Selection of Activities of Menorah in 2007

The year 2007 was very active period for the Jewish Heritage Foundation – Menorah. In 2007, we directly or indirectly participated to several successful events. Among educational activities we proceeded with organization of lectures in the Bratislava Jewish community with lecturers Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein (London) and Julian Voloj (New York). The annual celebration of the Pesach Holiday (seder), which was held on 3 April 2007, was also supported by Menorah.
In 2007, an extensive book monograph by Dr. Maroš Borský “Synagogue Architecture in Slovakia: A Memorial Landscape of a Lost Community“ (ISBN 978-80-969720-0-5) was published. This 150 pages book composed in English is the first of its kind in Slovakia and therefore it was warmly welcomed by the Slovak and foreign public. The Menorah co-financed also publication “Jewish Minority in the History of Slovakia and Vranov District” (ISBN: 80-969820-3-5) by the local historian Martin Lupčo. The book published by municipality of Vranov nad Topľou covers history of Jews in Vranov nad Topľou and in eastern Slovakia.
Menorah sponsored also a small project aimed at documentation of a private collection of photographs “The Sixth Battalion“. This precious photographic archive belongs to the veteran of the Jewish armed resistance movement, Mr. Alexander Bachnár. Personal testimony of Mr. Bachnár and the photographic archive was processed by curator of the Museum of the Jewish Culture, Dr. Martin Korčok, for further scientific use in the future.

In cooperation with Bratislava Jewish community we established the professional institute Slovak Jewish Heritage Center with Dr. Maroš Borský in the position of the executive director. The broad scope of its activities encompass research, documentation and site monitoring, education, promotion, and consulting, with goal of preservation of the Jewish heritage in Slovakia. The opening event was the photographic exhibition „Synagogue architecture in Slovakia“a joint-project of the Slovak Jewish Heritage Centre and Museum of the Jewish culture. The exhibition took place in the main building of the Slovak National Museum. The exhibition was opened and the project inaugurated on 2 September 2007 on occasion of the European day of Jewish Heritage under auspices of the Minister of Culture, Mr. Marek Maďarič. Apart from the Minister of Culture, Deputy Chairman of the Parliament, Dr. Dušan Čaplovič, leading deputies of the public institutions, Jewish community and foreign embassies were present. Successful exhibition was consequently in October 2007 installed in the Museum SNR in Myjava and currently the preparations are being processed for its display in Košice.

The main activity of the Menorah was realization of the project Slovak Jewish heritage route provided by the Slovak Jewish Heritage Centre. Exhibition of the photographs was accompanying event to the project of the Slovak Jewish heritage route initiated early in 2007. During opening ceremony of the exhibition, two identification brass plaques were inaugurated by the guests of honor. These plaques were eventually installed on the Jewish cultural heritage monuments, e.g. the Heydukova Street Synagogue in Bratislava and the former synagogue in Šamorín. During the year 2008 the third plaque is planned to be placed in the Museum of the Jewish culture in Bratislava, while other thirteen plaques are waiting to be manufactured and gradually placed on the monuments of the Jewish cultural heritage all over Slovakia. For the propagation purposes of the cultural route and engaged monuments three types of representative leaflets were printed.

During the entire year, the researchers of the Centre were working on documentation of the Jewish monuments (schools, cemeteries, and holocaust memorials), the online database, which is accessible on the web page www.slovak-jewish-heritage.org, has been uploaded with the new data. In the frame of the project, several expert consultations concerning restoration of the Orthodox cemetery ceremonial hall in Bratislava and synagogues in Bardejov, Šamorín and Stupava were given.

Selection of Activities of Menorah in 2006

In 2006, the Jewish Heritage Foundation – Menorah – proceeded in its activities initiated earlier and elaborated on them. Thanks to establishing cooperation with Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein from London we were able to enrich religious-cultural seminars. Other seminars and lectures given by Rabbi Kathleen de Magtige-Middleton from London and Dr Tomáš Kučera from Berlin presented variety of other relevant topics.
The Menorah also supported organization and preparations of the European Day of Jewish Culture in Bratislava and Košice, while a documentary project dealing with the synagogue architecture in Slovakia successfully entered its last stage. Apart from additional archival research and photographic documentation, the Menorah supported output of the project’s data on the web page www.slovak-jewish-heritage.org. This free online database of the Jewish monuments in Slovakia is often visited and belongs to the highest quality in its category in Europe.
Finally, Menorah also supported preparation of publication of a book focused on Slovak synagogues. In 2006, we prepared graphic layout of the book, which was modified and corrected several times before final printing.

Selection of Activities of Menorah in 2005

In 2005, the Jewish Heritage Foundation – Menorah – proceeded with its activities initiated earlier. The Menorah directed its work mostly on preparation, organization and fundraising for educational activities. The Menorah worked on projects focused on preservation of Jewish heritage sites in Slovakia in cooperation with different organizations of similar interest in Slovakia as well as abroad.
Various educational and religious-cultural activities were organized, for instance, lectures in the Bratislava Jewish community, lecture by Dr. Maroš Borský in Museum in Kittsee, Austria, organization of the European day of Jewish culture in cooperation with B´nai Brith or the visit of the Bratislava Chavurah to the Amsterdam Liberal Jewish Community. Menorah also supported publication of journal published quarterly by the Ústav architektúry a stavebníctva SAV focused on the architecture of synagogues in Slovakia. In the frame of its publishing support activities Menorah co-financed representative leaflet of SNM – Museum of Jewish culture “Chatam Sofer“. Restoration of two synagogues in Bratislava and Stupava as well as other Jewish monuments were supported by Menorah, which has been supporting also the research project “Synagoga Slovaca“, focused on documentation of Slovak synagogues.
Finally, the documentary project CENTROPA aimed on gathering memories and life stories of Slovak Jewish Holocaust survivors was realized with support of Menorah. The project is coordinated by curator of the SNM – Museum of Jewish culture, Dr. Martin Korčok.