I want to draw attention to the online presentation about the Turey Zahav, or Golden Rose, synagogue in L'viv, prepared by my friend Sergey Kravtsov and others at the Center for Jewish Art in Jerusalem and posted on the Center's web site.
Not only does the presentation give a history of the synagogue, which was destroyed in WW2 and remains in ruins, but it includes a virtual reconstruction of it -- layer by layer, renovation/reconstruction by renovation, showing how the building changed over time.
It also presents the building, originally constructed in the late 16th century, in the context of other synagogues and monumental buildings of the time in what is now western Ukraine, and provides information on the architects who designed and built them.
I had an experience last week that threw into even sharper relief the contradictions of caricature and irony found in the insider vs outsider use of Jewish stereotypes.
I was in Florence for a very interesting and wide-ranging conference on representations of Jews in European popular culture, organized by young scholars at the European University Institute in nearby Fiesole.
Before the official start of the conference, a group of us visited Florence's synagogue and the Jewish museum housed in its women's gallery. The synagogue is a stately Moorish-style structure with an ornate interior and towering green dome. A grandiose symbol of Jewish emancipation, it was designed by the architects Marco Treves, Mariano Falcini and Vincenzo Micheli and inaugurated in 1882.
The Jewish museum is on two levels -- the lower level is mainly a display of Judaica. The upper level was revamped and reopened last year as a multi-media history exhibit using objects, panels, sound and projected images to tell the story of the Jewish community in Florence.
Florence Jewish Museum. Photo (c) R. E. Gruber
After visiting the museum, I stopped in the gift shop (I love museum gift shops.) It's small, but has a lot on offer -- jewelry, ritual objects, stationery, etc. All seemed rather expensive, but, with Hanukkah gifts on my mind, I found a nice little pair of earrings for €15.
I wanted to get another piece, apparently made by the same designer. The saleswoman showed me a pendant -- for €20.
I didn't want to spend that much, I told her. Her response was immediate. "What would you like to pay? How much do you want to spend?"
Well, the earrings were only €15 -- I didn't want to spend more than that.
"OK -- €15 -- the pendant is yours!"
Damn, I thought. She gave me 1/4 off, just like that. I could have got it for less!
Then I thought about the last place I had come into contact with a reference to bargaining in a Jewish context -- the "At the Golden Rose" cafe in L'viv, where no prices were put on the menu so that patrons could haggle ("like Jews") as to what they would pay...
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As for the conference -- I will try to write something on it later. For now, you can see the program by clicking HERE.
Here's a link to a terrific web site about Jewish modernist architects in Germany and their work, linked to a publication as the Pentagram Papers 37. It's based on the work of the late Haifa-born architect and scholar Myra Warhaftig, who published extensive material about them in her book, German Jewish Architects Before and After 1933: The Lexicon.
Little is known anymore about the more than 450 Jewish architects who were active in Germany before 1933 -- in November of that year, Jews were banned from the state-run artists guild, membership in which was mandatory in order for an architect to work. The web site examines 43 of them, providing biographical information and posting pictures of some of their buildings, many of which are still standing.
Another web site devoted to these architects also arranges walking tours to some of their buildings.
“The Jewish architect wanted to show his achievement in the forefront, and to create a new form of building that people would accept,” she told the author of the article, David Sokol.
“Berlin was a living architecture exhibition,” Warhaftig said of the interwar period. “After Weimar, Berlin was flourishing culturally. Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and other modernists were looking for a peaceful and social world, and wished to express their ideas in architecture. I think the majority of Jewish architects chose to settle in Berlin to prove that anti-Semitism would no longer play a role in their lives.”
Jewish architects were active in the modernist movement in many countries.
In the interwar period several synagogues were designed or remodeled in the modernist style by Jewish or non-Jewish architects.
These include the synagogue currently in use in Brno, Czech Republic (designed by Otto Eisler in the 1930s - you can read my article about modernist architecture in Brno in general by clicking here), that in Zilina, Slovakia (built in 1929-1931 and designed by the Berlin architect Peter Behrens), the remodeled synagogue in the Smichov district of Prague (built in 1863, remodeled in modernist/Functionalist style in 1931 by Leopold Ehrmann), and the synagogue currently in use in Rijeka, Croatia (built in 1928 and designed by Gyozo Angyal and Pietro Fabbro).
Synagogue in Smichov district of Prague, 2008. Now the archive of the Prague Jewish Museum. Photo (c) R. E. Gruber
I just checked the web site that was advertising an "Anne Frank apartment" where you could "live like Anne Frank" (and which I wrote about on this blog and in a Ruthless Cosmopolitan column).... the site still advertises the apartment, but I'm happy to report that it no longer is named after Anne Frank, nor does it use its tasteless advertising come-on....
Several of the Jewish members of "The Other Europeans" project are in Moldova, traveling around the country to explore the lautari musical tradition.
I'm not on the trip -- but Bob Cohen is writing about it, with photos, on his blog -- he has posted some striking photographs of some of the Jewish traces in the town of Edinets, including its Jewish cemetery.
The Other Europeans project, directed by Alan Bern, is an intercultural dialogue exploring Yiddish and Roma music, culture and identity. It joins together Roma and Yiddish musicians -- they are exploring how music stemming from the same general place (mainly Moldova) is transformed by two parallel but related traditions.
I posted some material on the project this summer -- I took part in a symposium held at the start of the annual Yiddish Summer Weimar festival, and I heard the initial concerts by the two music groups, at Weimar and at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow.
The boat was waiting for us when we reach the Jetty.
The boat ride was in our package, we were requested the boat man to drop us at the Kukup Island Jetty. (Please remember to take the mobile phone number of the boatman, once you finish the walk at the island....give them a call, and they will pick you up and return to Kukup)
Along the way, the boatman became our Tour Guide! He was good in explaining about Kukup village and the history behind. He's also trying to sell some souvenirs, but you can reject it if you don't like it.
The new Kukup Jetty
Scenic view of Kukup
His name is 'Ah Long', he was the boatman and 'Tour Guide'.
It's just less than 10 minutes ride, we reached the Kukup Island Jetty. Kukup Island is an island entirely covered by mangrove forest and surrounded by mudflats - the mudflats extend up to a few kilometres on the West and Northwest of the island. There is currently no human habitation or man made structures on the island.
In order to promote preservation of this unique mangrove habitat, Kukup Island is designated as a Ramsar site (or otherwise known as a Wetlands of International Importance) on 31 January 2003, it is also protected as a national park under the Johor State Park Corporation Enactment 1989 since 27 March 1997.....for more info, please click here.
The mangrove also become a rubbish trap during high tide. I think it will be much easier to clean at the mangrove area rather than the sea.
The first stop, the Suspension Bridge. It's about 10 - 15 meter height. (No fear!)
The washroom located at the ground level.
The stretch after the Suspension Bridge. I love the view over here...
For rent, but not the guy....
Snake River
The staff of Kukup Island National Park Corporation
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
During the high tide, most of the Mangrove Crab escape from the water to the tree....
The Mangrove Tree around the area...
Old Logging Settlement
I noticed along the way, you will see many signage......but some of them, I can't understand....will you?
The way which lead us to the 'Observation Tower'.
It's about 5-10 minutes walk, you reach the Tower.
Too bad it's under maintenance! What a MISS! Look at the ribbon block the way to the top of the tower.
The Mudskipper around the area...
That's finish our trip to Kukup Island. We waited about 10 minutes at the jetty for the boat to bring us to the next stop - The Kelong.
They are total of 72 Kelong along the Kukup sea... On the Kelong(N1°19.500' E103°26.367'), they are selling some dried foods, you will also experience touching the small Shark and other fish over there. We spent about 30 minutes on it, and going back to Kukup for our Seafood lunch....
The dishes were delicious!! I forgot to snap the fish, because I'm too hungry! :) Among all, the chili crab was the Best!
Our package :- * Adult : MYR80.00 (Inclusive of 2 seafood lunch, 1 seafood dinner and a simple breakfast) * Children : ?? ( Ops! I forgot) If you come with more peoples, the package price will be more cheaper. Basically it's between MYR75.00 to MYR150.00.
If you are interested to goto Kukup, you can contact this guy : Mr Gay Kui Seng (Ah Seng) with his mobile phone number : +6-012-7657463
Some history of Kukup..... The District which is now known as PONTIAN, was called KUKUP or KUKUB with its administrative center located somewhere near the present harbour in Kukup Laut. In those ancient time, the West Coast of Johor, from Kukup to Benut was the stop and rest place of the sea pirates based in the Straits of Kukup. They stationed and based at the river mouths of the Perhentian Besar River, and the Perhentian Kechil River. (In Malay "Perhentian" means Stopping Place (Mooring Place), "Besar" means big, "Kechil" means small, and "Sungai" means river.) These two rivers were then called the Pontian Besar River (Sungai Pontian Besar) and Pontian Kechil River (Sungai Pontian Kechil). Thus it was obvious that the name PONTIAN, came from the Malay word Perhentian meaning the Stoping Place (mooring place)....for more, please click here.
About Kukup :-
This is an old fishing village with history of a century old. Its unique of a fishing village built entirely on stilts above the sea, linked by concrete jetty from house to house. As recent statistic shown, this old fishing village is occupied by some 1,000 residents wholly from the Chinese race. Out of a total of 172 houses, about 57 are used as Holiday Chalets. The village will be flooded with flow of tourists on Saturdays and Sundays. Tourists especially from Singapore like to tour and stay here in groups very frequently because of the economic and cheap expenditures, warm hospitality and many interesting places to be visited. Source from here....
To us, this place is a Good Breakaway from your stressful city life. I will definitely visit here more often if time allow.....
The only comment I have : The way they discharges everything direct to the sea!! It's really bad and polluted!
In addition to this Jewish Heritage blog, I maintain a blog on the Imaginary Wild West.
This video -- "Brokeback Dreidel" -- encompasses both:
"Brokeback Dreidel" is a delight -- as Ari Davidow said on his Klezmer Shack blog, it raises the bar on funny Hanukkah videos. It also shows how stereotypes (gay, Jewish, cowboy and otherwise) can have different meanings (and elicit different responses) in different contexts. (I love how the line dancing turns into a hora...)
If you look closely, you will see one (or maybe more) of the singers in the video wearing a (kosher) cowboy hat with fake sidelocks that is remarkably similar to the hats with fake sidelocks provided at the Golden Rose "Jewish" cafe in L'viv for patrons to try on and joke with.
In the essay, I described how I own several miniature figurines of Jews -- two marzipan "Yeshiva bochers" that I bought at a kosher pastry shop in Budapest, and a tiny "Jew" clutching a coin that was given out as a sort of party favor to guests at the "Jewish style" Anatewka restaurant in Lodz, Poland. The figures all are caricaturish, but the bochers were destined for an internal (Jewish) market, and the little Jewish man was destined for mainly non-Jewish (Polish) consumers.
Boundaries between insider and outsider, believer and non-believer, devotee and ironic observer can sharply delineate the differences between kitsch and caricature, art and artifice, stereotype and homage. But perspectives shift, and the boundaries often blur. The images and their meaning are often decidedly in the eye of the beholder. And they are frequently dictated by changing religious realities, philo-Semitic, often engineered nostalgia, and the powerful exigencies of the marketplace.
Many of the markers identified with Jewishness have religious overtones that have long laid the basis for both anti-Semitic stereotypes and nostalgic yearning for the "authentic" Jewish experience of the East European shtetl.
Signs and symbols of Jewish holidays and domestic observance, and the beards, side curls, black hats, yarmulkas, fringes and other outward trappings of the traditional orthodox or Chasidic Jew spell "Jewish" -- even to Jews -- in a way that, for example, the physical attributes of Jews such as the actress Natalie Portman or the actor Kirk Douglas do not. A case in point is a T-shirt sold online at the www.judaicaheaven.com web site. It features the slogan "Don't Worry, Be Jewish" under a big yellow "smiley face" that is topped by a kippah and long, dangling earlocks. The image, the web site states "shows off Jewish pride." Likewise, I was told recently by a friend that when the Chabad Lubavitch Chasidic movement set up a stand at Budapest's huge annual "Sziget" music festival a couple years ago, its display included a life-sized figure of a Chasid, with a hole cut where the face should be. Visitors could insert their own faces into the image and have themselves photographed in full Chasidic regalia, that is, as a "Jew."
Where does "Brokeback Dreidel" fit in? It's a gay, wild west parody of a Jewish song, loaded with layer upon layer of pop-culture reference....to Brokeback Mountain and beyond. The audience is clearly not all Jewish -- nor it is all gay. But they are all clearly "in the know." (The group also parodies other songs, including "Jingle Bells" and 1980s ABBA hits...). The parody is American, in an American pop culture scene where -- as Sam put it -- there is so much real Judaism, and so much reliable information about Jews is available. But it's also an American scene where parody, gay, Jewish, self- or otherwise, is something of a way of life.
a whole subculture of American Christians for whom Judeo-philia goes far beyond simple Christian Zionism.
This means
selling items associated with Jewish culture to Christians: shofars, mezuzahs, menorahs (engraved with a Star of David merged with a Christian “ichthus” sign), Kiddush cups, tambourines (”mentioned in Psalms”) and, in particular, Tallit prayer shawls
The phenomena have a lot of outward similarities. But at heart, what I was describing (i.e. the "Jewish cafe" and tourism scene in mainly Jew-less, post-Holocaust, post-Communist Europe) is quite different, as, in large part, there is little -- if any -- actual religious identification involved by now. The virtually Jewish scene as a whole in Europe does encompass people who were drawn by their sense of religious or spiritual connection, and I go into these aspects in my book Virtually Jewish Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe.
It would be very interesting to carry out a more in depth investigation into the reasons that non-Jewish customers are now drawn to the Jewish-style cafe scene, to see how much of the motivation comes from religious or spiritual interest. The "Please Respond" public art project carried out this past summer by the anthropologist Erica Lehrer, Stephanie Rowden, and graphic designer Hannah Smotrich may contribute to an understanding of this.
I have only recently come across the Bartholomew's Notes blog. But it turns out that Richard Bartholomew and I actually have been published together -- we both contributed chapter-essays to the 2005 book Gerüchte über die Juden Antisemitismus, Philosemitismus und aktuelle Verschwörungstheorien, (Klartext Verlag: Essen), edited by Hanno Lowy, the director of the Jewish Museum in Hohenems, Austria. Bartholomew's essay was on Christian Zionism; mine was on Jewish Kitsch and Kitschy Jews.
, pp. 235-254 (Translated from my unpublished English text, “‘A Curiously Cold Affection‘: Christian Zionism, Philo-Semitism and ‘The Jew’”).
It has been a while since we last met; I have been rather busy lately… (Yes, with the CRISIS.) Grrrr, what a gloomy word.There’s truth to it for sure and things are changing as we speak, but some of this ‘crisis’ is also inflated by the media to such a towering extent that sometimes I open the newspapers and feel the world has come to a full standstill and there is no way back or forth. There basically seems to be no other remedy than hide in our cellars and hope for a miracle to get us out of this mess. (Or that is what the media want us to believe because they are actually making money of this...)
I want to share with you two thoughts that I think are relevant in times like these. One is about the phenomena known as the “self-fulfilling prophecy” and the other is about the real face of this crisis.
The Self-fulfilling Prophecy of the Argentine Economy
Here in Argentina the local economy has developed a pretty strange tendency; it crashes around every 7 years, like really hard, then rapidly recovers, returns to pre-crash levels in no-time, overheats in a blink and then falls flat on its face before anyone notices (well, most people at least), only to roll over and begin the same process again. It seems we are following a somewhat biblical routine here, which has now become commonplace in Argentine society. So much has this jittery economic movement taken place in the hearts and minds of most Argentines that pre-crash capital flights caused by those fearing the next hit basically cause it to happen. The circle has become complete and everyone’s worst fears come true over and over again because hardly anyone here still believes that things could go any differently. The idea of economic stability is simply not logged into people’s minds here and therefore nobody will give that thought and -thus that potential reality- a chance. I will not go into the theories about this actually being a controlled economic movement; anyone who has been here for more than a week can come to their own conclusions. What I want to say is this: if you allow yourself to give away control over your life to your biggest fears, they will eventually take over and that what you dread the most will become your reality. It is as simple as that.
The Real Face of the Crisis
As you can see on our sites, we are a proud ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents) member and yesterday I read an interesting article in ASTA’s Smartbrief, based on a lecture given by World Leisure Partners’ Chairman and CEO Adam Aron that I want to share with you. To me his speech was:
·Inspiring, because it confirmed my belief that in times like these, when the going gets tough, it is positive, pro-activeness that will pull you through. These are challenging times, sure, but when did anyone decide that a good challenge should be backed away from? I mean, these are the times we can really prove ourselves, focus on doing our absolute best and showing ourselves and the outside world what we are; a company with vision, a team with heart, a continent with passion, a place to recharge your batteries.
·Relieving, because after having read so much negative, sad and sorry stories about banks sliding, companies going bankrupt, people being laid off by the thousands and international travel bookings going down (which is of course the only thing that really interests us here!), for a moment I almost believed them, the commercial journalists that will prey on anything that smells like “crisis” these days, as that seems to be the only thing anyone wants to read about. To my great dismay, because even though I am reading about it as much as I can myself, I am constantly looking for positive signals, stuff I can use to help navigate our little company through the so-called storm. The mainstream media, however, seem to want us to wallow in distress for a little while longer. That is why it was a relief to read Mr. Aron’s take on things.
·Reassuring as it put me back in the driver’s seat of my reality, where I almost thought I had no control anymore, almost felt as if we were going to slide like everybody else and would need a miracle to be saved… BS my friends, really, and pardon my French, but we are in charge of our lives, or our work, of our reality and there are tons and tons of things we can do to take this situation and make it work for us.
Let me give you a short excerpt of what Mr. Aron said: (here goes the condensed version of the text I just sent you)
In this era of 24/7 news cycles, the current bad economic news gets magnified.
"Doom and gloom," said Aron, is what the media lives for -- so expect them to wallow in it as long as they can.
"The media will tell you that this recession will be the worst and the longest because things are different now and unlike other times, this time the doom and gloom is permanent."
He added: "In every recession that I have seen, that is always what the media says...but we always get out of it."
And they also say the boom times will never end, added Aron, recalling how a few years ago a Wall Street Journal article waxed optimistic that the business cycle had been eliminated because economists had figured it out.
There is a reason for business cycles, said Aron.
"Think about your own businesses. In the good times, we all get a little sloppy and take on more risk and don't watch pennies quite as closely as we are now."
Businesses hire more people than they really need, take risks they should not be taking and take on new costs that aren't justified.
"What happens is that fat, inefficiency, waste and risk creep into the system, because millions of businesses are doing this at the same time."
Eventually, the economy can't sustain the inefficiencies and outsized risks and "so it crashes," said Aron.
"Usually, there is a catalyst of some sort and clearly [in this cycle] the banks were lending money to people who should not have had such loans. Companies were leveraged way too much and individuals were taking on too much debt and the weight of all that crashed the system in a big way -- and quickly."
Aron recalled that last May and June everything was fine, but come September, "Armageddon was around the corner."
And just as in boom times, the actions of millions of businesses cutting costs to adjust to the downturn and consumers cutting back on spending all at the same time, threw the economy into recession.
Then at some "mystical point" after millions and millions of businesses and individuals have cut waste and costs, the economy "rises from the ashes."
The remarkable thing is that there is a simple explanation for the business cycle but you cannot predict how or when it will turn upward, said Aron.
But there have been benefits in the recent difficult times and a major one is the drop in the price of oil.
"Think of what a boon that is to the economy. Think how beneficial that is for consumers who were being stretched in July."
Aron did have a forecast: "As sure as we're sitting here, two years from now things will be rosy again" because downturns are usually six to 24 months long and good times three to six years.
Nice eh? A different and most definitely more realistic view, more pragmatic, more my way at least.
I hope I have managed to give you an idea of how I see this: we make our own reality and are capable to turn things in any direction we damn well please. Our brain is not much more than a (highly sophisticated; ok!) muscle which we train to send our body certain stimuli that make us walk, for example. Or sit behind a keyboard and write a piece of text and throw it online. Or read it. And when we read that piece of text (written by someone else for whatever reason) we have a free choice to take that information for granted or to reflect on it and make a proper decision on how it is we want to experience it, and what we want to do with it. And that in the end will greatly influence the way we live our lives… So my message to you today is this: Why don’t you put the paper aside today and get out there, play with your kids, score some goals, make some friends, have some fun, do some dancing in the rain (and look how the US Dollar is slowly gaining strength against the Argentine Peso and plan your next trip here! J).Two years from now this will all be behind us and things will be going boringly well again.For now let’s look at this crisis and make the best of it!
