The Jewish Revival in Europe and North America: Between Lifestyle Judaism and Institutional Renaissance

I’ll be taking part in this conference, presenting a paper called: Jewish. Jewish? “Jewish” Jewish!

Screening and lecture by director Lee Bidgood, American Center at the American Embassy, Prague

Banjo Jamboree Festival, C

White Stork Festival, Luka nad Jihlavou

Screening and lecture by director Lee Bidgood, Moravian Library, Brno

I’m taking part in this panel discussion at the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival

Jewish places in Poland, almost moribund after the war, have become increasingly popular among tourists over the last two decades, and their past is becoming meaningful to their present residents. Their visage is highly differentiated, from fields of rubble built over with new structures as at the site of the former Jewish district in Warsaw, through extant streets with hardly any Jews in them, as in the case of Kazimierz in Krakow. In the first case there is a danger that the new identity of a place will replace the old, and in the second that the old will be transformed into a Disneyland fantasy. How to speak about these identities, and how to present them to residents and visitors?

The issue will be discussed by:

I’ll be taking part in a wide-ranging discussion with the anthropologist Annamaria Orla Bukowska, during the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival.

The web site http:www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu is a growing online resource that aggregates links, runs a regular newsfeed, publishes long articles and features many other Jewish heritage resources for 48 European countries. A project of the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe, JHE aims to facilitate communication and information exchange regarding projects, initiatives and other developments concerning Jewish heritage and Jewish heritage sites: restoration, funding, ongoing projects, best-practices, advisory services, tourism, genealogy, & more. It also aims to foster contacts among Jewish communities, private individuals or bodies, foundations, state and civic organizations, monuments protection authorities and other stakeholders and interested parties. As JHE