Abstract: Several exhibitions in recent years – in the ‘Deutsches Auswandererhaus’ Bremerhaven and other museums in Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States – have used suitcases (and ‘the suitcase’) as a central symbol and metaphor for the migration process. Based on a variety of examples, the article discusses the idea and the use of memory containers – and their function as archives – in the context of emigration, transmigration, and immigration. Suitcases are the most obvious material objects relating to these processes and the connected cultural practices. They are concrete objects, but beyond that they have been used as symbols and metaphors for the experience of travel and of dislocation. Suitcases often contained, and therefore are connected to, other items of memory storage: photographs and personal documents (letters, diaries about the migration experience – documents that have been termed, in a different context, ‘Schreibakte auf der Schwelle’ – acts of writing on the threshold); manuscripts, farewell letters (written on the boat, in border stations, in port cities), memorial and yizkor books, songs and poems, self-drawn maps which show the stations of the journey. An analysis of such ‘things’ – material objects which often carried an emotional value – and their representation in museums and exhibitions opens up a wide and rich field of research for the ethnography of migration.
Abstract: The 2015 law granting Spanish nationality to the descendants of Jews expelled in 1492 is the latest example of a widespread phenomenon in contemporary Spain, the "re-discovery" of its Jewish heritage.
In The Memory Work of Jewish Spain, Daniela Flesler and Adrián Pérez Melgosa examine the implications of reclaiming this memory through the analysis of a comprehensive range of emerging cultural practices, political initiatives and institutions in the context of the long history of Spain's ambivalence towards its Jewish past.
Through oral interviews, analyses of museums, newly reconfigured "Jewish quarters," excavated Jewish sites, popular festivals, tourist brochures, literature and art, The Memory Work of Jewish Spain explores what happens when these initiatives are implemented at the local level in cities and towns throughout Spain, and how they affect Spain's present
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Identity, Jewish Revival, Antisemitism, Jewish Culture, Jewish Heritage, Rabbis, Kashrut, Shechita / Ritual Slaughter, Jewish Organisations, Care and Welfare
Abstract: This thesis critically examines the public representation of medieval Anglo-Jewish history today through a cross-section of medieval Anglo-Jewish communities which act as case studies; Winchester, York, Norwich, Bristol, and Northampton respectively. These case studies frame the investigation of issues associated with the limited and often contested archaeological evidence relating to England’s medieval Jews, as well as the frequent tendency of contemporary public facing history to focus on the negative aspects of medieval Jewish life, notably by highlighting persecution and victimisation. It also analyses the development of the most recent public facing interpretations of medieval Anglo-Jewish history in each location, which have been deliberately chosen to provide a range of towns and cities which contain evidence of alleged medieval Jewish human remains.
The assessment of key stakeholders in the public representation of medieval Anglo-Jews was central to this study, and as such this thesis carefully considered the roles of various stakeholders in the preservation and representation of medieval Anglo-Jewish history and memory. Within this thesis, each stakeholder had a valid voice in the assessment of how the history and memory of England’s medieval Jews had been treated and represented. Decolonialist research methodologies were herein utilised in order to fully address the complexities of the various voices of stakeholders; from the perspectives of individuals, communities, and organisations, through a sensitive approach towards respectful interviewing and data collection. This thesis, therefore, provides a uniquely rounded interpretation of stakeholder involvement and investment in how medieval Anglo-Jewish communities are remembered today.
The history and memory of medieval Anglo-Jews has been subject to periods of omission and marginalisation, with the study of medieval Jewish history often hindered by a lack of sources on everyday life. This thesis contributes to the increasingly multi- and inter-disciplinary study of England’s medieval Jews through the application of Death Studies, offers new hypotheses based on traditional Jewish approaches to death ritual and burial practice, and provides fresh insights into aspects of medieval Jewish life with a focus on the dead.
Abstract: The tradition of Jewish studies in Poland has been drastically interrupted by the Second World War and the Holocaust. In the immediate postwar period the process of re-establishing research on Jewish history and heritage was undertaken by the Jewish Historical Commissions and later Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. More examples of the individual and group initiatives can be traced only in the 1970s and 1980s. The real happened in the late 1980s with Kraków as one of the first and main centers of revitalized Jewish studies in Poland. The first postwar academic institution in Krakow specializing in Jewish studies – Research Center for Jewish History and Culture in Poland – was established already in 1986 in the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. More than a decade later, in 2000, it was transformed into the first Poland’s Department of Jewish Studies (Katedra Judaistyki) – now the Institute of Jewish Studies. Nowadays there are more similar programs and institutions – at the universities in Warsaw, Wrocław and Lublin (UMCS). Also other academic centers tend to have at least individual scholars, programs, classes or projects focusing on widely understood “Jewish topics.” Jewish studies in Poland, along with the revival of Jewish culture, reflect the contemporary Polish attitude to the Jewish heritage, and their scale and intensity remains unique in the European context. The growing interest in Jewish studies in Poland can be seen as a sign of respect for the role of Jewish Poles in the country’s history, and as an attempt to recreate the missing Jewish part of Poland through research, education and commemoration, accompanied by slow but promising revival of Jewish life in Poland.
Abstract: Очередной том фундаментальной серии «Народы и культуры» посвящен истории и культуре евреев на территории Российской империи, СССР и стран СНГ. В монографии рассматриваются общие вопросы происхождения и истории еврейского народа, особенности историкоантропологического облика и языков, а также проблемы изучения еврейского фольклора и этнографии. Основное внимание уделено этнополитической истории и своеобразию традиционной культуры российских евреев: их занятиям, костюму, обрядам жизненного цикла, религиозным праздникам, пище, народным знаниям, фольклору, декоративно-прикладному искусству, образованию. Специальные разделы освещают многообразные процессы, протекающие среди евреев в современном мире, взаимоотношения евреев с другими народами. В отдельных разделах даны историко-этнографические материалы по неашкеназским группам: грузинским и бухарским евреям и иудействующим. В создании тома приняли участие историки, филологи, этнографы, антропологи, социологи, фольклористы из России, Украины, Израиля и Франции.
Для историков, этнологов, культурологов, специалистов в разных областях иудаики, студентов профильных вузов и кафедр, широкого круга читателей
Abstract: À Paris, Tel-Aviv, Istanbul ou Los Angeles, on entend et chante les fameux standards judéo-espagnols. Ce partage de connaissances est le résultat d’une patrimonialisation qui a commencé dès les années 1950 dans un espace transnational à la suite de l’éclatement géographique des Judéo-Espagnols de l’Empire ottoman. Cet article expose les différentes étapes de ce processus, tant dans la diachronie que dans la synchronie, à partir d’un terrain multisite mené en France, aux États-Unis et sur le cyberespace. On découvrira que la construction du patrimoine à travers l’expérience de la migration peut être envisagée comme un mouvement de reterritorialisation permettant aux Judéo-Espagnols de faire communauté, de reconsolider la filiation judéo-espagnole dans l’espace familial et ainsi, de constituer un territoire historique fédérateur incarné par le patrimoine. Au-delà de ce cas spécifique, l’article montre comment le patrimoine musical, en raison de son statut d’objet immatériel facilement transportable, peut nous conduire à repenser la patrimonialisation au-delà du territoire et à l’envisager comme un processus de consolidation et de création de liens entre des individus et des groupes d’individus partageant un sentiment d’appartenance.
Abstract: The thesis is based on three starting points. The first is on the
acknowledgement of the lamentable condition of buildings of Jewish-related
heritage in cities with a multicultural past across the present-day former Soviet
Union. The second is on the acknowledgement of a slow process of gradual
recognition of these traces as examples of tangible heritage and a provisional
resource for heritage commodification. The third is the on the
acknowledgement of ‘heritage’, ‘memory’ and ‘space’ as phenomena that are
subject to manipulation on various levels.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the understanding of what
constitutes national heritage in the newly-appeared independent states has
conformed to correspond with the interpretations and values of national histories.
In managerial terms some immovable heritage of ethnic minorities has been
returned to the symbolic successors of previous owners. This defined provisional
sources of funding for partial renovation of this heritage, as well as its use. The
remaining sites, the majority of which are monuments protected by the state, most
frequently stay unattended. In order to design policy recommendations to improve
the situation, a complex understanding of factors that influence heritage protection,
interpretation, and promotion in the post-Soviet space is needed.
Within this state of affairs, the thesis aims to analyze agency behind
'top-down' policies and 'down-up' grass-roots initiatives towards
(non)interpretation of Jewish-related heritage sites in Chişinǎu (Moldova),
Odessa and L’viv (Ukraine) and Minsk (Belarus). This selection of cities is
chosen to reveal the multiplicity of factors that determine apparent similarity in
heritage condition and management in the post-Soviet space, but instead reveal
diverse dynamics of interaction between heritage and politics; heritage and
nationalism; heritage and civil society, etc.
The methodology utilized here includes archival search, participant
observation, media and expert opinion analysis, as well as examination of
museum exhibitions. The fieldwork included data collection on the actual
condition of Jewish heritage in the cities under discussion and interviews with
various agents. Elite interviews were analyzed as basis for authoritative
heritage discourse before discussing actual heritage projects in these cities.
Based on interdisciplinary analysis, the thesis provides an embracing
overview of the broad spectrum of agency behind Jewish heritage-related
initiatives (or their absence). It then offers recommendations for the
advancement of managerial strategies.
Abstract: The study investigates the main motives for preservation of sites of Jewish heritage tourism (JHT) by studying three locations in Macedonia: Skopje (the capital), Štip (the largest city in the east part of Macedonia) and Bitola (the largest city in the southwest part of Macedonia). The article assesses the presence of several motivations, like: (i) Guilt; (ii) Interest in national history; (iii) Revival of a glorious Past; (iv) Economic benefits; (v) Display of sympathy; and (vi) Dark tourism development. The analysis is based on a qualitative research method and incorporates: (a) Qualitative data analysis, by conducting interviews in June 2016 with key stakeholders from central and local governments as the main policy makers; and (b) Analysis of secondary data sources, achieved by reviewing literature, historical, and statistical data related to Jewish history in Macedonia. Generally, the results point to the presence of strong iconic connection among Macedonians and the Jews that lived in Macedonia. The general findings indicate that by establishing and maintaining JH sites, stakeholders reflect sentiments of sympathy and even admiration to the perished Jewish community and a strong desire to revive a glorious past. Only in the case of Bitola, the potential economic benefits were surfaced as the main motive for initiating activities and investments in JH sites. Finally, the study recommends design and development of JHT product and tailor-made tourist packages as key elements that may boost tourism development in Macedonia alongside with commemoration of the Jews and their ties with the Macedonian people.
Abstract: Since the early 1990s, and coinciding with the celebratory events of the fifth centenary, new cultural initiatives related to the legacies of Spain’s Jewish inhabitants have been added to the marketing of the country as a tourist destination. This article analyses how these initiatives foreground convivencia [coexistence] as a uniquely Spanish cultural tradition and shape it into a marketable ideological product, by focusing on the town of Hervás, in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, as a prime example of the complexities inherent in these tourism initiatives. Over the last twelve years Hervás has organized a celebration of its Jewish identity in ‘Los conversos’ [‘The converts’], a three-day festival in which the town’s inhabitants dress up as ‘Jews’ and stage a collective performance of a theatre play related to its Jewish past. Through careful analysis of the gradual changes that have been incorporated into the festival and the play over the years, the article studies the entanglement of desires and anxieties and the multiple contradictions that arise as this town foregrounds its Jewish past to negotiate unresolved issues of transnational, national, regional and local identity. The article combines an analysis of textual sources, especially the literary works on which Hervás has relied to construct the image of itself promoted in the festival, and materials gathered from fieldwork there (promotional materials, video footage and photographs of the celebrations, interviews with organizers and participants, etc.). It also relies on the research undertaken by local historian Marciano de Hervás, and current theorizations of patrimonialization and heritagization (Urry 1995; Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998) and the ‘reinvention’ of Jewish culture in Europe (Gruber 2002) in the field of tourism studies.
