Salon Jewish Studies Blog

The conference Hebraic Aspects of the Renaissance, held from May 11-13, 2009 at Haifa University "will explore the rich and multifaceted interactions of Jewish and Hebraic culture with the Renaissance world, roughly during the period 1350 to 1650. Following several fruitful RSA panels devoted to the theme, we now hope to bring the subject into sharper focus." (via H-Judaic)

Timetable:

Day 1
8:30-9:00
Registration and gathering, coffee

9:00-9:45
Welcome notes
Chair: Ilana Zinguer
Ambassadeur de France / Attaché Culturel
Dean / Rector
Ilana Zinguer (Centre de recherche de Civilisation Fran?aise)

9:45-10:45
Keynote I
Chair: Ilana Zinguer
Georges Molinié (Président, Sorbonne, Paris IV)
Postures et images juives par rapport à la culture baroque

Pause-------------------------

11:00-12:30
Kabbalah I
Chair: Bernard Cooperman
Lina Bolzoni (Scuola Normale di Pisa)
Giulio Camillo’s Memory Theatre and the Kabbalah
Roni Weinstein (University of Pisa)
Sixteenth-Century Jewish Mysticism as a Catholic Baroque Phenomenon
Yossi Chajes (University of Haifa)
It's Good to See the King : Toward an Historical Anthropology of Early Modern Jewish Cosmological Cartography

12:30
Lunch break

14:00-15:30
Kabbalah II
Chair: Lina Bolzoni
Bernard Cooperman (University of Maryland)
Kabbalistic Enthusiasms of a Rabbi for Hire. The Sermons of Isaac di Lattes
Sheila Rabin (St. Peter's College)
Pico, Astrology, and Kabbalah
Dvora Bregman (Ben Gurion University)
Notes on the Poetry of Moses Zacuto

Pause-------------------------

15:45-17:30
Religious Identities and Contexts I
Chair: Frank Lestringuant (Paris Sorbonne)
Ilana Zinguer (University of Haifa)
L'implicite à propos des Juifs de Rome (Journal de Voyage, Montaigne)
Annie Molinié (Sorbonne, Paris IV) and
Béatrice Perez (Université de Rennes)
Les premiers jésuites d'origine "conversa" (deuxième moitié du XVIe siècle): Diego Lainez, Polanco et les autres
Giuseppe Veltri (University of Halle)
Defining Jewish “Rituals” in the Early Modern Period: History of a Philosophical-Political Concept

17:30-18:00
Coffee break-------------------------

18:00-19:00
Keynote II
Chair: Abraham Melamed
Joanna Weinberg (Oxford University)
Jewish Wisdom and the Limits of Christian Hebraism

20:00
Reception (Consul de France, Haifa)
Frank Lestringant (Sorbonne, Paris IV)
Kabbale et cosmographie, de Guillaume Postel à Jacques d'Auzoles-Lapeyre

Day 2
8:30-9:00
Gathering, coffee

9:00-10:30
Hebraism, Poetry, and Drama I
Chair : Ofir Haivry (The Shalem Center)
Lauren Silberman (CUNY)
Aaron, The Brother Who Proves the Rule: Typological Negotiations in Titus Andronicus
Konrad Eisenbichler (University of Toronto)
Ancient Israel in the Religious Theatre of Renaissance Italy
Nancy Rosenfeld (University of Haifa)
'The Law of Moses as well as the Devil, Death, and Hell': John Bunyan and Christian Kabbalah

Pause-------------------------

10:45-12:45
Hebraism, Poetry, and Drama II
Chair: Dvora Bregman (Ben Gurion University)
Elliott Simon (University of Haifa)
From Maimonides to Sir Philip Sidney: The Poet’s Prophetic Voice
Chanita Goodblatt (Ben Gurion University )
"Thy Firmness makes my Circles Just/And makes me end, where I begunne": Abraham Ibn Ezra and John Donne as Poet-Exegetes
Noam Flinker (University of Haifa)
“Free as the Road”: George Herbert’s Hebraic Texts
Philip Ford (Cambridge University)
The Place of Hebrew Poetry in the Teaching of Charles Utenhove

12:45
Lunch break-------------------------

14:15-15:45
Hebraism and Scholarship I: Antiquarianism and Philology
Chair : Philip Ford (Cambridge University)
Arthur Eyffinger (Huygens Institute)
Biblical Philology at Leiden University
Daniel Stein-Kokin (Yale University)
Egidio da Viterbo and Christian Hebraism in High Renaissance Rome.
Jonathan Elukin (Trinity College Hartford)
The Urim and Thumim and Christian Hebraism

Pause-------------------------

16:00-17:30
Hebraism and Scholarship II: Chronology and Geography
Chair : Jonathan Elukin (Trinity College Hartford)
Avner Ben Zaken (Harvard Society of Fellows)
Hebraist Motives, Pythagorean Itineraries, and the Galilean Agendas of Naples: On the Margins of Text and Context
Zur Shalev ( University of Haifa)
Benjamin of Tudela, Spanish Discoverer
Fabrizio Lelli (University of Lecce)
The Role of Early Renaissance Geographical Discoveries in Yohanan Alemanno’s Messianic Thought

17:30-18:00
Coffee break-------------------------

18:00-19:15
Religious Identities and Contexts II
Chair: Myriam Yardeni (University of Haifa)
Sina Rauschenbach (University of Halle)
Dealing with Jewish Knowledge: Menasseh Ben Israel and the Christian Respublica Litteraria
Alessandro Guetta (INALCO – Paris)
The Debate on the Immortality of the soul in Early Modern Italy:
a symptom of closer Jewish-Christian dialogue?

Day 3
8:30-9:00
Gathering, coffee

9:00-10:45
The Hebrew Language and Its Practice
Chair: Noam Flinker (University of Haifa)
Arthur Lesley (Baltimore Hebrew College)
Yohanan Alemanno's Formulation of Hebrew Rhetorical Practice.
Kenneth Stow (University of Haifa)
Negotiating Self-Governance: Hebrew in the Service of Running the Jewish Universit?.
Yaacov Deutsch (Hebrew University and Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard University)
Converting the New Testament: Hebrew Translations of the New Testament in the Early Modern Period

Pause-------------------------

11:00-12:30
Hebraism and Political Theory I
Chair: Arthur Eyffinger (Huygens Institute)
Lea Campos Boralevi (University of Florence)
The Rise and Fall of the Respublica Hebraeorum as a Political Model in Early Modern Europe
Meirav Jones (The Shalem Center)
Philo Judaeus and Jewish Harmony in Grotius’ Laws of War and Peace
Yitzhak Lifshitz (The Shalem Center)
The Revival of the ideas of Medieval Ashkenaz in the 15th Century Political Thought of R. Yisrael Iserlin

12:30
Lunch break

14:00-15:00
Hebraism and Political Theory II
Chair: Zur Shalev (University of Haifa)
Ofir Haivry (The Shalem Center)
Jewish Sources of John Selden’s Idea of Church-State Relations
Fania Oz-Salzberger (University of Haifa)
The social reading of the Bible by English thinkers of the mid 17th century

Coffee break-------------------------

15:15-16:45
Isaac Abravanel
Chair : Arthur Lesley
Cedric Cohen Skalli (Tel Aviv University)
Isaac and Yehudah Abravanel on Genesis: A Case of Jewish Reception of Florentine Platonism
Vasileios Syros (University of Helsinki)
The Political Function of Rhetoric in Don Isaac Abravanel’s Political Thought
Abraham Melamed (University of Haifa)
The Reception of Abravanel in Early Modern Political Thought

16:45-17:15
Coffee break-------------------------

17:15-18:15
Yehudah Abravanel
Chair : Georges Molinié (Sorbonne, Paris IV)
Tristan Dagron (CNRS-Paris)
Giordano Bruno, lecteur des Dialoghi d’amore de Leone Ebreo
James W. Nelson Novoa (Villanova University)
Leone Ebreo’s Diologhi d’amore as a Pivotal Document of Judeo-Christian Relations in Renaissance Rome

18:15-17:00
Ending Note
David Baum (West Texas State A&M University)
Anti-Semitism, Race and the Renaissance in Fascist Italy

A list of a wikipedia user reveals that (among others) publications of Theodor Herzl and Max Brod are available through the website of the Austrian National Library (ÖNB). Furthermore some Juedische Presse issues of the year 1938 can be found within the huge collection of Austrian historical journals and newspapers - ANNO.

The written work Konrad von Grünenberg: Beschreibung der Reise von Konstanz nach Jerusalem (1487) describes a typical journey of a society of pilgrims during the 15th century. Besides beautiful hand drawings the book reveals many topographic details of the holy land. The book was digitized by the Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe. (via Archivalia@Twitter)

A new podcast David Pilgrim (Chief Diversity Officer and Professor of Sociology, Ferris State University; founder of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia) is available on U.S. Holcaust Memorial Museum website.

DAVID PILGRIM:
The Jim Crow Museum is a collection of anti-black, civil rights, and segregation memorabilia. I was the original donor. People ask me, "When did you start collecting and why?" And I've always collected what I call "contemptible collectibles." I collected objects that I thought would demonstrate how those racist ideas permeated our culture. And so you would have an ashtray for example with an image of an African American in the middle of it with fire, red lips and wild, darting eyes and mismanaged hair, kind of a crazed look. But I hesitate to give you that characterization because there are so many caricatures of African Americans. So, for example, the so-called tragic mulatto imagery would look very different from the Tom or the Sambo or the mammy or the pickaninny. So it's a little bit disingenuous to describe a so-called typical piece, because there's just so many ways that the features, the physical features of African Americans are distorted on everyday objects.
If you had to come up with one word to describe the objects that we have and similar objects, that word would be propaganda. When I used to think of propaganda I thought of it as leaflets and posters. And then it hit me one day that an ashtray with a caricatured image of a member of an ethnic group can be as much propaganda as a leaflet or poster or print. And I think the most effective propaganda is when people don't realize that that is what is going on, when they think they're just playing a game or just using an ashtray. When you reduce hatred to game playing, you give a level of legitimacy to it that is mind boggling. So when you turn and you look at that detergent box or you look at that game, that toy, that ashtray—these everyday objects with a function—they become everyday ways to convince people that a racial hierarchy made sense.
You know, the hardest thing for me is to figure out how to present the material to people when they come in. What you discover is, is that people looking at the same thing come up with very, very, very different interpretations of what it is they're seeing. And so the one person when he looks at Little Black Sambo says, "You know, that's a cute, clever little boy. And reading that story just reminds me of wholesome, good times with my father and oatmeal." And then someone else looks at that and they says, "Well, that reminds me of a vestige of segregation and slavery. And it hurts me."
So what we try to do is to get people talking. Now, why is that hard for me? It's hard for me because when people walk in there I want to tell them what they see. So when a person starts talking about "Oh, why should you be offended at that?" There's a part of me that wants to scream, "How could you not see the offense?" But I don't. And I've gotten much better over the years in finding where people are, trying to understand where they are, and then allowing people at different places and different points in their journey to explain where they are, and so you have meaningful dialogue. My fear is not that people won't think the way I do or agree with my values; it is that they won't talk about these things at all, that they'll just keep muddling along as if everything's fine.
I think that systematically disseminating information that defames and belittles others actually belittles and degrades our entire society. As corny and trite as that sounds, I think that antisemitism, racism, sexism, and homophobia…I think those things undermine democracy. I think they make of democracy a lie. I mean as long as we have these "us versus thems," and as long as people are hurt in our society and others think that's their problem, then we undermine this nation. So the trick is, is to figure out a way to get people that are not themselves directly hurt to believe that they are a part of the same "We." And that for me has been I guess the thrust of what it is I've spent my life trying to do; trying to make the "We" bigger. (fragment of the transcript)

"Today, on April 21, 2009, the World Digital Library, one of the most significant projects refering to digital primary sources on different cultures across the world, was launched.

The mission:

"The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.

The principal objectives of the WDL are to:

Promote international and intercultural understanding;
Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet;
Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences;
Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries."

"Tough economic times and multimillion-dollar debt might force Hebrew Union College, the nation’s oldest Jewish educational institution, to shut down its Clifton campus.
Advertisement
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is facing an $8 million debt – in part because of flat fundraising, pension liabilities, and endowment and other revenue declines that have hit the institute harder than at any other time in its history, Rabbi David Ellenson, the college-institute’s president, told stakeholders in an e-mail.
'I wish with all my heart and soul that this were not so,” he wrote. “Yet, all the wishing in the world cannot alter the reality we face.'
HUC has raised the possibility of closing two of its three U.S. campuses. The others are in New York and Los Angeles.
Rabbi Gerry Walter, a 1974 graduate of the Clifton Avenue campus, said closing his alma mater would be a huge blow to American Jewry.
'This is the heart of Reform Judaism and we very much want to see it remain here,' said Walter, rabbi at Temple Sholom in Amberley Village.
Rabbi Isaac M. Wise founded the college in 1875, hoping to guarantee the survival of Judaism in America. The rabbinical school moved to its current campus in 1912, becoming an institution in Clifton.
The Klau Library and the American Jewish Archives – a massive collection of history that local supporters say is matched only by resources in Israel – hold a physical connection to Jewish history.
The Jacob Rader Marcus Center houses the archives, which boast more than 15 million documents on Jewish life. The nearby library holds hundreds of thousands of volumes. That collection includes everything from rare books and ancient scrolls to Bibles, cookbooks and Jewish songs.
'There’s no other place like it in the world,Ä said Brian Jaffee, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in Cincinnati. 'There are books and other materials that were rescued from Nazi Europe. As someone who cares very much about our Jewish story, it’s impossible for me to imagine the library and archives not being here in Cincinnati.'
A group of faculty, alumni and other supporters of the Clifton campus are mobilizing an effort to keep the school open.
Leaders of the campus in Los Angeles are rallying to keep their branch afloat, too.
They argued, in a Los Angeles Times story, that the best arrangement would be to have campuses on each coast.
They pointed to an agreement with the University of Southern California that pays the institute $1.9 million to teach Jewish studies courses. They also alluded to the possibility of USC buying or leasing some of the institute’s property.
'I still think a presence in Los Angeles is essential to the survival and growth of the [Reform] movement in America because L.A. is the second-largest center of Jewish life demographically … and because it’s emerging as an important laboratory of Jewish innovation,' David N. Myers, head of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, told the Times.
Other reorganization efforts might allow more than one campus to remain open. A fourth campus in Jerusalem has not been mentioned in the potential closure talks.
The scenarios will be discussed in more detail when the Board of Governors meets next month in New York. A final decision will be made during a special June 23 board meeting.
Staff writer Eric Bradley contributed to this report." (via Cincinnati.com)

The conference Bund and Borders: German Jewish thinking between Faith and Power will be held from May 17th until May 19th 2009 in the Jewish Museum, Berlin.

Timetable

May 17

18.00 Welcome

18.15 Introduction: Mirjam Wenzel (Jewish Museum Berlin)

18:30–20:30 Evening Session: A German-Jewish Critique?
With: Steven Aschheim (Hebrew Univ.), Amir Eshel (Stanford Univ.), Adi Gordon (Univ. of Wisconsin), Thomas Meyer (Simon Dubnow Institute Leipzig)

20.30–22.00 Reception

May 18

10.00–12.00 Morning Session: German-Jewish Intellectual Positions from Mystical Traditions to Radical Politics
With: Martin Kavka (Florida State Univ.), Eugene Sheppard (Brandeis Univ.), Christian Wiese (Sussex Univ.), Udi Greenberg (Hebrew Univ.), Cilly Kugelmann (Jewish Museum Berlin)

12.00–13.30 Lunch

14.00–16.00 Afternoon Session I: A Jewish Political Theology?
With: Vivian Liska (Univ. of Antwerp), Menachem Lorberbaum (Tel Aviv Univ.), Nitzan Lebovic (Tel Aviv Univ.), Martin Treml (Centre for Literary and Cultural Research, Berlin)

15.00–16.30 Refreshments

16.30–18.30 Afternoon Session II: The Impact of German Jews on Political Culture and Constitutional Issues in Israel
With: Mordechai Kremnitzer (Institute for Democracy Jerusalem), Itzhak Englard (Hebrew Univ. em.), Shai Lavi (Tel Aviv Univ.), Dieter Grimm (Humboldt Univ. em./Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin)

May 19

10.00–12.00: Workshops with Students I
Politics meets Halakhic and Chassidic traditions (with Menachem Loberbaum)
Carl Schmitt and Jacob Taubes (with Martin Treml)

12.30–13.30: Lunch

14.00–16.00: Workshops with Students II
Ethical considerations and aesthetic forms (with Vivian Liska)
An Israeli Constitution? (with Mordechai Kremnitzer)

17.00–18.30: Round Table Discussion: The End of German-Jewish History?
With: Steven Aschheim (Hebrew Univ), Raphael Gross (LBI London, Jewish Museum/Fritz Bauer Institute, Frankfurt a.M.), Martin Kavka (Florida State Univ.), Nitzan Lebovic (Tel Aviv Univ.),Vivian Liska (Univ. of Antwerp), Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (Hamburg Univ.), Mirjam Wenzel (Jewish Museum Berlin)

19.00–19.15: Concluding Remarks

(H-Soz-u-Kult: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/termine/id=11323)

Invitation for all donors of private collections (KStA via Archivalia)
The City of Cologne will invite all donors of private collections and depositaries to the Piazetta in the City Hall on May 11th. The head of the department, Gisela Fleckenstein explains the late date with the task to organize 10 (shelf) m of contracts to find out what the archive holds (held) and who are the depositaries. Fleckenstein says: „In case we forgot somebody, please feel invited.“

Recovery process already finished at the end of May? (KstA via Archivalia)
After a short Easter break, the fire department Cologne and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief continue their work at the collapsed building in Severinstraße. This week the volunteer fire department Aachen is helping. The mountain of rubble decreases every day. “It could be possible that we will be finished at the end of May” notes the speaker of the fire department, Günter Weber, but he also limits: “We do not know exactly how further it goes into the depth.”
A special driller, that transports rock specimens from up to 50 m depth, was used to examine the condition of the ground. “This way you can find out if there is more rubble in the depth“, reports Weber. In the meantime, exvacators pull down the backside of the former CHA building, remains of the reading room and the offices.
Nearly half of the former 30 (shelf) km have been recovered in different conditions. “It will take years to restore and sort the documents“, said Gisela Fleckenstein. “Die several papers and collections are one big mess.“

What do we learn from Cologne Historical Archive's collapse? (Die Welt via Archivalia)
" ..... that we must deal with our history more careful. This is not about a building in Cologne that collapsed but about our historical memory. Therefore this collapse is a societal problem, in which the politics has got more involved. Knowledge and concepts exist, only financing is missing. In general, we need a wider awareness of our archives, for they store our history and make it researchable…” , said Jochen Hermel (Institute for History, University of Bonn; Hermel works on his PhD thesis about integration of migrants to the City of Cologne in the 16th and the beginning 17th century)

Former Summaries
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse XIV, Tuesday March 20th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse XIII, April 2nd 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse XII, March 24th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse XI, March 21th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse X, March 20th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse IX, March 18th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse VIII, March 17th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse VII, March 15th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse VI, March 13th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse V, March 12th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse IV, March 11th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse III, March 10th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse II, March 09th 2009
Summary Cologne Archive's collapse I, March 08 th 2009

SEE ALSO
COLOGNE HISTORICAL ARCHIVE - POSSIBILITIES TO HELP
International Blue Shield Mission

GERMAN
http://archiv.twoday.net/topics/Kommunalarchive

Solidarity group on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=58486607084

In cooperation with the Jewish Museum of Maryland (JMM), the Baltimore Jewish Times is helping to identify unidentified individuals in historical photographs by presenting them on their webpage.

"The Jewish Museum of Maryland has the largest single collection of regional Jewish Americana in the U.S. Our collections include works of art, historical photographs, clothing, ceremonial items, rare books, everyday objects, documents, oral histories, and memorabilia. The collections embody the story of Jewish life in Maryland - immigration, family history, business, congregational and organizational life, leisure, consumption, and contemporary culture." The JMM hosts a searchable database to the museum collections.

From April 30th until May 3rd 2009 the Limmud.de festival will take place for the second time in Germany. "The Festival is to take place in Werbellinsee, north of Berlin, in a large hostel-type facility in a picturesque landscape. The location offers lodging for several hundred participants and many seminar rooms, making it an ideal location for a comprehensive program. The site was founded as a getaway for Young Pioneers (in communist East Germany) and since 1989 has gradually been modified into a vacation and conference centre."

As it is said on Limmud.de webpage:

"Limmud.de is a place...

Everybody who is interested in participating check out the Limmud.de website.

"The Jewish Art Salon (New York) is an open and unique inter-disciplinary group of artists. We meet informally once every four weeks to discuss our work, life, the Jewish themes inherent in our work and the multiplicity of impetus and inspiration for our work. We engage in interactive dialogues that address important and provocative issues facing our society.
We are dedicated to the preservation of an open forum where all opinions and viewpoints are listened to and respected. Together, we are working to create a Jewish art community where work and issues are discussed and information and resources are shared.
Seeing a need for such a forum, Yona Verwer, visual artist, and Holly Wolf, writer, convened the group along with co-founders Laura Kruger, curator of the HUC-JIR Museum, Richard McBee, visual artist and art critic, and David Wander, visual artist."

From May 2009 two titles edited by the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute (Leipzig) will be published online:

1) Die rheinischen Juden im Mittelalter
2) Jüdische Friedhöfe in Deutschland – Eine Einführung für Lehrer und Schüler

For more information on the titles see section Mitteilungen of Kalonymos I, 2009

A PDF-version of the Kedem Auction House is available online. It includes not only a list of the 529 titles for sale but also an index and front covers of selected items.

"Kedem Auction House was established in 2008 by Meron Eren, Avishay Geller and Eran Reiss. The owners have been dealing for many years with antique Jewish books and manuscripts, and items related to the history and culture of the Jewish people. Avishay specialized in Religious books (Sifrei Kodesh) and rabbinical manuscripts, while Meron and Eran specialized in modern day Jewish history and culture." (Kedem Auction House website)

From 5th until 12th May 2009 the conference European Jewry: A New Jewish Centre in the Making? will be held in the Mendelssohn-Remise (Berlin). The conference is organized by the Moses Mendelssohn Centre (Potsdam) in cooperation with Klal Israel Project (Tel Aviv University).

Timetable:

19:30 Roundtable Discussion: The Future of European Jewry

(via H-Soz-u-Kult: http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/termine/id=11320)

International Blue Shield mission: 27 APRIL TO 1 MAY
Wednesday, 15 April 2009 09:09
http://www.ancbs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=98:international-blue-shield-mission-27-april-to-1-may-&catid=14:past-news&Itemid=29

EVERY ARCHIVIST, RESTORER OR HERITAGE PROFESSIONAL WHO IS WILLING TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS MISSION IS KINDLY BUT URGENTLY REQUESTED TO RESPOND AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE BY SENDING A REPLY EMAIL TO CONTACT@ANCBS.ORGThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it WITH THE CONTACT DETAILS REQUESTED BELOW.

International Blue Shield mission: 27 APRIL TO 1 MAY

Dear Colleagues,

The new Blue Shield international coordination center in The Hague received a request for support from Cologne, which we distributed among our relations and Dutch Archive institutes and professionals. We have received many responses from those who want to help.

Together with the National Archive and the Dutch Branch organization of Archive institutes (BRAIN) we made an inventory of people and institutes willing to help. Their offers keep coming in. We have received many responses from The Netherlands, but also from Belgium, France, the United States and the Czech Republic. In the first week of April a delegation went to Cologne to see how best to coordinate offers of assistance. The staff in Cologne gave us a warm welcome and we obtained detailed information and a thorough impression of the work that is in progress.

The delegation was very much impressed by the work that has been done so far. The process of searching and finding the material is taking place under extremely dangerous and difficult circumstances. It is therefore a tremendous achievement to have made such progress. It has not only surprised us it has also surprised the staff and volunteers of the Archive. The planning has been revised several times and has greatly progressed. The prognoses are that the first phase of the recovery process (separating material, storage, registration, first aid to the objects like cleaning and drying or preparing for further treatment) needs one more month, so this will end even before the summer holidays.

The delegation was also very impressed by the determination and the motivation of everyone at work. After a month of stress and extremely long working hours spirits seem unbroken, though the fatigue is showing. Firemen are still the only ones working on the slope, because of the dangerous conditions. They have a whole team working day in day out and they will stay until the slope is gone.

A coordinated mission is needed as soon as possible. It will be most helpful in this first phase of the recovery process if several teams work at the same time and on the same location. In accordance with the staff in Cologne we therefore decided to reschule schedule our mission for 27 APRIL TO 1 MAY. A coordinated mission will save time and energy for the Archive staff,who must make the necessary arrangements for each individual volunteer, including booking the accommodation, introduction, transport, etc.)

To prepare the mission we needed some time. We are fully aware that all professionals who indicated their willingness to help will need some time too and may have difficulty matching a busy agenda with this unforeseen early departure. Because of this we hereby call on every professional, whether they have already indicated their interest to join us or are deciding to do so, to support our hardworking colleagues of Cologne and make this first international Blue Shield mission a success.

International Blue Shield mission: 27 APRIL TO 1 MAYApplication:

send a completed (see below) reply email to the Blue Shield coordination Center in The Hague: contact@ancbs.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Date: Monday, 27 April to 1 May (Note: 1 May is a holiday).

Tasks: Sorting material (rubble/collection), select dry and wet materials, clean, register, dry partly wet material and prepare other material for freeze-drying at other locations.

Transport to Cologne: A touring car will depart from The Hague on Monday morning, the 27th of April and will return on the 1st of May. All participants are welcome to join us, since there will be no charge for this. This service will not be beneficial to all participants (f.e. from other countries), whom we regret must arrange and pay for their own transport.

Transport within Cologne: Transport by shuttle bus from accomodation to the work locations will be arranged free of charge by the city of Cologne.

Accommodation: The city of Cologne offers all volunteers free accomodation, food, and beverages. May 1st is a holiday for the Archive. The touring car will return to The Hague in the afternoon to enable participants to visit Cologne.

Insurance: The city of Cologne has provided the Archive with insurance for all volunteers.More information: Please visit our website http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.ancbs.org or attend our presentations (see below), in which we will provide you with more info about the actual situation in Cologne, the working conditions, tasks and facilities for the volunteers.

Monday April 20: The Hague, Nationaal Archief, Auditorium, 16.00 - 17.30 hrs.

Tuesday April 21: Nijmegen, Regionaal Archief Nijmegen,16.00 -17.30 hrs.

Saturday April 25 :s Hertogenbosch, Restauratiebeurs, 12.00 -13.00 hrs. the big theater----------------------------------------------------------------
Please fill in and send by return email to contact@ancbs.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
YES / NO / NOT SURE Participate in the Blue Shield mission of Monday 27 April to Friday 1 May.
YES / NO Participate in the Blue Shield meeting at the Nationaal Archief
YES / NO Participate in the Blue Shield meeting at the Regionaal Archief Nijmegen
YES / NO Participate in the Blue Shield meeting at the Restauration fair in 's HertogenboschInstitution
Institution (Please send only one application form with all the names, if several members of your institute will join the mission):

.....................................................................
(Name(s): 1. .............................
2.................................
Etc. ...........................
Contact details: .........................................................................................................

Phonenumber (06 / direct).........................................
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On behalf of BRAIN, Nationaal Archief en Blue Shield,
Marjan Otter
Secretary ANCBS
00 31 (0)20 4632342

Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield (ANCBS)
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"This April 24-26, 2009, students from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College, and the Illinois Institute of Technology will present “Chai-Art”, a collection of works exploring Jewish Identity. “Chai” (pronounced “high”) is the Hebrew word for life, and echoes the mission of Hillels Around Chicago: to foster vibrant Jewish life in a welcoming and pluralistic atmosphere.
The title also plays off the term 'High Art', often used to distinguish traditional art disciplines from craft and the decorative arts.
Student artists were asked to approach their work from a Jewish perspective. 'What does it mean to be a Jewish artist? What does it mean to be a Jew?' Explained Erin Jones, Program Director of Hillel Arts in the Loop, 'Art can be an invaluable way of processing these questions of identity and purpose.” Hillel Arts in the Loop challenges students to express their histories, ethnicities, and identities through fine arts, performance, writing, and new media.' (via JUF News)

The Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin presents between April 5th and June 29th 2009 the first retrospective of the photographer Liselotte Grschebina (1908-1994) in the framework of the Berliner Festspiele. The exhibition shows 100 photographs taken between 1929 and the 1940s in Germany and Palestine:
"Liselotte Grschebina, née Billigheimer, was born the daughter of a Karlsruhe merchant on 2 May 1908. When she was six years old, her father was killed while serving at the front in the First World War. From 1925 to 1928 she studied at the Baden Art School in Karlsruhe (now a state academy). Upon graduating in 1929 she herself taught photography there until 1931. A year later she opened her own studio under the name of “Bilfoto”, specializing in advertising photography and children’s portraits. Her independence did not last long, as the Nazi seizure of power forced her to close her studio. In March 1934 she and her husband left for Palestine, where they settled in Tel Aviv.
The present retrospective reveals the art of a young woman who in the period of the Weimar Republic was inspired by the New Sobriety (Neue Sachlichkeit). The Neue Sachlichkeit was distinguished by clarity of form and structure and the beauty of simple things. At the same time it had a documentary character, which concentrated on the essence of an object. Grschebina developed this style further in her new home in Palestine and integrated her work with that of the influential group of German photographers, who came with the fifth wave of immigration (Hebrew: aliyah) and settled mainly in Tel Aviv." (Gropius-Bau website)

Hachaim Hajehudim is an internet photo library of over 15,000 pictures showing exteriors and interiors of synagogues, people, stained glass, Tallitot & Kippot, Siddurim & Toroth, Holocaust memorials, cemeteries as well as architecure details from 80 countries. All photos were taken by Jono David, "a British-American (born, May 1966) freelance photographer and writer based in Osaka, Japan." He wrote about the project on the website:

"In the autumn of 1987, I read an article about the Jewish community of Manaus, Brazil. A synagogue in the Amazon struck me as most unexpected. The story intrigued me enough to add a visit there to my South American travel itinerary during my year-end university recess.
My close friend, Heidi, and I managed to find the synagogue and a few members of the community. Later, I published “One Man’s Fight to Keep Judaism Alive in the Amazon” in the The Jewish Telegraph in the UK. Neither the text nor the photographs were well polished but I was thrilled to have documented for myself the Amazonian community I had been introduced to in a newspaper in Washington, D.C.
Those experiences unwittingly sparked a commitment to visiting and photographing Jewish communities of the world that continues to this day (please see Mission).
Perhaps my biggest discovery of all is this: While each Jewish community is unique, all are bound by common threads of cultural identity. Hence, a visit to a Jewish community in even the most unexpected places like Manaus is somehow familiar. With few exceptions, I have been warmly welcomed by these communities, even when I arrived unannounced. Such welcomes are testament to the ties that bind Jews the world over together.
It is a privilege to have a sense of belonging in places where I am otherwise a mere stranger. The remarkable people that I have met along the way have made that possible. They have generously given me their time, secured access to synagogues, cemeteries, and museums, guided me round their towns and villages, and fed me in their homes."

“It is important to keep the images available for public access for future researchers and historians,” Jono David cited in Photographer includes Portland in online library of Jewish images (Jewish Review, April 6, 2009)

The German newspaper Spiegel published in its online version the brief article Experte fordert Ende der Raubkunst Debatte [expert ask to end the debate about looted art] today. It includes information based on an interview with the long-standing curator of the Royal Academy of Arts (London) - Sir Norman Rosenthal:

"'Unfassbar Furchtbares ist geschehen. Wie wollen Sie das vergeben? Indem Sie einen Tizian einpacken?', sagte der langjähriger Kurator der Royal Academy in London im SPIEGEL-Interview. Er verstehe, dass sich viele Museumsdirektoren nicht nur in Deutschland gegen Restitutionsansprüche wehren, sagte Rosenthal, der selbst aus einer jüdischen Emigrantenfamilie stammt. Seine Mutter flüchtete aus Deutschland. [...] Bei der ganzen Diskussion müsse man im Auge behalten, dass der Kunstmarkt in den vergangenen Jahren explodiert sei und Begehrlichkeiten geweckt habe. "Die Leute, die da mitverdienen wollen, erinnern mich an Aasgeier", sagte er dem SPIEGEL. Oft genug werde ein Bild sofort nach der Restitution veräußert, 'und so mancher Anwalt erhält 50 Prozent des Erlöses'."

Rosenthal, one of the main critics of restitution processes was also cited in the online version of the NEW YORK Jewish Week on April 1, 2009:

"If we were still in 1950 and the people who owned the Manet or the Monet were still alive, then it would surely be correct to give these paintings back [...] but not now and not to grandchildren and great-grandchildren"


For more information on looted art

http://www.lootedart.com/ (site contains a information database on looted art from forty nine countries and a object database with which contains details of 25,000 objects)

http://www.beutekunst.de/ (pilot project, at the moment information on looted art in Saxony-Anhalt)

Operation Head Quarter and Center for Rescue at the scene (Erstversorgungszentrum) report success (Press service city of Cologne March 31, 2009 via Archivalia)
Four weeks after intensive recovery and rescue work at the collapsed Cologne Historical Archive (CHA), a measurable success shows.
There will be more documents rescued from the rubble than assumed before. The fire department carted off 5.224 tons of rubble on 371 truck loadings yesterday. The staff of the CHA (Erstversorgungszentrum) reported that seven (shelf) km of material had been recovered at the scene.
Together with three (shelf) km stored in the cellar of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium and one (shelf) km stored in the not collapsed part of the cellar, 11 (shelf) km archive inventory survived so far. Before the collapse, the CHA building hosted 30 (shelf) km material.
The recovered material is in most different condition. Priority is the restoring „first aid“ and the appropriate storage until the recovery work is finished. Many volunteers from all over Germany did and still do valuable work on this which will be needed in the following months.
The City of Cologne considers preferred experts like archivists, conservators and related fields. An appropriate restoration can only be done in future times.

A new podcast Leon Merrick: Importance of Work in the Lodz Ghetto is available on U.S. Holcaust Memorial Museum website.

"Everybody had to have a job. Because if you had a job you get an extra bowl of soup in the place of wherever you work. So my father worked in the main hospital, we had five hospitals in the ghetto. They were clinics before the war, but then the Jews came in when they formed the ghetto, so they made a hospital. And my father worked in the hospital and my mother got a job in the orphanage. And of course later on, in a couple years or so, I wanted to get a job too. I’d seen these young fellows going around with satchels delivering mail so I told my father, “Maybe I can do…maybe I can do this.”
But later on, so for the first year and a half I had no jobs. My mother worked, and from the place of employment she got an extra bowl of soup so she can share the remaining ration with us. My father he also worked, he also got some food." (fragment of the transcript)

(via USHMM@Twitter)