15 Results
Background article

Góra Kalwaria or Ger

Góra Kalwaria was one of many shtetls in Poland whose Jewish life disappeared in the wake of WW II. Also goods of Jewish culture suffered immense losses. Particularly interesting is the wartime fate of library owned by tzaddik's family Alter. The history of its dispersal during WW II is exemplary for many Jewish library collections in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Background article

Hungarian – Communist – Jew?

This article sheds light on some facets of the life of the philosopher Ernő Gáll, who as a Jew, a communist, and a Hungarian was both politically persecuted and a perpetrator. A committed intellectual, he acted as a mediator between different political factions and hostile ethnic groups throughout his life. In doing so, he developed an ethic of dignity and responsibility and coined the phrase "the dignity of individual character," which also has relevance for today's debates around the issue of identity.
Bildergalerie-Seitenelement

In search of history - Gallery elements 1

Background article

In search of history at the Jewish Museum Vienna

Each of the objects on display at the Jewish Museum Vienna was once intended for daily or ritual use in Jewish families and communities and is bound up with the fates of Jewish people. Together, the objects, each torn from their original context, provide a memorial to the Jews who were displaced and murdered, and for this reason the story behind every object deserves to be told. Although only scant reliable information is available for most of the objects, this article describes an attempt to trace the story of a Torah crown from the JMV using just a few details.
Introduction

Jewish History in Eastern Europe: The 19th Century

In Jewish history, the 19th century stands for a time of comprehensive change in all areas of life. Jews, who had previously seen themselves primarily as a religious group, now became supporters of various political or national movements. This gave rise to a range of new, constantly contested Jewish affiliations.
Background article

Jewish Postcard Publishers and the Imagery of the Urban

In numerous cities across eastern Europe, Jewish publishers enjoyed notable success on the newly established postcard market. This article presents a socio-historical background of this topic and asks whether their social positioning influenced the depictions of the urban world they chose to feature on their postcards.
Introduction

Jews in Poland in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

The article offers an overview of Jewish history and the development of Jewish settlement in medieval and early modern Poland from the first recorded mentions of Jewish centers in the 11th century through to the end of the 18th century. As in the neighboring countries of Hungary and Bohemia, the Polish monarchs were also interested in Jewish settlement; the privilege of 1264 and its confirmations created the legal framework for this. Jews were involved in the economic and demographic development of Poland. The Jewish percentage of the urban population also grew, and their formative influence was particularly visible in the south-eastern provinces, which found expression in the concept of the Jewish "shtetl". In modern times, Poland-Lithuania also became a center of Jewish scholarship. The crises and wars in the mid-17th century brought an influx of messianic movements. In the 18th century, the impulses of the Jewish Enlightenment and the emancipation of the Jewish population were the subject of lengthy and lively discussion.
Introduction

Jews in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe

The twentieth century brought monumental changes and unprecedented challenges to the East-European Jewry. Its story is told here in the voices of six Jewish women, whose lives were marked by its turbulent course.
Background article

Memorials in Wrocław

The Jewish community in Breslau, which was the third-largest in the German Reich in 1925, was forgotten for many years. However, after 1989, new interest in local history began to emerge in Wrocław, Poland. Nowadays, monuments and a commemorative procession serve as reminders of the Jewish people who lived in Breslau (the pre-1945 German name for Wrocław) during the pre-war period.
Background article

Places of commemoration of the Shoa in Szeged, Hungary

The Jewish community of Szeged in Hungary has a rich heritage dating back two centuries. Many of their descendants perished in the Holocaust, when Szeged was made the main deportation center for the region. The purpose of the following post is to showcase the Holocaust memorials erected by the locals.
Background article

Return and Redemption

This text highlights the diverse landscape of Hasidism and contemporary Hasidic pilgrimage in Poland and Ukraine.
Biography

Samuel Fränkel

The Berlin Jew Samuel Fränkel (1773-1833) settled in Warsaw in 1798 as a representative of a large bank. Within a few years and across numerous political breaks, Fränkel rose to become the most important banker in a divided Poland. In doing so, Fränkel always successfully drew on his transnational connections to Jews and non-Jews in Prussia, Austria and Russia.
Bildergalerie-Seitenelement

Spurensuche im Schaudepot - Galerieelemente 2

Background article

Synagogue, Workers’ University, Cultural Center

Once the largest Sephardic synagogue in Yugoslavia, the Il Kal Grande was built in 1930 in the center of Sarajevo. After its partial destruction by german soldiers in 1941, the building has fulfilled a number of different functions and had a varied history, that is little known to this day.
Background article

The Białystok Ghetto Cemetery as a Setting of Historical-Political Disputes

The history of the necropolis in eastern Poland acts like a burning glass, a focal point of the upheavals of the 20th century and Polish-Jewish relations after the Shoa. Today, remembrance of this historically significant site alternates between disinterest, urban image cultivation, and a ritualized sense of duty.