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NEWSLETTER 2004/1
EMIL
ORLIK – PORTRAITS OF FRIENDS AND CONTEMPORARIES
From 5 February to 11 April 2004, the Jewish Museum in Prague hosted
a new exhibition at the Robert Guttmann Gallery. On display were paintings,
prints and drawings by Emil Orlik, an early twentieth century Prague
artist whose work has been rediscovered in recent years.
The Jewish Museum has a special connection with this artist, for he was born near its present-day office and spent his youth in the neighbourhood, an area that provided the backdrop to his first artworks. From 1899 onwards he was a member of the Vienna Sezession and became renowned for his woodcuts and portraits of famous artists, musicians, actors, poets, writers and philosophers. Through his artistic experiments and the variety of his print techniques, of which he had complete mastery, he inspired a younger generation of Prague artists to search for new means of artistic expression.
The
exhibition Portraits of Friends and Contemporaries comprised almost
130 artworks. When selecting works for the show, the curator, art historian
Arno Pařík, focused mainly on the most interesting personalities from
the world of art and culture and on the portraits of Orlik’s artistic
friends
and role models. The exhibition also featured a portion of the Jewish
Museum’s diverse collection of Orlik works which have never before been
on display. A special part of the show was a selection of works from
a group of 69 Orlik drawings that were made at the Peace Conference
of Brest-Litovsk in 1918. These works were kindly donated to the Museum
this year by Orlik’s niece, Anita Bollag of New Jersey, through Mark
E. Talis-man, the President of the Project Judaica Foundation (See
Newsletter 3/2003).
A
catalogue-cum-monograph, written by Arno Pařík, has been published for
the exhibition. As well as a detailed biography of Orlik, it contains
over 200 reproductions of his drawings, woodcuts, prints and portrait
paintings of such figures as Albert Einstein and Richard Strauss. The
catalogue, which is in Czech and English, is available in all of the
Jewish Museum’s shops and can be ordered via the website:
TRAVELLING
EXHIBITIONS IN THE ŠUMPERK DISTRICT MUSEUM
After being shown last year at the Jewish Museum’s Education and Culture
Centre in Prague, at the Děčín Synagogue and at the Náchod Municipal
Museum, the exhibitions Jewish Customs and Traditions and History of
the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia are now on view at the Museum of Local
History in Šumperk, North Moravia. The opening show was held on 12 February.
The installation of the exhibitions in the Hollar Gallery at the Šumperk
museum also includes exhibits from the museum’s collections in Loštice
and Mohelnice, as well as documents on local Jewish sites from the Respect
and Tolerance project. This project is focused mainly on the two old
Jewish communities in Úsov and Loštice on the southern outskirts of
the Šumperk district. These communities survived up until the twentieth
century, and their historically valuable synagogues, Jewish quarters
and cemeteries have been preserved. The exhibitions are on display at
the Šumperk museum until 4 April 2004.
DEPOSITING
OF A MEMORIAL BOX IN THE SMÍCHOV SYNAGOGUE
The first Newsletter issue of 2003 referred to the ongoing reconstruction
of the Smíchov Synagogue in Prague, as well as the discovery of a memorial
document that was stored here during the building completion on 30 August
1863. Since then, the reconstruction project has made considerable progress.
Building work was completed in March 2004 and the interior has been
equipped to enable the storage of the Museum’s archive and collection
holdings. Also, the landscape design has been completed. Once the microclimatic
conditions have been stabilized, the Museum’s archive materials and
art collection will gradually be moved to the synagogue; the transferral
of materials should be completed by the end of the year. The synagogue
will then begin to serve its new purpose as a repository and a place
for studying documents relating to the history of Jewish communities
in the Czech lands. The study and reading room are situated on the ground
floor of the new extension, while the synagogue itself will remained
closed to the public. There will be a specialist bookstore in the former
vestibule of the synagogue.
On 3 February, a memorial copper box was deposited under the restored Ark of the synagogue. This contains a facsimile of the memorial document of 1863 and documents on the history and reconstruction of the syna- gogue, including project plans and photographs (both historical and recent). Also contained in the box is a memorial record on the history of the Smíchov Jewish community and its synagogue from the earliest times to the present, which has been signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the Jewish Community in Prague, the Chief Rabbi of Prague, the Director of the Jewish Museum in Prague and members of its administrative board.
ACQUISITIONS
IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE JEWISH MUSEUM IN PRAGUE
In the first few months of this year, the collection of Metal works
was ex- panded to include a large group of silver ritual objects which
were offered to the Museum for purchase. These items stem from the Moravian
Slovakian borderland and from Slovakia and were previously bought from
Russian soldiers by the family of the present owner shortly after the
Second World War. The collection comprises a Torah crown, five Torah
shields, four pairs of Torah finials, three Torah pointers, a Burial
Society alms box and various silver fragments. The crown is the work
of the Brno silversmith Franz Kaltenmacher and dates from 1803, which
makes it one of the earliest preserved pieces by this maker in the collections
of the Jewish Museum in Prague. One of the newly acquired shields is
probably of Polish origin and dates from the late eighteenth century;
the other four shields, and all the Torah finials, stem from various
Viennese workshops and date from the mid- and late nineteenth century.
One of the Torah pointers of Central European provenance has an inscription
dated 1772; the other two pointers were produced in Poland c. 1850.
The Burial Society alms box was made in Vienna in the last third of
the nineteenth century. Together, this group constitutes the largest
acqui-sition of its kind since 1981, when a large collection of Torah
shields was purchased for the collection.
WORK
COMMENCES ON THE RESTORATION OF DAMAGED INSCRIPTIONS IN THE PINKAS SYNAGOGUE
Of all the listed Jewish building in Prague, the Pinkas Synagogue was
the worst affected by the floods of August 2002. The Pinkas Memorial,
which contains the names of the roughly 80,000 Bohemian and Mo-ravian
victims of the Shoah within the synagogue, was reopened last October.
Some inscriptions, however, could not be preserved, despite all the
effort that was made. (See Newsletter 3 and 4/2002.)
Last February, employees of the Mark Brož restoration firm RE spol.
s r. o. started work on rewriting the destroyed inscriptions (almost
2,000 in number). Prior to this, the damaged surface was specially cleaned
and disinfected, restoration repairs were carried out and the inscription
surface was patinated. The choice of restoration procedure was made
in consultation with art academy graduate Michaela Poková, who was involved
in restoring the inscriptions in the 1990s, and Petr Justa, a specialist
in the conservation and restoration of stone features. The new inscriptions
should be completed by this July.
FREE ACCESS TO THE JEWISH MUSEUM IN PRAGUE
FOR CHILDREN
On the last weekend of January, nine-teen Prague museums and galleries
provided children 
with
free access to their collections and exhibitions. This project, which
is known as “Icy Prague” – as there is a temporary “freeze” on admission
fees – also involved the Jewish Museum. The event met with a great response
from the young visitors.
OBJECTS FROM THE JEWISH MUSEUM IN PRAGUE AT EXHIBITIONS ABROAD
London
“I never saw another butterfly” On 24 March, the Jewish Museum in London
opened I never saw another butterfly, a special exhibition of artworks
created by children in the Terezín ghetto. Among those attending the
opening was Sir Nicholas Winton, who at the start of the Second World
War saved the lives of several hundred Czech Jewish children by enabling
them to leave for England. The Jewish Museum in Prague, which was closely
involved in the preparation of the exhibition, has loaned from its collections
20 originals and 56 copies, as well as several objects (a hanukiah and
a Seder tray from Terezín, one toy and two pendants). Also on display
are photographs and archive materials from the Holocaust Department
Archive of the Jewish Museum in Prague - including photo- graphs of
some
of the children who made the drawings, two diaries and other documents
concerning life in the Terezín children’s homes. The exhibition runs
until 20 June 2004.
CONCERT FOR SUPPORTERS AND ASSOCIATES OF
THE MUSEUM
On 3 February, the Museum Director, Leo Pavlát, acknowledged the support
of more than a hundred backers and associates of the Museum, as well
as suppliers and travel agency representatives. The occasion was a concert
at the Spanish Synagogue in Prague, which was given by cellist Lucie
Štěpánová and mezzo-soprano Olga Štěpánová with organ accompaniment
by Michele Hradecká. The guests were treated to performances of Dvořák’s
Biblical Songs, Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei and the Cello Suites by J. S.
Bach and Kodály.
NEW
PUBLICATIONS CD “My Heart is a Jazz Band”
Continuing in its project to release unique period recordings of Jewish
musicians active on the Prague music scene before the Second World War,
the Jewish Museum has just brought out a new CD of remarkable recordings
of orchestras led by the hugelytalented and versatile musician Dol Dauber.
The title is My Heart is a Jazz Band, which is also the title of the
first track. These days, Dol Dauber, whose 110th anniversary is being
commemorated this year, is a legend only to the older generation. In
the history of popular music, however, he remains a shining light. This
Jewish composer was also an arranger, a major interpreter of popular
music, a composer of songs, operettas and film music and a jazz pioneer.
Above all, however, he was an incre- dibly gifted violinist. During
his relatively short life, however, he went through periods of fame
and steep decline. Originally from Bukovina, Rumania, he used to play
the violin at Jewish weddings when he was a small boy. He later studied
with Professor Otakar Ševčík in Brno. Despite his classical training,
he began to focus more on jazz and came to direct various salon orchestras
and swing bands with which he enjoyed great success. This CD includes
23 
pieces
performed in 1927-38 in Berlin and Prague. The music is very broad in
range and also comprises several titles composed by Dol Dauber himself,
such as songs from the film Hearth Without Fire performed by Hana Vítová
and R. A. Dvorský.
The Jewish Museum in Prague is continuing in its tradition of publishing lectures delivered as part of regular series at its Education and Culture Centre. The most recent collection of lectures is entitled The Jewish Minority in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s. It contains nine contributions by Czech historians and ethnologists who lectured on the given themes between October 2002 and June 2003. The collection comprehensively deals with the relationship between the pre-war Czechoslovak Republic and its Jewish minority and also corrects certain idealized views as to the absence of anti-Semitism within that society. The publication contains 131 pages, 9 of which are illustrations, and is in the Czech language. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic provided significant financial support for this publication.
PROMINENT VISITS
A group of 20 members of the Society for the History of Czechoslovak
Jews led by Rabbi Norman Patz, with Orlik’s niece Anita Bollag and her
husband.
Zvi Lidar - Director of
the Communica-tions and Public Affairs Division of the Keren Kayemeth
Leisrael
© 2004 - 2008 Jewish Museum in Prague