem of Prague is part clay man, part robot (a Czech word of origin) of giant-sized proportions with Biblical roots imagined by 19th-century eastern European Jewish writers as a protector of Jews. It has also been commercially repurposed as souvenir, restaurant theme and museum exhibition.

A great read, as all Dinah’s stories are, but again, it’s not much different from 15 or more years ago…..The photo of a Golem souvenir stand in my 1994 book Upon the Doorposts of Thy House is almost identical….

I found the story Dinah wrote for JTA about the run-up to the 400th anniverary of the semi-legendary Rabbi Loew’s death much more interesting than the pieces that have appeared in the NYTimes, with much more depth — and real news.

Poland -- Jan Jagielski Wins Award

Jan Jagielski in Warsaw Jewish Cemetery, 1993. Photo (c) Sam Gruber

I’m delighted to learn that my old friend, Jan Jagielski, has been awarded the second annual Irena Sendler Memorial Award by the Taube Foundation. The award, named in honor of a Righteous Gentile who saves Jewish children in Warsaw during the Holocaust, honors rescuers of Jewish Heritage in Poland.

Janek, whom I met back in 1981, when I was the UPI chief correspondent in Warsaw and we were both part of the semi-clandestine “Flying Jewish University” study and culture group there, is chief archivist at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and — as the Taube Foundation put it “a role model for all those who work to salvage and redeem the glory of Poland’s Jewish legacy.”

Born in 1937, he is a chemical engineer by training. He undertook his personal mission to document synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in, if I recall correctly, the 1960s. It was a way to — as he and others put it — literally fill in the blank spaces left by communist policy and regain part of Polish history and identity that had been destroyed by the Nazis and deliberately suppressed by the communist regime.

Back in 1990, when I first started documenting Jewish sites for the first edition of Jewish Heritage Travel, I vividly recall visiting him in his cramped apartment, in a prefab building on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto. It was stuffed, crammed, filled to overflowing, with boxes of photographs, maps and files that he had compiled.

Over the years, Jan often worked with Lena Bergman, who is now the director of the Jewish Historical Institute. He and Lena wrote a catalogue book on synagogues in Poland that came out in the mid-1990s. They also were instrumental in compiling the first comprehensive inventory of Jewish cemeteries in Poland, a project of the Jewish Heritage Council of the World Monuments Fund on behalf of the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. Sam Gruber, who coordinated this project, wrote recently about Jan on his blog.

Jan, who also produced various detailed Jewish guidebooks to Warsaw, as well as other publications, has be recognized with a number of awards in recent years.

Mazel Tov, Janek!

Here’s the Taube Foundation press release:

ARCHIVIST JAN JAGIELSKI RECEIVES SECOND ANNUAL IRENA SENDLER MEMORIAL AWARD

Award Commemorates "Righteous Gentile" Sendler and Honors Rescuers of Jewish Heritage in Poland

SAN FRANCISCO – Jan Jagielski, a Polish archivist, who has spent his professional career working to document and preserve Jewish monuments in Poland, although he himself is not Jewish, has been named the 2009 recipient of the Irena Sendler Memorial Award by the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture in San Francisco. The award is granted to a non-Jewish Pole who has worked to preserve Jewish heritage in Poland, in memory of the late Irena Sendler, a "Righteous Gentile" who courageously saved over 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. The award was announced on the first anniversary of Sendler's passing and will be presented at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow on July 1, 2009.

Jagielski, chief archivist at the newly renamed Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, was the first to initiate in the pre-1989 Communist era a project to document and ultimately preserve what remained of Jewish monuments in Poland. A non-Jewish Pole by origin, a chemical engineer by profession, his only motivation was his pain at seeing a part of his country’s heritage go to ruin and oblivion. Acting alone and only in his personal capacity at first, he photographed neglected cemeteries and ruined synagogues and started to collect documentation on their former appearance and importance.

Since the fall of Communism in 1989, Jagielski has co-produced, with the City of Warsaw, excellent guidebooks to Warsaw’s prewar Jewish history. Today, he leads a new major conservation program at Warsaw's Jewish Historical Institute. Jan Jagielski remains one of Poland’s top authorities on Jewish monuments and is a role model for all those who work to salvage and redeem the glory of Poland’s Jewish legacy.

"The symbiotic relationship between Jewish culture and Polish culture cannot be overstated," said Tad Taube, Honorary Consul for the Republic of Poland and chairman of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture. "Jan Jagielski understands the importance of preserving Jewish history in Poland against the backdrop of today's vibrant Jewish renaissance.”

The Jewish community in Poland has come back to life in the 20 years since the fall of Communism in 1989, with synagogues and community centers being built all across the country and many Poles connecting with Jewish roots they did not know they possessed. Jewish culture is embraced by Jews and non-Jews alike; this is evidenced in the great popularity of the Jewish Cultural Festival in Krakow, celebrated in large part by non-Jews.

This award was founded last year to commemorate Irena Sendler, who passed on May 12, 2008 in Warsaw at the age of 98. Sendler, who saved twice as many Jews as Oskar Schindler during World War II, refused to give up the identities of the children she had rescued, even when captured and tortured by the Nazis. Sendler's heroic actions went largely unnoticed until ten years ago when several Kansas school girls wrote a play about her. In 2007 she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

"Irena was a true hero to the Jewish community of Poland, and we believe that honoring her legacy with this award is very meaningful," said Taube. "We hope that honoring people like Jan Jagielski who continue to work diligently for the preservation of Jewish history and culture in Poland is a fitting tribute."

Nominations for the award were reviewed by a panel made up of foundation staff and grantees involved with the Polish Jewish community.

For more information, email: info@taubephilanthropies.org.

Europe -- upcoming Jewish culture festivals

Cantorial concert Jewish Culture Festival Krakow, 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

A number of Jewish culture festivals of all sorts take place around Europe in the spring and summer. Some are dedicated just to music. Others are much broader. As far as I know, there is no central web site where you can find information on all of them. I will begin to post information here on dates and venues.

The culture festivals and other smaller events make good destinations around which to center a trip. Some, like the annual Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow, are huge events lasting a week or more, which draw thousands of people and offer scores or sometimes hundreds of performances, lectures, concerts, exhibits and the like. Other festivals are much less ambitious. Some are primarily workshops but also feature concerts. Many of the same artists perform at more than one festival.

Dance workshop, Krakow, 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

A highlight this summer will be three concerts by the 14-person ensemble of The Other Europeans project on Jewish and Roma culture, music and identity. This is an EU-co-financed project of the Yiddish Summer Weimar, The Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow and the KlezMORE Festival Vienna.

Here is a partial list, with links to web sites — I will add to it (here or on separate posts) as information comes in:

Austria

Vienna — KlezMORE Festival — The festival itself is Nov. 7-22. But on June 28 it will present The Other Europeans concert.

France

Paris – Klezmer Paris — July 6-10. Mainly workshops in dance, singing, playing.

Germany

Weimar – Yiddish Summer Weimar. Workshops and concerts the whole month of July. The Other Europeans concert will be July 5.

Hungary

Budapest — Jewish Summer Festival, Aug. 30-Sept. 7

Poland

Wroclaw — Simcha - 11th Jewish Culture Festival in Wrocław. May 31-June 5

Krakow – Festival of Jewish Culture, June 27-July 5. The Other Europeans concert will be July 3.

Warsaw — Singer’s Warsaw Festival of Jewish Culture, Aug. 29-Sept. 6. A big festival, increasingly similar in scope to that in Krakow.

Lodz — Festival of the Dialogue of Four Cultures. Usually in September

Poland -- Big New Book on Polish Jewish Heritage

A new book on the post-war fate of Poland’s Jewish heritage has been published in Poland. It looks as though it may only be available in Polish.

Here’s the announcement from the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland:

It is with joy that we inform that thanks to the support of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland a book by Professor Kazimierz Urban was published by Nomos Publishing House in Cracow under the title “”Cmentarze żydowskie, synagogi i domy modlitwy w Polsce w latach 1944-1966 (Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues and Houses of Prayer in Poland, 1944-1966)”.

The book, composed of original Polish documents concerning mostly the fate of the property of the prewar Jewish communities, is a large, 800 pages wide publication. It is a perfect source of information for the scientific research, and a good lecture for all those interested in the history of Polish Jews after the World War II.

To order the book please contact the Foundation at fodz@fodz.pl.

Poland --Po-lin: New documentary on pre-war Poland

Po-lin, Slivers of Memory, a new Polish documentary film with archival footage from pre-war Poland, has been shown at the New York Polish Film Festival. I posted a link to an AP story on this in March, but the link doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

Here’s the trailer:

My friend Carolyn Slutsky, who studied and reported from Poland, reviews the film in Jewish Week.

The details are heartbreakingly mundane: a watchmaker talks to his watches like they’re sick patients; a teacher carries his shoeless pupils to the cheder; a Jewish midwife assists at the birth of a Polish Catholic child. In “Po-lin: Slivers of Memory,” a new documentary written and directed by Jolanta Dyslewska, daily Jewish life in prewar Poland is revealed in all its routine and sameness, painting a stark and novel portrait of all that was lost when the Nazis invaded in 1939.

The documentary (Po-lin means “we shall stop here” in Yiddish) weaves footage shot by American Jews visiting their Polish-Jewish relatives during the 1930s with contemporary interviews of elderly Poles telling their memories of their Jewish neighbors and friends. Reaching far beyond the typical “some-of-my-best-friends-were-Jewish” mentalities often attributed to non-Jews in prewar Europe, the interviews show aging people grappling with sweet childhood memories that later turned dark as their Jewish friends were deported and gone. And the prewar home movies, which Dyslewska first found in a Jerusalem archive, are poignant not only for showing the world that would soon be destroyed but also for their shocking intimacy, since the cameramen were the relatives of these doomed Polish Jews.

Read full article

Off (Geographical) Topic -- American Jewish Heritage Guide

Historical marker at the B’nai Abraham synagogue, Brenham, Texas. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

This, as I indicated in the title, is off topic — geographically. In honor of May — American Jewish Heritage Month — Moment Magazine has published the first of what it says will be an annual Guide to Jewish Heritage in its current issue, which is also available online.

The average American knows more about the Jews who left Egypt 3,000 years ago than about the Jews who came to America over the past 355 years. When American history textbooks mention Jews, it's often in connection with the Holocaust. But as the presidential proclamation makes clear, Jews have been part of the fabric of American life since their first steps on American soil in 1654. Jews have extended the boundaries of American pluralism, serving as a model for other religious minorities and expanding the definition of American religious liberty so that they and others would be included as equals. Jewish American history offers us the opportunity to explore how Jews have flourished in a free and pluralistic society where church and state are separated and religion is entirely voluntary. The institutions listed in this guide—archives, historical societies, museums and more—have taken the lead in preserving and recounting that story. Thanks to them, people here and abroad are becoming versed in the American Jewish experience. During Jewish American Heritage Month, in particular, we owe these institutions our gratitude.

The list includes Jewish Museums, Archives, Historical Sites and Historical Societies in North America and the Caribbean. Moment posts the following as a sample selection:

Washington, DC

Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington/Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum
701 4th St., NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 789-0900
www.jhsgw.org

New York City

Museum of Jewish Heritage
Edmond J. Safra Plaza
36 Battery Pl.
New York, NY 10280
(646) 437-4200
www.mjhnyc.org

Tenement Museum
108 Orchard St.
New York, NY 10002
(212) 431-0233
www.tenement.org/index.php

Philadelphia

National Museum of American Jewish History
Independence Mall East
55 North 5th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 923-3811
www.nmajh.org

Mississippi

Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life/Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience

213 South Commerce Street
Natchez, MS 39120

3863 Morrison Road
Utica, MS 39175

(601) 362-6357
www.msje.org

Miami Beach

Jewish Museum of Florida
301 Washington Ave.
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 672-5044
www.jewishmuseum.com

Michigan

Janice Charach Gallery
D. Dan and Betty Kahn Building
6600 West Maple Rd.
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(248) 432-5448
www.jccdet.org/culturalarts/gallery.shtml

Chicago

Spertus Museum
610 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60605
(312) 322-1700
www.spertus.edu

Berkeley, CA

Judah L. Magnes Museum
2911 Russell St.
Berkeley, CA 94705
(510) 549-6950
www.magnes.org

Denver

Mizel Museum
400 S. Kearney St.
Denver, CO 80224
(303) 394-9993
www.mizelmuseum.org

Tulsa

Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art
2021 East 71st St.
Tulsa, OK 74136
(918) 492-1818
www.jewishmuseum.net

Los Angeles

Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance
9786 West Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 553-8403
www.museumoftolerance.com

Skirball Cultural Center
2701 North Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
(310) 440-4500
www.skirball.org

Toronto

Beth Tzedec Reuben & Helene Dennis Museum
1700 Bathurst St.
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5P 3K3
(416) 781-3511
www.beth-tzedec.org/museum

Virgin Islands

Weibel Museum/St. Thomas Synagogue
Originally built in 1796 by Sephardic Jews who migrated as a result of the Spanish Inquisition, the synagogue is one of the New World's oldest.
15 Crystal Gade Charlotte Amalie
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
(340) 774-4312
www.onepaper.com/synagogue

Online

Jewish Women's Archive
The archive functions as an online "Museum of the Jewish Woman."
www.jwa.org

Kudos to Moment and to the Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, which sponsored the guide.

Off (Geographical) Topic -- American Jewish Heritage Guide

Historical marker at the B’nai Abraham synagogue, Brenham, Texas. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

This, as I indicated in the title, is off topic — geographically. In honor of May — American Jewish Heritage Month — Moment Magazine has published the first of what it says will be an annual Guide to Jewish Heritage in its current issue, which is also available online.

The average American knows more about the Jews who left Egypt 3,000 years ago than about the Jews who came to America over the past 355 years. When American history textbooks mention Jews, it's often in connection with the Holocaust. But as the presidential proclamation makes clear, Jews have been part of the fabric of American life since their first steps on American soil in 1654. Jews have extended the boundaries of American pluralism, serving as a model for other religious minorities and expanding the definition of American religious liberty so that they and others would be included as equals. Jewish American history offers us the opportunity to explore how Jews have flourished in a free and pluralistic society where church and state are separated and religion is entirely voluntary. The institutions listed in this guide—archives, historical societies, museums and more—have taken the lead in preserving and recounting that story. Thanks to them, people here and abroad are becoming versed in the American Jewish experience. During Jewish American Heritage Month, in particular, we owe these institutions our gratitude.

The list includes Jewish Museums, Archives, Historical Sites and Historical Societies in North America and the Caribbean. Moment posts the following as a sample selection:

Washington, DC

Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington/Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum
701 4th St., NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 789-0900
www.jhsgw.org

New York City

Museum of Jewish Heritage
Edmond J. Safra Plaza
36 Battery Pl.
New York, NY 10280
(646) 437-4200
www.mjhnyc.org

Tenement Museum
108 Orchard St.
New York, NY 10002
(212) 431-0233
www.tenement.org/index.php

Philadelphia

National Museum of American Jewish History
Independence Mall East
55 North 5th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 923-3811
www.nmajh.org

Mississippi

Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life/Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience

213 South Commerce Street
Natchez, MS 39120

3863 Morrison Road
Utica, MS 39175

(601) 362-6357
www.msje.org

Miami Beach

Jewish Museum of Florida
301 Washington Ave.
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 672-5044
www.jewishmuseum.com

Michigan

Janice Charach Gallery
D. Dan and Betty Kahn Building
6600 West Maple Rd.
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(248) 432-5448
www.jccdet.org/culturalarts/gallery.shtml

Chicago

Spertus Museum
610 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60605
(312) 322-1700
www.spertus.edu

Berkeley, CA

Judah L. Magnes Museum
2911 Russell St.
Berkeley, CA 94705
(510) 549-6950
www.magnes.org

Denver

Mizel Museum
400 S. Kearney St.
Denver, CO 80224
(303) 394-9993
www.mizelmuseum.org

Tulsa

Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art
2021 East 71st St.
Tulsa, OK 74136
(918) 492-1818
www.jewishmuseum.net

Los Angeles

Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance
9786 West Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 553-8403
www.museumoftolerance.com

Skirball Cultural Center
2701 North Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
(310) 440-4500
www.skirball.org

Toronto

Beth Tzedec Reuben & Helene Dennis Museum
1700 Bathurst St.
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5P 3K3
(416) 781-3511
www.beth-tzedec.org/museum

Virgin Islands

Weibel Museum/St. Thomas Synagogue
Originally built in 1796 by Sephardic Jews who migrated as a result of the Spanish Inquisition, the synagogue is one of the New World's oldest.
15 Crystal Gade Charlotte Amalie
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
(340) 774-4312
www.onepaper.com/synagogue

Online

Jewish Women's Archive
The archive functions as an online "Museum of the Jewish Woman."
www.jwa.org

Kudos to Moment and to the Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, which sponsored the guide.

Avis Uses Bait, Switch and Upsell Tactics

Car rental firms jack up rates when using AmEx points

I use frequent flyer miles for flights whenever possible, expedient and/or wise, but I’ve been hoarding American Express points for car rentals for a long time. We are soon going to Hawaii — first to Maui for a wedding and then to the Big Island for a vacation. Two rental car opportunities seemed like a good use of points. I started with the Big Island, because that will be the longer stay.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the Avis website trying to figure out what promotion/coupon codes I could use for Avis, so I finally phoned. The AmEx system is that I could redeem points for several coupons to be used toward (but not in full payment for) the rental, which for one week with Avis was going to be more than $450. I was too shocked to write down the exact quote, but it was high. The reservation agent told me that I would be better off not using the coupon at all. He quoted an economy car rate of $242 for seven days, with unlimited mileage and no extra charge for the second driver. Sold.

Then he told me about a service that Avis offers which would net me a $20 gas coupon and 5 percent cash back on the rental. I asked whether this happens automatically when renting, and instead of answering, he switched me to a fast-talking sales type who “upgraded” the service which I could try for a month for “only one dollar” and “cancel any time.” The carrot he dangled over the telephone was a $20 gas coupon plus that 5 percent rebate, but first, he said, I had to sign up. When I balked, he told me that he “has been authorized” to raise the gas coupon to $40. I told him my name, address, etc., but when he asked for my date of birth, I refused and said I wasn’t interested in providing personal information. He huffed, “I’m not asking for your Social Security number.” I said I didn’t want to provide any more personal information, so he hung up on me.

Avis indeed seems to be trying harder — trying harder to sell a “service” that I didn’t really want (although a $40 gas coupon would be nice). No matter what they tried, they succeeded in annoying me. Because I knew that the AmEx coupons would not make sense for Maui either, I simply made the reservation online and ignored the “offer” for the same service that the phone folks tried to force on me.

Avis Uses Bait, Switch and Upsell Tactics

Car rental firms jack up rates when using AmEx points

I use frequent flyer miles for flights whenever possible, expedient and/or wise, but I’ve been hoarding American Express points for car rentals for a long time. We are soon going to Hawaii — first to Maui for a wedding and then to the Big Island for a vacation. Two rental car opportunities seemed like a good use of points. I started with the Big Island, because that will be the longer stay.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the Avis website trying to figure out what promotion/coupon codes I could use for Avis, so I finally phoned. The AmEx system is that I could redeem points for several coupons to be used toward (but not in full payment for) the rental, which for one week with Avis was going to be more than $450. I was too shocked to write down the exact quote, but it was high. The reservation agent told me that I would be better off not using the coupon at all. He quoted an economy car rate of $242 for seven days, with unlimited mileage and no extra charge for the second driver. Sold.

Then he told me about a service that Avis offers which would net me a $20 gas coupon and 5 percent cash back on the rental. I asked whether this happens automatically when renting, and instead of answering, he switched me to a fast-talking sales type who “upgraded” the service which I could try for a month for “only one dollar” and “cancel any time.” The carrot he dangled over the telephone was a $20 gas coupon plus that 5 percent rebate, but first, he said, I had to sign up. When I balked, he told me that he “has been authorized” to raise the gas coupon to $40. I told him my name, address, etc., but when he asked for my date of birth, I refused and said I wasn’t interested in providing personal information. He huffed, “I’m not asking for your Social Security number.” I said I didn’t want to provide any more personal information, so he hung up on me.

Avis indeed seems to be trying harder — trying harder to sell a “service” that I didn’t really want (although a $40 gas coupon would be nice). No matter what they tried, they succeeded in annoying me. Because I knew that the AmEx coupons would not make sense for Maui either, I simply made the reservation online and ignored the “offer” for the same service that the phone folks tried to force on me.

Prague -- NYTimes Discovers the Golem

Menu, Prague. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times has an article about the popularity of the Golem in Prague.

The Golem, according to Czech legend, was fashioned from clay and brought to life by a rabbi to protect Prague's 16th-century ghetto from persecution, and is said to be called forth in times of crisis. True to form, he is once again experiencing a revival and, in this commercial age, has spawned a one-monster industry.

There are Golem hotels; Golem door-making companies; Golem clay figurines (made in China); a recent musical starring a dancing Golem; and a Czech strongman called the Golem who bends iron bars with his teeth. The Golem has also infiltrated Czech cuisine: the menu at the non-kosher restaurant called the Golem features a "rabbi's pocket of beef tenderloin" and a $7 "crisis special" of roast pork and potatoes that would surely have rattled the venerable Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Golem's supposed maker.

Read full article

It’s a cute and lively article, pegged to the economic crisis that has hurt tourism in Prague (the Jewish Museum attendance fell by as much as 40 percent over the winter) as well as to the upcoming celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the death of Rabbi Jehudah Ben Bezalel Löw (or Loew), the great scholar whom legends recount as the creator of the Golem. But, like several other NYTimes pieces in the past couple years, it plows old ground. One of the plusses, but also one of the pitfalls, of following certain phenomena for a long period of time is that you trace the development and look at what goes on today with that in mind. The Golem frenzy in Prague may be taking some new forms, but it erupted in the early 1990s, after the fall of communism opened the country up for tourism, for “things Jewish” and for the commercial infrastructure and exploitation spawned by the tourist demand.

I have written about this in some depth in both Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe and Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe, Yesterday and Today. The first section of Doorposts, published in 1994, is a lengthy examination of Jewish Prague, the history, the legends, and the concentric circles of Jewish experience, focusing largely on tourism and on which Jewish aspects were promoted touristically and which were ignored and forgotten.

In both books I described the Golem kitsch, the Golem figures on sale, the contrast between Rabbi Loew as a real scholar and as a mythical Golem-maker, the power of the Golem legend as part of Prague folklore, the Golem restaurant with its non-kosher dishes. In Doorposts, I have a photograph of Golems on sale that is very similar to the one in the Times. For some reason, the Golems on sale in post-Communist Prague have always been modeled on one cinematic version — the way the Golem appeared in a 1952 Czech movie called The Emperor and the Golem: a menacingly massive and clumsy, almost headless form held together by bolts and a big belt.

In a previous post, I wrote about my friend in Budapest, the late Levente Thury, a ceramic artist who used the Golem motif in all his work. He, like many other artists and writers, was inspired by the Golem because of the implications of the myth: technology spiraling out of control, the foiled attempt to compete with God, the failure to manipulate the universe. “I would like to make things that are a mixture of spiritual and material,” he told me. “That is the most important meaning of the golem. The body of the golem is material: clay, stone and earth — the oldest materials. The message, the amulet, the spell” that brings the golem to life is the spirit. Levent’s golems, I wrote in an article about him were compositions of faces, heads and other body parts.

All the parts are distorted to some extent, as if their emergence from the clay was halted before it was finished.

A hand grasps an armless torso. A baby’s features form a beautiful face on one side of a partially modeled head. In some pieces, tiny golem figures emerge from larger, partial forms.

The expressions on the faces are serene but soulless. The eyes are unseeing.

There is no explicit violence in the compositions, but the elements of Thury’s work are arranged in ways that can be eerie and disturbing — as well as highly sensual.

“I make the surfaces a little bit raw — raw human bodies, details of bodies,” he told me. “I don’t want to make a complete human body. I prefer to make parts.”

“They aren’t human people, but remembrances of the body,” he added. “They have no soul, no wish. The owner, the maker, has to give a soul to them, give direction, like a computer program.”

Read full article

Prague -- NYTimes Discovers the Golem

Menu, Prague. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times has an article about the popularity of the Golem in Prague.

The Golem, according to Czech legend, was fashioned from clay and brought to life by a rabbi to protect Prague's 16th-century ghetto from persecution, and is said to be called forth in times of crisis. True to form, he is once again experiencing a revival and, in this commercial age, has spawned a one-monster industry.

There are Golem hotels; Golem door-making companies; Golem clay figurines (made in China); a recent musical starring a dancing Golem; and a Czech strongman called the Golem who bends iron bars with his teeth. The Golem has also infiltrated Czech cuisine: the menu at the non-kosher restaurant called the Golem features a "rabbi's pocket of beef tenderloin" and a $7 "crisis special" of roast pork and potatoes that would surely have rattled the venerable Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Golem's supposed maker.

Read full article

It’s a cute and lively article, pegged to the economic crisis that has hurt tourism in Prague (the Jewish Museum attendance fell by as much as 40 percent over the winter) as well as to the upcoming celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the death of Rabbi Jehudah Ben Bezalel Löw (or Loew), the great scholar whom legends recount as the creator of the Golem. But, like several other NYTimes pieces in the past couple years, it plows old ground. One of the plusses, but also one of the pitfalls, of following certain phenomena for a long period of time is that you trace the development and look at what goes on today with that in mind. The Golem frenzy in Prague may be taking some new forms, but it erupted in the early 1990s, after the fall of communism opened the country up for tourism, for “things Jewish” and for the commercial infrastructure and exploitation spawned by the tourist demand.

I have written about this in some depth in both Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe and Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe, Yesterday and Today. The first section of Doorposts, published in 1994, is a lengthy examination of Jewish Prague, the history, the legends, and the concentric circles of Jewish experience, focusing largely on tourism and on which Jewish aspects were promoted touristically and which were ignored and forgotten.

In both books I described the Golem kitsch, the Golem figures on sale, the contrast between Rabbi Loew as a real scholar and as a mythical Golem-maker, the power of the Golem legend as part of Prague folklore, the Golem restaurant with its non-kosher dishes. In Doorposts, I have a photograph of Golems on sale that is very similar to the one in the Times. For some reason, the Golems on sale in post-Communist Prague have always been modeled on one cinematic version — the way the Golem appeared in a 1952 Czech movie called The Emperor and the Golem: a menacingly massive and clumsy, almost headless form held together by bolts and a big belt.

In a previous post, I wrote about my friend in Budapest, the late Levente Thury, a ceramic artist who used the Golem motif in all his work. He, like many other artists and writers, was inspired by the Golem because of the implications of the myth: technology spiraling out of control, the foiled attempt to compete with God, the failure to manipulate the universe. “I would like to make things that are a mixture of spiritual and material,” he told me. “That is the most important meaning of the golem. The body of the golem is material: clay, stone and earth — the oldest materials. The message, the amulet, the spell” that brings the golem to life is the spirit. Levent’s golems, I wrote in an article about him were compositions of faces, heads and other body parts.

All the parts are distorted to some extent, as if their emergence from the clay was halted before it was finished.

A hand grasps an armless torso. A baby’s features form a beautiful face on one side of a partially modeled head. In some pieces, tiny golem figures emerge from larger, partial forms.

The expressions on the faces are serene but soulless. The eyes are unseeing.

There is no explicit violence in the compositions, but the elements of Thury’s work are arranged in ways that can be eerie and disturbing — as well as highly sensual.

“I make the surfaces a little bit raw — raw human bodies, details of bodies,” he told me. “I don’t want to make a complete human body. I prefer to make parts.”

“They aren’t human people, but remembrances of the body,” he added. “They have no soul, no wish. The owner, the maker, has to give a soul to them, give direction, like a computer program.”

Read full article

Romania -- More on Botosani Cemetery desecration

Lucia Apostol in Bucharest has sent me further information about the vandal attack last month on the Jewish cemetery in Botosani, in northern Romania.

The desecration was reported in local and national media. In all, 24 tombstone stones were destroyed, 21 of them very badly and two of them so badly smashed that it is impossible to tell whose graves they marked. Total damage is estimated at $10,000.

Police suspect four teenagers of the attack — two of them 14 years old and two of them 16.

Romania -- More on Botosani Cemetery desecration

Lucia Apostol in Bucharest has sent me further information about the vandal attack last month on the Jewish cemetery in Botosani, in northern Romania.

The desecration was reported in local and national media. In all, 24 tombstone stones were destroyed, 21 of them very badly and two of them so badly smashed that it is impossible to tell whose graves they marked. Total damage is estimated at $10,000.

Police suspect four teenagers of the attack — two of them 14 years old and two of them 16.

New York/Poland -- Mayer Kirshenblatt Exhibition

Mayer Kirshenblatt and his daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt Gimblett, Krakow 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

An exhibition of Mayer Kirshenblatt’s paintings is on at the Jewish Museum in New York — and it received a wonderful review in the New York Times.

Sometimes it takes a family, and a persistent one at that. So it was with Mayer Kirshenblatt, a reluctant painter and accidental memoirist whose words and images form an extraordinary exhibition at the Jewish Museum.

The exhibit, "They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust" includes nearly 70 canvases and a dozen works on paper — most depict pre-war scenes of Jewish life in Kirshenblatt’s hometown, Opatow (of Apt, in Yiddish) Poland.

I interviewed Kirshenblatt and wrote a lengthy article about him and his work last summer, when he and his daughter — the scholar Barbara Kirshenblatt Gimblett, who currently heads the project of the upcoming Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw — took part in the Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow, carrying on a dialogue in front of an audience to mark the publication of a beautiful book of Mayer’s paintings and also an exhibition in Opatow itself.

KRAKOW, Poland (JTA) – When Mayer Kirshenblatt was born, the town of Opatow in south-central Poland was known to most of its inhabitants as "Apt." That's because most of the population was Jewish, and Apt was Opatow's name in Yiddish.

The Holocaust left Yiddish Apt a distant memory, glimpsed dimly in sepia-tinted photographs or locked up in the hearts of the few people still alive who had known it before the destruction.

Kirshenblatt was one of them until 1990 when, at the age of 73, he taught himself to paint and began to record in colorful detail the vibrant lost world of his childhood hometown.

"I only paint one thing – that's Apt," he said. "I paint not from my imagination but what actually happened."

- - - -

The recollections were published last year along with nearly 200 of Kirshenblatt's paintings as a book, "They Called Me Mayer July." The title stems from Kirshenblatt's childhood nickname, "Mayer Tamez," or "Mayer July" – slang at the time for "Crazy Mayer."

The book has won several awards and brought international attention to the work of Kirshenblatt, who left Poland for Canada in 1934.

In recent months Kirshenblatt's paintings have been exhibited in San Francisco, and in the coming two years they are slated to be shown in Atlanta, New York, Amsterdam and Warsaw. This summer, for the second year in a row, Kirshenblatt's work was featured at the annual Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow.

And on June 28, Kirshenblatt and his daughter brought his memories of Apt back to present-day Opatow with an exhibition of 50 full-scale digital prints of his paintings, on display at the Opatow District Office building.

"It was absolutely fabulous," Kirshenblatt later said. "We had over 200 people and they made a tremendous display. The event was well advertised all over the city with posters – even the priest mentioned it."

He added, "I've had exhibitions elsewhere, but here the people, the atmosphere, was absolutely the best I ever had."

It was, Kirshenblatt said, a far cry from the first time that he returned to his hometown. That was in 1988, when Poland was still in the grip of communist rule. "I was crying," he recalled. "I came to the town and there was not a sign of Jewishness."

Since then, Kirshenblatt and his daughter have returned on other occasions and established good relations with Opatow's residents.

"I enjoy going back there, and Opatow is beautiful," he said. "But it's not Apt."

Displaying the energy of someone far younger than 91, Kirshenblatt and his daughter have toured extensively, accompanying slide shows of his paintings with lively discussions of the incidents and people portrayed.

"At my age," he said, "to have another career like this is most terrific."

Detailed, wry and often witty, Kirshenblatt's paintings are peopled by sometimes crudely drawn characters, each of which seems to come to life as an individual. They crowd around dinner tables or cluster in the synagogue. They peer into windows, carry water in wooden buckets, play music, walk to school, mourn the dead, even commit a crime.

To a certain extent, the paintings recall the work of the American Grandma Moses, another self-taught artist who took up the brush in her 70s and created remembered scenes of rural life in 19th-century America.

History, though, has given Kirshenblatt's work a special edge.

The titles of his paintings alone reflect complex, even convoluted tales that defy common stereotypes. Some examples: "The Kleptomaniac Slipping a Fish Down Her Bosom," "Boy with a Herring," "The Hunchback's Wedding," and "Jadzka the Prostitute Shows off her Wares at the end of Market Day at Harshl Kishke's Well."

"What I'm trying to say is, 'Hey! There was a big world out there before the Holocaust,' " Kirshenblatt told his daughter in one recent conversation. "There was a rich cultural life in Poland as I knew it at the time. That's why I feel I'm doing something very important by showing what that life was like."

"It's in my head," he said. "I will be gone, but the book will be here."

Read full article