Using Online Resources To Find Hidden Holocaust Sites

This post on Kelme’s two mass graves sites illustrates the importance of the website, Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania. Using the coordinates provided together with GPS, data roaming, and online maps such as Google Maps, it is an essential tool for finding well hidden Holocaust memorials.

In addition, on the initiative of the British Jewry & Lord Janner, granite markers were placed at many of the 220 Holocaust mass murder sites in Lithuania. On the side looking towards the site, is information indicating the direction and distance to the site.

http://www.holocaustatlas.lt/EN/…

Kelmė

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kelmė

City

Church of Kelmė

Flag

Coat of arms

Location of Kelmė

Coordinates:

55°38′0″N 22°56′0″ECoordinates:

Kelmė district municipality

Eldership

Kelmė eldership

Capital of

Kelmė district municipality
Kelmė eldership

First mentioned

1484

Granted city rights

1947

Government

• Mayor

Vaclovas Andrulis

Area

• Total

7.85 km² (3.03 sq mi)

Elevation

128 m (420 ft)

Population (2011)

• Total

9,150

• Density

1,200/km²(3,000/sq mi)

Time zone

EET (UTC+2)

• Summer (DST)

EEST (UTC+3)

Website

Official website

Kelmė ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a city in central Lithuania. It has a population of 9,150 and is the administrative center of the Kelmė district municipality.

History

Kelmė’s name may come from the Lithuanian “Kelmynės“, literally “the stubby place” because of the forests that were there at the time of its founding.^[1]

Kelmė was first mentioned in 1416, the year that Kelmė’s first church was built.^[1]

Prior to World War II, Kelmė (Yiddish: Kelm‎) was home to a famous Rabbinical College, the Kelm Talmud Torah.

According to an 1897 census, 2,710 of Kelme’s 3,914 inhabitants were members of the town’s Jewish population, the vast majority of whom were merchants and traders and lived in the town.

People

Kelm Talmud Torah

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kelm Talmud Torah was a famous yeshiva in pre-holocaust Kelmė, Lithuania. Unlike other yeshivas, the Talmud Torah focused primarily on the study of Musar (“Jewish ethics”) and self-improvement.

Under the Leadership of Simcha Zissel Ziv

The Talmud Torah was founded in the 1860s by Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, known as the Alter of Kelm (the Elder of Kelm), to strengthen the study of Musar in Lithuania.

In 1872, Rabbi Ziv purchased a plot of land and erected a building for the Talmud Torah, which began as a primary school and soon became a secondary school.

In 1876, the Talmud Torah was denounced to the authorities, who began to watch it closely and to hound it. Many traditional Jews in Kelm saw Rabbi Ziv as a “reformer,” as his school supported unconventional prayer practices and an unconventional, musar-focused curriculum.^[1]

The curriculum of the original Talmud Torah under Rabbi Ziv’s leadership was fairly unique for a nineteenth-century Lithuanian yeshiva in two respects:

1. Significant time was devoted to Musar, work on the improvement of character traits. In most Lithuanian yeshivas, nearly the entire day was spent studying Talmud. By contrast, at the Talmud Torah, according to Menahem Glenn, “Musar was the chief study, while the study of Talmud was only of minor importance and little time was devoted to it.”^[1]

2. In addition to Jewish subjects, students studied general subjects such as geography, mathematics, and Russian language and literature for three hours a day. The Kelm Talmud Torah was the first traditional yeshiva in the Russian empire to give such a focus to general studies.^[2]

Under pressure from the Jews of Kelm, Rabbi Ziv decided to open his school elsewhere: he re-established it in Grobin, in the Courland province.

In 1881, Rabbi Ziv returned to Kelm, where the Talmud Torah became an advanced academy for the study of Torah and Musar. Most of the students who came to study at the Talmud Torah were married. Entry to the Talmud Torah was difficult and restricted to select students from other yeshivas, who had to bring letters of recommendation from their Rosh Yeshiva. Students were chosen after they passed rigorous examinations on Musar. At its peak, the Talmud Torah had a student body of between 30 and 35 members.^{[citation needed]}

Rabbi Ziv established a group that was known as “Devek Tov,” comprising his foremost students. He shared a special relationship with the group’s members and he worked on writing out his discourses for them.

The Talmud Torah after Ziv’s death

Simcha Zissel Ziv died in 1898. Upon his death, his brother Rabbi Aryeh Leib Broida became the new director of the Talmud Torah. Aryeh Leib moved to the land of Israel in 1903, and his son Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Broida (also Simcha Zissel Ziv’s son-in-law) became the new director of the Talmud Torah.

After Tzvi Hirsch Broida’s death in 1913, Simcha Zissel’s son Rabbi Nahum Ze’ev Ziv became the new director of the Talmud Torah.

After Nahum Ze’ev Ziv’s death in 1916, Simcha Zissel’s student Rabbi Reuven Dov Dessler became the new director. He was succeeded by Simcha Zissel’s sons-in-law, Rabbi Daniel Movshovitz and Rabbi Gershon Miadnik.

On June 23rd, 1941, Nazi forces entered Kelm. Shortly after, the faculty and students of the Talmud Torah were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators and are buried in a mass grave in the fields of the Grozhebiski farm.

Famous students

The Mashgichim in many of the yeshivas in Poland and Lithuania were students of the Talmud Torah of Kelm. Some were:

Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel of Slabodka
Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein in Mir and then later in Ponevezh Yeshiva
Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz of Mir
Rabbi Yosef Leib Nenedik in Kletzk
Rabbi Moshe Rosenstein in Łomża
Rabbi Naftoli Trop of Radin
Rabbi Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, mashgiach ruchani of Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey
Rabbi Elyah Lopian of the Knesses Chizkiyahu Yeshiva in Kfar Hasidim, Israel.
Rabbi Hayyim Yitzhak HaCohen Bloch, Honorary President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada.

June 1, 2015September 16, 2018

Sugihara House Museum

My second visit to the Museum, but first time meeting with Simon Davidovich, director of the Museum and Jewish tour guide. Also visiting the Museum were Richard Freedman of the Holocaust Centre in Cape Town and Saulius Mikuckis. This was my second meeting with Ramunas Garbaravicius of the Museum.
The Museum is a must visit when in Kaunas.

►

Video – Simon Davidovich:

Visit: http://defendinghistory.com/sugihara-house
From their website:

Chiune Sugihara (1900 — 1986) was Vice Consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania from 1939 to 1940. With a breathtaking generosity of spirit, risking his career and his family’s safety, Sugihara wrote and stamped visas that facilitated the escape (and, as it turned out, rescue from near-certain murder at the hands of the Nazis who invaded in June 1941) of over six thousand Jews to Japanese territory. Entire Jewish institutions, most famously the Yeshiva of Mir (Mírer yeshíve) survived the Holocaust thanks to Sugihara. Sugihara’s legendary consulate building in Kaunas is now a high-powered condensed museum that is a testament for locals and visitors alike to the power of courage to do the right thing.

Video: Rabbi Levi Wolff of Sydney Central Synagogue talks about Sugihara.

May 25, 2015May 2, 2016

Seduva Jewish Ceremonies

I was privileged to attend the Seduva Jewish Cemetery Restoration and the two Holocaust Memorial ceremonies.

►

This is what Sergey Kanovich, who led the project, said at the first Holocaust Memorial ceremony:

Most probably it was a sunny and bright morning of August 25^th 1941. That was the last morning that Seduva Jews gazed at the Lithuanian sky and seen the sun. Supervised by German nazi officers local neighbours of Seduva Jews became their executioners here and in other places.

Seventy years, even more needed in order to become a witness of little miracle of the victory of the humanity. We are here because we will never forget our sisters and brothers. We will never forget nor the way how they lived neither the way they were brutally murdered. It is the duty of all of us – of Jews and Lithuanians alike – to remember and respect the memory in order to avoid the catastrophe which Lithuanian Jews went through would never come back. To remember and respect – it is our common duty. No matter where litvaks would live – in Australia or South Africa, Israel or Switzerland, Belgium or Canada – we always remember where we came from, we remember our forefathers and we will never forget or allow to forget them. Murderers could not kill our memory. We are back, because our memory is stronger than their bullets. And memory will always prevail.

We wish to thank everyone who made this project a reality

We wish to extend our gratituted to every worker who makes these stones become a memory.

We are here in order to remember the life and death of those innocent who have been murdered. God bless their memory. Yhie zichram Baruch.Amen

Today is a second day of Jewish Holiday Shavuot. Since there are more than ten Jewish men we are obliged to say Kaddish for those who perished. I kindly ask Mr. Simas Levinas to start the prayer..

The photos before and at the cemetery:

Video:

Rute Anu

The two Holocaust Memorials

Video:

Part of Ed Glasenberg’s Address

Video:

Kaddish – Sung By Rafailas Karpis

Kaddish – Continued

Lost_Shtetl Brochure

Šeduva

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Šeduva

Coat of arms

Location of Šeduva

Coordinates:

55°46′0″N 23°45′0″ECoordinates:

Radviliškis district municipality

Eldership

Šeduva eldership

Capital of

Šeduva eldership

First mentioned

1539

Granted city rights

1654

Population (2005)

• Total

3,270

Time zone

EET (UTC+2)

• Summer (DST)

EEST (UTC+3)

Šeduva ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a city in the Radviliškis district municipality, Lithuania. It is located 18 km (11 mi) east of Radviliškis.

Shadova-Šeduva was an agricultural town dealing in cereals, flax and linseed, pigs and geese and horses, at the site of a royal estate and beside a road from Kaunas to Riga. The population from the fifteenth century was Catholic and Jewish. Until then, Lithuania had been the last pagan kingdom in Europe and allowed freedom of worship and toleration of Jews and other religions.^[1] The first Catholic shrine of Šeduva, the Church of the Invention of the Holy Cross, was built and the parish founded between 1512 and 1529. The present brick church Cross was built in Šeduva in 1643 with a donation from Bishop Jerzy Tyszkiewicz of Vilnius. During the 18th century the bell tower was added to the structure, with further renovations and extensions in 1905. Baroque and renaissance architectural styles characterise both the exterior and interior of the church. It has a cruciform plan with an apse, low sacristy and five altars.

During the 15th century the region was redefined as the Voivodeship of Trakai and Vilnius. Later it became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until the Union of Lublin in 1569 created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The Seduva coat of arms were granted on June 25, 1654 by John II Casimir Vasa, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania and at the same time the city was granted burger rights at the request of Maria Ludvika, Queen of Poland. She descended from the Princes of Gonzaga, from Mantua in Italy. The arms of the family showed a black eagle. The small breastshield shows the French fleur-de-lis, because the Gonzaga family was related to the French Royal family. The eagle was made white in reference to the white eagle of Poland.

Evil mill

1792 Stanislaw II August Poniatowski, the last royal proprietor of Šeduva, concluded an agreement with the town’s citizens, giving them rights to be excused from labour on the estate for a fee. In 1795, the year of a terrible fire in Seduva, Lithuania became part of Russia when Poland was partitioned. From 1798, Baron Theodore von Ropp did not acknowledge the rights of Seduva citizens and required of the citizens to perform labour in the town’s manor. The citizens petitioned for their rights to the Russian Senate. In 1812, the Senate passed the decision to recognise the former charters of Šeduva.

Between 1696 to1762, a Jesuit mission, connected with their college at Pasiause, was active in the town, operating a lower school with 96 pupils up until 1828. After an insurrection in 1863 (the January Uprising), all parish schools in Seduva were closed and replaced by public Russian language schools. In the same year a Russian Orthodox Church, designed by the architect Ustinas Golinevicius, was built and in 1866 a wooden Synagogue was added near the central market square.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and Communist Russia in August 1939 and the German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty a month later placed Lithuania under Soviet control. By June 1940 the Soviets had set up a pro-Soviet government and stationed many Red Army troops in Lithuania as part of the Mutual Assistance Pact between the countries. President Antanas Smetona was forced to leave as 15 Red Army divisions came in.

The pro-Soviet puppet government was controlled by Vladimir Dekanozov and Justas Paleckis, and Lithuania was made part of the Soviet Union. A Sovietisation programme began immediately. Land, banks and large businesses were nationalised. All religious, cultural, and political organizations were abolished except the Communist party. 17000 people were deported to Siberia, where many would perish.

The German army invaded Lithuania on 22 June 1941, taking Shadova – Šeduva a few days later as part of Operation Barbarossa. At first the Lithuanian population considered the Nazis to be liberators saving them from the Red Army. The new pro-German Government organized a Lithuanian militia which then became the Nazi’s manpower for genocide. Five hundred years of Jewish life in Shadova – Šeduva ended in just two days of slaughter. Shadova’s Jews attempted to flee east to Russia but were badly treated by Lithuanian nationalists and most returned to their homes. The German forces entered Shadova – Šeduva on 25 June 1941 and were received with flowers by many locals. By the beginning of July, Jews had to wear the yellow Star of David. Jews who had participated in the Soviet rule were immediately arrested and executed. Jews were taken to dismantle the remnants of the munitions factory in Linkaičiai, and were then accused of stealing and executed. Others were forced into labour gangs. They were set to work cleaning the streets and at the warehouses of the rail station. All the work was guarded by armed Lithuanian militi . Next all the Jews of Shadova – Šeduva had to gather in the market place with no more than a small package each, and to hand over the keys to their houses to the police. Under guard. they were escorted at night to the village of Pavartyčiai, five kilometres north-west of Shadova – Šeduva, where they were crowded into two unfinished Soviet barracks surrounded with barbed wire. The Jews were ordered to hand over all their valuables and cash. Some were shot in the next few days.

On 25 August 1941 the remaining Jews of Shadova – Šeduva were loaded on trucks and taken to Liaudiškiai, ten kilometres south-west of the town where the Rollcommando Hamann of Einsatzcommando 3 and Lithuanian collaborators of the 3rd company of the Tautinio Darbo Apsaugos Batalionas were waiting for them. Over the coming two days the entire Jewish community of Shadova was shot and buried in two pre-prepared mass graves. One site was located 400 meters north of the Shadova – Šeduva road and a second 900 meters north west of the same road, close to a path in the forest. The local killers of their Jewish neighbours from Shadova – Šeduva were Ramnauskes, Valavičius, Jonas Tomkus and Klemensas Rožėnas. The lists of mass graves in the book The Popular Massacres of Lithuania, Part II, include the following: Liaudiskiai forest about 10 km southwest of Seduva, one site 400 meters north of the Seduva road and a second site 900 meters northwest of the same road, close to a path in the forest.^[2] The Jäger report concludes that Einsatzcommando 3 registered the murder in Šeduva on the 25 and 26 August 1941 of 230 Jews, 275 Jewesses and 159 Jewish children, a total of 664 people.

May 23, 2015

Vilnius 5

My fifth visit to Vilnius in as many years. The Jerusalem of Lithuania!

Some images of the Choral Synagogue which around the corner from my hotel, The Conti.

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Choral Synagogue, Vilnius

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Choral Synagogue of Vilnius

Basic information
Location	Vilnius’ Old Town, Lithuania
Affiliation	Judaism
Status	In use
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Dovydas Rosenhauzas
Completed	1903
Specifications

The Choral Synagogue of Vilnius (Lithuanian: Vilniaus choralinė sinagoga) is the only synagogue in Vilnius that is still in use. The other synagogues were destroyed during World War II, when Lithuania was occupied by Nazi Germany.

The Choral Synagogue of Vilnius was built in 1903.^[1]

The synagogue is built in a Romanesque–Moorish style.^[2]

It is the only active synagogue that survived both the Holocaust and Soviet rule in this city that once had over 100 synagogues.^[1]International donations and a small community of Jews in Vilnius support the synagogue. The synagogue holds services and is open to visitors.^[2]

My first visit to the Vilnius Jewish Public Library which was most interesting. I met its director:

Žilvinas Beliauskas <zilvinas.beliauskas@vilnius-jewish-public-library.com>

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Video of Arcadius & Batya

Web:

Vilnius Jewish Public Library

On Facebook

The Green House and Sugihara

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Trip Advisor – Green House

Professor Dovid Katz at his home. A most delightful evening with an unforgettable icon!

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Video of Dov Katz

I met with renowned historian and guide: Ilya Lempertas

Facebook: Ilya Lempertas

May 19, 2015

Two Videos From Vilnius

A song from Arcadius and Batya at the Vilnius Jewish Public Library

Professor Dovid Katz at home

May 19, 2015

JHI Warsaw – The Jewish Historical Institute

Day Two in Warsaw was highlighted by a visit to JHI Warsaw

I watched a 45 minute movie on Jewish life in Warsaw during the Holocaust.

Followed by two exhibitions:

“AFTER THE HOLOCAUST. THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF POLISH JEWS 1944–1950 – a unique collection of documents, photographs and films illustrating the way the CCPJ operated.

SALVAGED: The collections of paintings, drawings and sculpture held by the JHI Museum. According to the JHI, this exhibition is an attempt to break the silence surrounding these little known yet excellent artists.

I also caught up with Aleksandra Dybkowska of the JHI Genealogy department

Also with Wojciech Konończuk

and Marla Raucher Osborn at FODZ

Jewish Historical Institute

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw

An exhibition on the first floor

The Jewish Historical Institute (Polish: Żydowski Instytut Historyczny or ŻIH) is a research institute in Warsaw, Poland, primarily dealing with the history of Jews in Poland

History

The Jewish Historical Institute was created in 1947 as a continuation of the Central Jewish Historical Commission, founded in 1944. The Jewish Historical Institute Association is the corporate body responsible for the building and the Institute’s holdings. The Institute falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In 2009 it was named after Emanuel Ringelblum. The institute is a repository of documentary materials relating to the Jewish historical presence in Poland. It is also a centre for academic research, study and the dissemination of knowledge about the history and culture of Polish Jewry.

The most valuable part of the collection is the Warsaw Ghetto Archive, known as the Ringelblum Archive (collected by the Oyneg Shabbos). It contains about 6000 documents (about 30 000 individual pieces of paper).

Other important collections concerning World War II include testimonies (mainly of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust), memoirs and diaries, documentation of the Joint and Jewish Self-Help (welfare organizations active in Poland under the occupation), and documents from the Jewish Councils (Judenräte)

The section on the documentation of Jewish historical sites holds about 40 thousand photographs concerning Jewish life and culture in Poland.

The Institute has published a series of documents from the Ringelblum Archive, as well as numerous wartime memoirs and diaries.^[1]

In 2011, Paweł Śpiewak, a Professor of Sociology at Warsaw University and former politician, was nominated as the Director of the Jewish Historical Institute by Bogdan Zdrojewski, Minister of Culture and National Heritage.^[2]

References

Jump up ^ Stephan Stach Geschichtsschreibung und politische Vereinnahmungen: Das Jüdische Historische Institut in Warschau 1947-1968, in: Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts / Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook VII (2008), 401-431, ISBN 978-3-525-36934-0
Jump up ^ Uncredited, Change at the top; Jewish Historical Institute. Retrieved 2012-07-29.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Żydowski Instytut Historyczny.

The Institute’s homepage

May 17, 2015November 16, 2016

Polin Museum, Warsaw, Poland

Sunday 17 May 2015

I arrived from London this morning and headed straight for the Polin Museum. I have visited the museum twice before in 2013 and 2014, but this is the first time since it officially opened in October 2014.

The selection of my images here indicates how remarkable and magnificent this museum is. I have visited many museums around the world over many years, and Polin is one of the best!

I took over 700 photos this afternoon, spent 5½ hours at the Core Exhibition and could have been there a few more hours! It is a “must visit” for anyone coming to Warsaw, Jewish or not!

The Resource Centre

Magdalena

Marzena

Closing time

Mila 18

Video

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich
The museum building
Established	2005 (opened April 2013)
Location	Warsaw, Poland
Coordinates	52°14′58″N 20°59′34″E
Type	Historical, cultural
Collection size	History and culture of Polish Jews
Visitors	expected 450,000
Director	Dariusz Stola
Curator	Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Website	Museum official website

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Polish: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich) is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word Polin in the museum’s name means, in English, either “Poland” or “rest here” and is related to a legend on the arrival of the first Jews in Poland.^[1] The cornerstone was laid in 2007, and the museum was first opened on April 19, 2013.^[2]^[3] The museum’s Core Exhibition opened in October 2014.^[4] The museum features a multimedia narrative exhibition about the vibrant Jewish community that flourished in Poland for a thousand years up to the Holocaust.^[5] The building, a postmodern structure in glass, copper, and concrete, was designed by Finnish architects Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma.^[6]

History

President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the POLIN Museum, 26 June 2007

The idea for creating a major new museum in Warsaw dedicated to the history of Polish Jews was initiated in 1995 by the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland.^[7] In the same year, the Warsaw City Council allocated the land for this purpose in Muranów, Warsaw’s prewar Jewish neighborhood and site of the former Warsaw Ghetto, facing the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes. In 2005, the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland established a unique private-public partnership with the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the City of Warsaw. The Museum’s first director was Jerzy Halbersztadt. In September 2006, a specially designed tent called Ohel (the Hebrew word for tent in English) was erected for exhibitions and events on the museum’s future location.^[7]

An international architectural competition for designs for the building was launched in 2005, supported by a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. On June 30, 2005 the jury announced the winner; a team of two Finnish architects, Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma.^[8] On June 30, 2009 construction of the building was officially inaugurated. The project was to be finished in 33 months at a cost of PLN 150 million zlotyallocated by the Ministry and the City.^[9] and a total cost of PLN 320 million zloty.^[10]^[11]

The Museum opened the building and began its educational and cultural programs on April 19, 2013 on the 70th Anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. During the 18 months that followed, more than 180,000 visitors toured the building, visited the first temporary exhibitions, and took part in cultural and educational programs and events, including films, debates, workshops, performances, concerts and lectures. The Grand Opening, with the completed Core Exhibition, was on October 28, 2014.^[12] The Core Exhibition documents and celebrates the thousand-year history of the Jewish community in Poland that was decimated by the Holocaust.^[4]^[5]

Construction

Museum faces the Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The Museum faces the memorial commemorating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. The winner of the architectural competition was Rainer Mahlamäki, of the architectural studio ‘Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Oy in Helsinki, whose design was chosen from 100 submissions to the international architectural competition. The Polish firm Kuryłowicz & Associates was responsible for construction. The building’s minimalist exterior is clad with glass fins and copper mesh. Silk screened on the glass is the word Polin, in Latin and Hebrew letters.

The central feature of the building is its cavernous entrance hall. The main hall forms a high, undulating wall. The empty space is a symbol of cracks in the history of Polish Jews. Similar in shape to gorge, which could be a reference to the crossing of the Red Sea known from the Exodus. The museum is nearly 13,000 square meters of usable space. At the lowest level, in the basement of the building will be placed a main exhibition about history of Jews from the Middle Ages to modern times. The museum building also has a multipurpose auditorium with 480 seats, temporary exhibition rooms, education center, information center, play room for children, café, shop, and in the future kosher restaurant.

Hebrew and Latin letters of the word Polin

Since the museum presents the whole history of Jews in Poland, not only the period under German occupation, the designer wanted to avoid similarities to existing Holocaust museums (such as the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the museum at Yad Vashem) which had austere concrete structures. The architects kept the museum in the colors of sand, giving it a more approachable feeling.^[13]

In 2008, the design of the museum was awarded the Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award.^[14] In 2014, the designer Rainer Mahlamäki was awarded the Finlandia Prize for Architecture for his design of the museum.^[15]

Organizational structure

The Core Exhibition’s academic team consists of Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (Program Director) of New York University, Hanna Zaremska of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Adam Teller of Brown University, Igor Kąkolewski of the University of Warmia and Mazury, Marcin Wodziński of the University of Wrocław, Samuel Kassow of Trinity College, Barbara Engelking and Jacek Leociak of the Polish Center for Holocaust Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Helena Datner of the Jewish Historical Institute, and Stanisław Krajewski of Warsaw University. Antony Polonsky of Brandeis University is the Core Exhibition’s chief historian.^[16]

Main hall

The North American Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews is a U.S. based non-profit organization supporting the foundation of the Museum.^[17]

On June 17, 2009 the museum launched the Virtual Shtetl portal, which collects and provides access to essential information about Jewish life in Poland before and after the Holocaust in Poland. The portal now features more than 1,240 towns with maps, statistics, and image galleries based in large measure on material provided by local history enthusiasts and former residents of those places.^[18]

Core Exhibition

The Core Exhibition occupies more than 4,000 m² of space. It consists of eight galleries that document and celebrate the thousand-year history of the Jewish community in Poland – once the largest Jewish community in the world – that was almost entirely destroyed during the Holocaust. The exhibition includes a multimedia narrative with interactive installations, paintings and oral histories, among other features created by more than 120 scholars and curators. One item is a replica of the roof and ceiling of a 17th-century Gwoździec synagogue.^[5]^[19] The galleries are:

Forest – This gallery tells the tale of how, fleeing from persecution in Western Europe, the Jews came to Poland. For the next 1,000 years, the country would become the largest European home for the Jewish community.
First Encounters (the Middle Ages) – This gallery is devoted to the first Jewish settlers in Poland. Visitors meet Ibrahim ibn Jakub, a Jewish diplomat from Cordoba, author of famous notes from a trip to Europe. One of the most interesting objects presented in the gallery is the first sentence written in Yiddish in the prayer book of 1272.

Gwoździec synagogue roof reconstruction

Reconstructed vault and bimah in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Paradisus Iudaeorum (15th and 16th centuries) – This gallery presents how the Jewish community was organized and what role Jews played in the country’s economy. One of the most important elements in this gallery is an interactive model of Kraków and Jewish Kazimierz, showing the rich culture of the local Jewish community. Visitors learn that religious tolerance in Poland made it a “Paradisus ludaeorum” (Jewish paradise). This golden age of the Jewish community in Poland ended with pogroms during the Khmelnitsky Uprising. This event is commemorated by a symbolic fire gall leading to the next gallery.
The Jewish Town (17th and 18th centuries) – This gallery presents the history of Polish Jews until the period of the partitions. It is shown by an example of a typical borderland town where Jews constituted a significant part of the population. The most important part of this gallery is a unique reconstruction of the roof and ceiling of Gwoździec, a wooden synagogue that was located in the Ukraine.

“On the Jewish Street” gallery with entrances to exhibition halls

Encounters with Modernity (19th century) – This gallery presents the time of the partitions when Jews shared the fate of Polish society divided between Austria, Prussia and Russia. The exhibition includes the role played by Jewish entrepreneurs, such as Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański, in the industrial revolution in Polish lands. Visitors also learn about changes in traditional Jewish rituals and other areas of life, and the emergence of new social movements, religious and political. This period is also marked by the emergence of modern anti-semitism, which Polish Jews had to face.
On the Jewish Street – This gallery is devoted to the period of the Second Polish Republic, which is seen – despite the challenges that the young country had to face – as a second golden age in the history of Polish Jews. A graphical timeline is presented with the most important political events of the interwar period. The exhibition also highlights Jewish film, theatre and literature.
Holocaust – This gallery shows the tragedy of the Holocaust during the German occupation of Poland, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 90% of the 3.3 million Polish Jews. Visitors are shown the history of the Warsaw Ghetto and introduced to Emanuel Ringelblum and Oneg Shabbat. The gallery also covers the horrors experienced by the non-Jewish majority population of Poland during World War II as well as their reactions and responses to the extermination of Jews.
Postwar Years – The last gallery shows the period after 1945, when most of the survivors of the Holocaust emigrated, mostly because of the post-war takeover of Poland by the Soviets and the state sponsored anti-Semitic campaign in 1968 conducted by the communist authorities. An important date is the year 1989, marking the end of Soviet domination, followed by the revival of a small but dynamic Jewish community in Poland.

Mezuzah

The exhibition was developed by an international team of scholars and museum professionals from Poland, the United States and Israel as well as the Museum’s curatorial team under the direction of Prof. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett.^[19]

Notes and references

Jump up ^ “A 1000-Year History of Polish Jews” (PDF). POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved 2013-07-20.
Jump up ^ “Kolejna budowa spóźniona. Czy jakaś powstanie na czas?”. Gazeta Wyborcza. April 2012.
Jump up ^ “Little Left of Warsaw Ghetto 70 Years After Uprising”. Yahoo!7. April 17, 2013.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b “About the Museum”, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, accessed December 18, 2014
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c The Associated Press (June 24, 2007), Poland’s new Jewish museum to mark community’s thousand-year history.
Jump up ^ Polish, Jewish leaders break ground on landmark Jewish museum The Associated Press, June 26, 2007
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b A.J. Goldmann, “Polish Museum Set To Open Spectacular Window on Jewish Past” The Jewish Daily Forward, April 01, 2013.
Jump up ^ “Konkurs na projekt” [Contest for the design of the Museum]. Stołeczny Zarząd Rozbudowy Miasta.
Jump up ^ The Association for the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland took responsibility for creating the Core Exhibition and raising the funds for it at a cost of about PLN 120 million zloty, Rozpoczęto budowę Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich. Mkidn.gov.pl.
Jump up ^ http://www.sejm.gov.pl/Sejm7.nsf/biuletyn.xsp?skrnr=KSP-96
Jump up ^ http://www.mkidn.gov.pl/media/docs/2013/20130416_mzhp.pdf
Jump up ^ Znamy datę otwarcia wystawy Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich 22 January 2014
Jump up ^ Museum of the History of Polish Jews by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Dezeen Magazine, 3 October 2013.
Jump up ^ International Architecture Awards: 2008 Winners The Chicago Athenaeum.
Jump up ^ “Arkkitehtuurin ensimmäinen Finlandia-palkinto: Rainer Mahlamäen puolanjuutalaisen historian museo Varsovassa”. Helsingin Sanomat. 4 Nov 2014. Retrieved 5 Nov 2014.
Jump up ^ Museum of the History of Polish Jews: About the museum at JewishMuseum.org.
Jump up ^ The North American Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Jump up ^ “The Virtual Shtetl”
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b “Core Exhibition”, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, accessed December 18, 2014

May 16, 2015

The Wiener Library, London

Wiener Library

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide is the world’s oldest institution devoted to the study of the Holocaust, its causes and legacies. Founded in 1933 as an information bureau that informed Jewish communities and governments worldwide about the persecution of the Jews under the Nazis, it was transformed into a research institute and public access library after the end of World War II. The official name of the institution is “The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide”^[1] and is now situated in Russell Square, London.^[2]

History

Alfred Wiener, a German Jew who worked for the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith), a Jewish civil rights group, spent years documenting the rise of antisemitism. He collected books, photographs, letters, magazines and other materials, including school primers and children’s games,^[3] recording the spread of Nazi propaganda and its racist doctrines.^[4]

In 1933, Wiener fled Germany for Amsterdam and then settled in Britain. The collection opened in London on 1 September 1939, the day of the Nazi invasion of Poland. It was known as the Jewish Central Information Office and functioned as a private intelligence service. Wiener was paid by the British government to keep Britain informed of developments in Germany.^[5]

After the end of World War II, the library used its extensive collections on National Socialism and the Third Reich to provide material to the United Nations War Crimes Commission and bringing war criminals to justice.

The Library’s most successful publishing venture was the production of a bi-monthly bulletin commencing in November 1946 (and which continued until 1983). Another important task during the 1950s and 1960s was the gathering of eyewitness accounts, a resource that was to become a unique and important part of the Library’s collection. The accounts were collected systematically by a team of interviewers. In 1964, the Institute of Contemporary History was established and took up the neglected field of modern European history within The Wiener Library.

During a funding crisis in 1974 it was decided to move a part of the collection to Tel Aviv. In the course of the preparations for this move, a large part of the collections was microfilmed for conservation purposes. The plans to move the library were abandoned in 1980 after the transports had already begun, resulting in a separate Wiener Library within the library of the University of Tel Aviv that consisted of the majority of the book stock, while The Wiener Library in London retained the microfilmed copies.

Today The Wiener Library is a research library dedicated to studying the Holocaust, comparative genocide studies, Nazi Germany, and German Jewry, and documenting Antisemitism and Neonazism. It is a registered charity under English law.^[6]

The Fraenkel Prize

The Library also hosts The Fraenkel Prize. This prize, sponsored by Ernst Fraenkel (former Chairman and one of the Library’s Presidents) is for “outstanding work of twentieth-century history in one of The Wiener Library’s fields of interest”. These areas of interest include the following: “The History of Europe, Jewish History, The Two World Wars, Antisemitism, Comparative Genocide, Political Extremism”.^[7]

References

External links

Coordinates: 51°31′21″N 0°08′42″W

May 13, 2015

The Met – A Quick Visit

A quick visit with our 2 ½ year grand daughter. What we saw:

Mostly Egyptian art, sculpture & arms and armour.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Metropolitan Museum of Art


Established	April 13, 1870^[1]^[2]^[3]
Location	1000 5th Avenue, New York City, NY 10028
Coordinates	40.779447°N 73.96311°W
Visitors	5.2 million (2008)^[2] 4.9 million (2009)^[4] 5.24 million (2010) Ranked 1st nationally Ranked 3rd globally
Director	Thomas P. Campbell
Public transit access	Subway: to 86th Street Bus: M1, M2, M3, M4, M79, and M86
Website	www.metmuseum.org
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark

Elevation by Simon Fieldhouse
Built	1874
Architect	Richard Morris Hunt; also Calvert Vaux; Jacob Wrey Mould
Architectural style	Beaux-Arts
Governing body	Local
NRHP Reference #	86003556
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	January 29, 1972^[5]
Designated NHL	June 24, 1986^[6]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (colloquially The Met), located in New York City, is the largest art museum in the United States and one of the ten largest in the world.^[7] Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments.^[8] The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan’s Museum Mile, is by area one of the world’s largest art galleries. There is also a much smaller second location at The Cloisters in Upper Manhattan that features medieval art.^[9]

Represented in the permanent collection are works of art from classical antiquity and Ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art.^[10] The museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world.^[11] Several notable interiors, ranging from first-century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Met’s galleries.^[12]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870. The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day, who wanted to open a museum to bring art and art education to the American people.^[3] It opened on February 20, 1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue.^[13]

As of 2012, the Met occupies about 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m²).^[14] Admission is pay what you wish with a recommendation of $25.^[15]

May 12, 2015June 11, 2017

Charlie Bernhaut – Yossele’s World

Ohab Zedek Synagogue

Charlie’s presentation

Website:
http://www.charliebernhaut.com
Inside the Ohab Zedek synagogue

Congregation Ohab Zedek

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ohab Zedek, sometimes abbreviated as OZ, is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Manhattan, New York City noted for its lively, youthful congregation.^[1] Founded in 1873, it moved to it current location on West 95th Street in 1926. The current clergy are: Rabbi Allen Schwartz, Senior Rabbi; and Rabbi Avrohom Moshe Farber, Cantor.

Early history

Angel Orensanz Center

Congregation Ohab Zedek (abbreviated O.Z., and formally known as the First Hungarian Congregation Ohab Zedek), was founded in 1873 on the Lower East Side. The congregation built a synagogue building at 70 Columbia Street in 1881. In 1886 the congregation sold the Columbia Street building to Congregation Ahavath Acheim Anshe Ungarn and moved into the gothic-style synagogue building 172 Norfolk Street that is now the Angel Orensanz Center, the oldest surviving synagogue building in New York and the fourth-oldest in the United States.^[2]

116th Street building

General information
Architectural style	Vernacular Gothic on the interface of Moorish Revival
Construction started	1906
Completed	1907
Demolished	2009–2010
Client	Congregation Ohab Zedek
Technical details
Structural system	Masonry

In 1906–07 the congregation built and moved into a “monumental” building on 116th Street, in the newly fashionable neighborhood of Harlem. The “monumental” design was influenced by the Gothic character of the previous Norfolk Street home. The street-facing gable prominently featured a large four-centered arch-headed window over a large pedimented doorcase, appearing styled in loose or Vernacular Gothic on the interface of Moorish Revival architecture.

The famous singer Yossele Rosenblatt was a cantor there from 1911 to 1926, and again in 1929.^[3]

In 1926 O.Z. moved to its present building at 118 West 95th Street; the 116th Street property was sold, eventually becoming the Baptist Temple Church, which occupied the location for over five decades. Conversion into a church removed the Jewish-themed terracotta ornaments.

Costly structural damage necessitated the building’s demolition, which occurred slowly throughout late 2009 and early 2010.

Current building, West 95th Street

The current synagogue building at 118 West 95th Street (constructed in 1926) is noted for its Moorish Revival architecture. Designed by architect Charles B. Myers, the interior features magnificent Mudéjar style plasterwork.

Early today 21st century

Early in the 21st century, the congregation became known for attracting large numbers of orthodox Jewish singles to its services and programs.^[1] The congregation published a book in 2005 about its history, First Hungarian Congregation Ohab Zedek, written by O.Z. member Chaim Steinberger.

As of 2013, the senior rabbi was Allen Schwartz and the cantor was Rabbi Avrohom Moshe Farber.

References

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b JENNIFER BLEYER, “Marriage on Their Minds”, The New York Times, August 10, 2008.
Jump up ^ “New Life Is Envisioned For Historic Synagogue”. New York Times. February 18, 1987. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
Jump up ^ Irwin Oppenheim. “Yossele Rosenblatt (II), The remarkable career of Cantor Rosenblatt”. Chazzanut.com. Retrieved October 11, 2011.

External links

Synagogue website

Coordinates: 40°47′32.68″N 73°58′8.38″W

Kelmė

History

People

Kelm Talmud Torah

Under the Leadership of Simcha Zissel Ziv

The Talmud Torah after Ziv’s death

Famous students

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Šeduva

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Choral Synagogue, Vilnius

The Green House and Sugihara

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Jewish Historical Institute

History

See also

References

External links

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POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

History

Construction

Organizational structure

Core Exhibition

See also

Notes and references

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Wiener Library

History

The Fraenkel Prize

See also

References

Further reading

External links

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Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Congregation Ohab Zedek

Early history

116th Street building

Current building, West 95th Street

Early today 21st century

References

External links

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