Marianne,
If the cemetery is hallowed soil the subject becomes rabbinical
and the Chief Rabbis must be consulted .
Hardy
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-120020017-3499476_at_list.cornell.edu
[mailto:bounce-120020017-3499476_at_list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Marianne
Hirsch
Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2015 7:54 PM
To: Czernowitz Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Project for renovation building at Jewish cemetery in
Chernivtsi
Dear friends,
I have followed the discussion of the Leichenhalle renovation with great
interest. People have said that the most productive part of a memorial or
museum is the discussion it provokes, and we are deeply engaged in it. I am
forwarding the email Leo and I just sent to Josef Zissels, in response to
his earlier inquiry. Would love to ehar your thoughts,
Warm wishes for a healthy and peaceful 2016 to you all,
Marianne
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Dear Josef,
Thank you for letting us know of the project to restore the ceremonial hall
in the Chernivtsi Jewish cemetery. It's great to hear that there are
already substantial financial commitments for this purpose. We would be
happy to help with fundraising efforts and to contribute some money
ourselves. But we would urge you to think carefully about future uses of the
building.
As persons with both a personal and professional commitment to the
preservation of Jewish memory in Chernivtsi and to the importance of museums
and memorials as public institutions of memory, we are deeply troubled by
the proposal to install a Holocaust museum there. Jewish museology is an
active field of study, with annual conferences and publications. New Jewish
and Holocaust museums are springing up all over Eastern Europe. It is
difficult to tell this devastating story well, and to tell it for multiple
audiences -- for survivors and their descendants, for descendants of
perpetrators and bystanders and for local populations who might not have
been involved in past crimes. It is especially difficult to tell it in
post-Communist regimes still dealing with censorship and political
repression.
For the latest scholarship on this matter, see the current issue of the
journal East European Jewish Affairs, vol. 45, issue 2-3. A conference in
New York focusing on East European Jewish museums is scheduled for next
week.
The city would benefit from such a museum, but not in that location. It
belongs with the Bukovina Jewish History Museum in the center of the city.
Placing a Holocaust museum in the Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of town
makes the deportations, persecution and murder of the city's Jewish
community a strictly Jewish problem, for Jewish visitors. It places the
community under the sign of death, rather than life.
We realize that to fund the renovation, you might have to show the donors
that the building will be used. Perhaps a simple memorial will serve this
purpose. It's the only tasteful ethical option, in our opinion. As Hedwig
Brenner, a survivor from Haifa wrote on the Czernowitz-L list, the site is
holy and placing such a museum there might well be experienced as offensive
if not sacrilegious.
We hope that you will consult some international experts before going
forward with these plans. We would suggest, foremost, Barbara
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, chief curator of the permanent exhibition of the
Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.
Please let me know if we can be of any assistance,
warm wishes for a healthy new year,
Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer
Marianne Hirsch
William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Director, Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality
On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 8:14 AM, Nadia Ufimtseva <nadia.ufimtseva_at_gmail.com=
>
wrote:
> Dear Sirs
> =E2=80=8B,=E2=80=8B
>
>
> The Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine
> (Vaad of Ukraine) begins discussion of the project for repair and
> restoration o=
f
> the building of ceremonial hall "Beit Kadishin" at the Jewish cemetery
> in Chernivtsi and creating there a memorial museum dedicated to the
> Holocaus=
t
> victims in Bukovina.
> =E2=80=8B=E2=80=8B
>
>
> We believe that this project will be interesting and important to you,
> an=
d
> therefore we offer you to join the newsletter regarding this project.
> We offer you also the article about our project:
> =E2=80=8B
> =E2=80=8B=E2=80=8B
> =E2=80=8B
>
> http://www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2015/12/27/ukraine-toward-a-holoc
> aus=
t-museum-in-chernivtsi/%E2%80%9D
> =E2=80=8B
> =E2=80=8B
> We are open to your suggestions and assistance in the implementation
> of the restoration of the building and creation of the museum.
>
>
> If you wish to unsubscribe, please let us know.
>
>
>
> Best regards,
> Joseph Zissels,
> co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine
>
>
>
> =E2=80=8BProject coordinator
> Nadia Ufimtseva=E2=80=8B
> =E2=80=8Bnadia.ufimtseva_at_gmail.com
> +38097 960 58 64=E2=80=8B
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Received on 2015-12-31 11:53:30