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NEWSLETTER 2000/2
Meeting of the Association of European Jewish Museums in Prague
Between
26 and 28 March the Jewish Museum in Prague hosted this year’s meeting
of the Association of European Jewish Museums. This event which brought
together specialists from over twenty different countries was organized
by the Jood Historich Museum in Amsterdam. It was no coincidence that
Prague was chosen as the venue for the association’s tenth anniversary
meeting. For although the association has significantly increased its
membership in the last few years, the Jewish Museum in Prague still
holds a prominent position within it. Delegates in Prague for the first
time were surprised to see such a wealth of exhibitions and major sights,
such as the synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery, which are in the
care of the Jewish Museum in Prague. The Prague museum is also unique
on account of the range and the comprehensive nature of its collections.
The Association of European Jewish Museums was established as an organization
that promotes the study of European Jewish history and seeks to protect
and preserve Jewish sights and the Jewish cultural heritage in Europe.
Rather than providing funds, the association helps its members by exchanging
information and know-how, preparing group exhibitions and projects and
providing professional assistance to newly established institutions.
Several dozen museums of various types and sizes are now affiliated
with the association - from Dublin and Toledo to Warsaw and Budapest,
including newly established museums in Eastern Europe. All kinds of
institutions are brought together, from traditional museums that have
their own collections through to study and information centres that
are equipped with state-of-the-art information and media technologies.
The bedrock of the association remains Jewish museums in major European
cities which have been re-established or significantly modernized during
the last decade. Of these, the most important role is played by the
Jewish Museum in Amsterdam, the Museum of Jewish Art and History in
Paris (opened in 1998) and the revived Jewish museums in Frankfurt and
Vienna, the oldest in the word. In the last few years these institutions
have been joined by the Jewish Museum in London, the Centre for Jewish
Studies in Cracow, the Sephardic Museum in Toledo and the Jewish Museum
in Athens. The meeting in Prague was attended by 40 representatives
of Jewish museums, mostly from West and Central Europe: Brussels, Dublin,
London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Basle, Vienna, Eisenstadt, Munich,
Trondheim, Bratislava, Warsaw and Athens. There were also representatives
of recently opened Jewish museums in Hohenems, Furth, Trieste and Bologna
and of Jewish museums that are currently being established in Berlin
and Istanbul. Hardly any of the new Jewish museums from Eastern Europe
which took part in last year’s meeting in St. Petersburg were represented
this year. The exception was the Jewish Museum of Vilnius, which is
involved in pr
otecting a number
of Jewish sights but, as is the case with most other new museums, faces
a considerable lack of funds. As in previous years, the meeting involved
a number of specialist lectures and discussions on current issues concerning
museum activities. The Jewish Museum in Prague prepared a group of lec-tures
dealing with research into Jewish sights, con-servation of tombstones
in Jewish cemeteries, museum registration and digital documentation
of collections. Presentations by museum staff covered the Genizah Project
(Olga Sixtová and Arno Pařík ), conservation of tombstones (external
restorer Petr Justa), documentation methods (Magda Veselská) and the
digitization of collections (Petr Kliment). The conference participants
had the opportunity to exchange experience and gain new insights into
various areas of museum work . Each museum representative talked about
current activities and plans, major exhibitions, publications and important
acquisitions. Of particular interest was the discussion on the educational
activities of museums and untraditional methods of work with children.
3rd September was fixed for the annual Jewish Cultural Heritage Day,
which most Jewish museums will mark by holding special events and opening
up their exhibitions and collections to as wide a public as possible.
The Prague museum’s exhibition of Old Jewish postcards in the Spanish
Synagogue received considerable praise. Meetings of the association
are always con- nected with a tour of local Jewish sights, which provide
a practical illustration as to how typical conservation problems are
dealt with. This year, specialist staff at the Jewish Museum in Prague
conducted a tour not only around all the museum’s historical sights
but also around the newly constructed silver and textile depositories
both in and outside Prague. In the evening, a performance of Sephardic
songs by Jana Lewitová and Vladimír Merta was held in the Spanish Synagogue.
The meeting and lectures took place in the Museum’s Educational and
Cultural Centre. The new Jewish Museum in Bologna was selected as the
venue for the association’s next meeting in September 2001. As this
museum is based primarily on multimedia presentations, the main theme
of the conference and seminars will be the use of new information and
media technology in museum work and new systems of documenting museum
collections.
Exhibition reopening in the Rychnov Synagogue
16
May saw the reopening of the Jewish Museum of Podorlicko and of the
Karel Poláček Memorial in the Rychnov nad Kněžnou Synagogue. Newsletter
3/98 focused on the history of this synagogue and on a new exhibition
being prepared in co-operation with the Jewish Museum in Prague. The
synagogue suffered damage during last year’s floods, as a result of
which the west part had to be re-rendered. Five years after its opening
in May 1995, a number of new panels highlighting Jewish festivals and
religious customs have been added to the exhibition dedicated to Jewish
sights and the history of Jewish communities in the region. The most
important festivals of the year are documented by early engravings,
illustrations and postcards, paintings by naive artists Robert Guttmann
and Robert Ehrmann, and graphic art by Marc Chagall and the contemporary
illustrator Mark Podwal. As before, the exhibition features a number
of ritual objects on loan from the Jewish Museum in Prague.
Concerts in the Spanish Synagogue
Evening
concerts have been held in the Spanish Synagogue since April of this
year. A greater number of agencies are now involved in the organization
of concerts, which is something that adds to the variety of the overall
repertoire. So far we have been able to hear ensembles playing on period
instruments (Ritornello and Kvinterna) and recitals dedicated to Sephardic
songs and classical songs by Jewish composers.
A memorable highlight was the concert of 30 May, which was organized
by the ”Prague Spring” International Music Festival and performed by
the cantor of New York s prestigious 5th Avenue Synagogue, Joseph Malovany,
with accompaniment by Jaroslav Šaroun. A deeply-felt perform-ance and
superb interpretation of synagogue chants made the almost three-hour
concert an experience to remember.
Art as ”Strategies for Survival”
10 February saw the opening in the Moravian College (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S.) of an exhibition dedicated to the Terezín Ghetto and centred around children’s drawings and the work of Friedl Dicker-Brandeisová. The Jewish Museum in Prague was closely involved in the preparation of the exhibition and loaned copies of children’s drawings and original art work by Friedl Dicker-Brandeisová. A special two-day conference was held to mark the opening of the exhibition by the Czech and Slovak ambassadors to the U.S. This was attended by the curator of the collection of paintings and graphic art at the Jewish Museum in Prague, Michaela Hájková, who gave a presentation on Friedl Dicker-Brandeisová, outlining the work of this prominent representative of the inter-war avant-garde and touching upon her educational activities in the pre-war period and in Terezín.
New acquisitions
The Jewish Museum in Prague purchased the following items in the first quarter of the year.
Haroset spoon
Fine Russian-style silver filigree. The bowl of the spoon consists of
a stylized palm-leaf with the Star of David on the neck which is composed
of a spiral flat band. The handle is surmounted by a moulded filigree
flower and the base of bowl is engraved with the Hebrew inscription
”Bezalel” from soldered silver wire. The spoon is marked as an Austro-Hungarian
import from 1902-1921. It is an interesting illustration of the work
of the Bezalel movement, highlighting the broad range of its activities.
Torah pointer
Silver, quite solid form in the shape of a thin cone. The middle ring
and the back of the handle are decorated with finely chased foliage,
corresponding to the Viennese style of the mid-19th century. The pointer
is typical of the work of Thomas Regscheck and differs from the others
in our collection with regards the finer quality of the chasing.
Torah shield
Typical form, made in Vienna in the second half of 19th century, originally
partially gilt. Chased with foliage above, surmounted by winged griffin
heads. The volutes of the foliage show lions holding the Ten Commandments,
above which there is a crown. An opening for exchangeable plaques with
the names of festivals contains five plaques (probably originals). On
the back of the shield is affixed an oval indented plaque which is engraved
with a dedication in German: ”Gewidmet dem Cultus Vereine in Gablonz
von Emmanuel Lederer von dem Ertrage der Matrikenfuehrung 1885” and
the equivalent year in Hebrew. The shield is equipped with a small chain
(probably an original). The shield was hand-made by chasing as can be
seen from its fine asymmetry. It has been preserved intact, including
the plaques with the names of festivals and the chain. Its historical
value is increased by the dedicational tablet bearing the name of the
donor and the place of origin.
New publications
CD-ROM
- The History of the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia
The Museum’s first CD-ROM is divided into four sections based on subject
matter. The first two out- line, respectively, the historical development
of the local Jewish population and Jewish sights in Bohemia and Moravia.
The third section, entitled ”Customs and Traditions” provides insights
into the nature of Judaism, by dealing with festivals and the Jewish
calendar, as well as referring to basic texts of the Jewish religion.
The last part is a multimedia refer- ence section (with illustrations
and music excerpts) which explains the basic terms of Judaism. All four
sections are accompanied by hypertext references, and a search programme
is provided. A unique seminar project entitled ”How to Teach about the
Holocaust” was launched by the Museum’s Cultural and Educational Centre
in co-operation with the Terezín Memorial, the Museum of Roma Culture
in Brno and the Czech Ministry of Education. The latter has supported
the seminars (intended for primary and secondary school teachers) by
covering part of the cost and distributing copies of the above CD-ROM
to teachers as a way of increasing the accessibility of the information.
Jewish authors in European literature
A collection of lectures from the Museum’s Educational and Cultural
Centre has been put together in a volume prepared by Jiří Franěk and
Miloš Pojar. This volume is the first of its kind in Czech literary
science to address the contribution of Jewish authors to European national
literatures. The lectures deal with Roma literature and literature from
the former Yugoslavia, Denmark , Hungary, Poland and Latvia. The material
is in the Czech language.
The Hilsner Affair and Czech Society, 1899-1999
A collection of lectures from last year’s conference at the Charles
University has been prepared by Miloš Pojar. It contains 29 lectures
by Czech historians and philosophers, such as Prof. Milan Machovec,
Jiří Kovtun, Eduard Goldstücker, Jaroslav Opat and others. The texts
are in the Czech lan- guage. Copies of historical documents are included
in the appendices.
Judaica
Bohemiae XXXV
The 1999 edition of the journal dealing with the history of the Jewish
community in Bohemia and Moravia has been prepared by Alexandr Putík
. It includes the following articles: Alexandr Putík : The Prague Jewish
community in the late 17th and early 18th centuries; Lenka Matušíková:
Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Judensiedlungen in Böhmen in den Jahren
1650 und 1674; Ivan Kalmar: The Origins of the Spanish Synagogue of
Prague; Kateřina Čapková: Pillsudski or Masaryk ? Zionists revisionism
in Czechoslovakia 1925-1940; Anna Hyndráková - Anna Lorenzová: A collection
of memories organized by the Jewish Museum in Prague; Leo Pavlát: The
Jewish Museum in Prague - 1999 Annual Report.
The above publications can be ordered from the Jewish Museum in Prague.
© 2004 - 2008 Jewish Museum in Prague