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An Interview with Tamás Nyíri by Kőbányai János
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Anti-Semitism in today’s Czech Republic that has remained ethnically pure – says the former Czech essayst, now living in Paris. A comparison with the former ethnic situation in this country and the relations between various ethnic minorities.
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Sixty years after the close of the Second World War, claims were still being processed for atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. Since 1995, two large claim processes have emerged: one against the perpetrators, the German government and industry, for using slave and forced labor during the war; and the other against their collaborators, the Swiss banks, for laundering Nazi gold and concealing heirless assets. Two smaller programs offering humanitarian assistance to former victims were also functioning, one from the German government and the other from Swiss banks, both attempts to ward off large class action lawsuits. The funds were allocated not only for Jewish survivors, but also for other groups which were victimized by the Nazis – Roma, Poles, Czechs, homosexuals, the disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. In this paper I focus on the compensation policy to Roma, who alongside Jews, were persecuted based on racial criteria.
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Despite its tragism, the history of Montpellier and the county of Herault during World War II did not lack in acts of bravery, resistance and nobility. This paper is a historical review, but also an investigation into the actions of the main actors who lived in Montpellier at the time: Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Righteous among the Nations, the Herault County prefect, gendarmes and policemen who refused, when they could, the adversity.
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The paper outlines the decisive role played by Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran (1910– 2006) in Engineer Emil Simiu (Moshe Şmilovici)’s initiative to obtain the title of “Righteous among the Nations” for Queen Mother Elena (1896-1982). This initiative was launched on February 26, 1989, with a letter addressed by Emil Simiu to Alexander Safran, and ended up with the favorable decision of the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous among the Nations of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem (of which the late Ytzhak Artzi was a member), which was communicated on March 15, 1993, to Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran. It is published here, together with two letters written by Alexander Safran on February 13 and 17, 1992 (a copy of the French originals can be found in the Alexander Safran Archive in Geneva), which proved decisive for the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous among the Nations
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Cum se va developa prezenţa sacrului în proximitatea umanului, când fenomenul religios străbate istoria şi trimite la mit, rit şi simbol în formele bine cunoscute, forme care nu încep în nici un caz cu monoteismul; cum vom privi pluralitatea religiilor în raport cu „universalitatea” sacrului care le cuprinde în durata unei sintaxe ce străbate istoria; cum vom înţelege „obscuritatea ineluctabilă a non-conceptualului”, căruia Rudolf Otto îi consacră mai mult decât putinţa unor „ideograme” – îi consacră un orizont al infinitului, orizont care nu se numeşte „etic”. Iată câteva forme pe care le poate îmbrăca neliniştea ecranată de comoda trivializare şi de exilul în spaţiul comun al insignifiantului. Ce poate semnifica eterogenitatea riturilor şi simbolurilor care disimulează omogenitatea unui „numen” totalizant?
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Datorită multitudinii de informaţii pe care le scot la lumină, studierea şi cercetarea cimitirelor sunt foarte utile pentru refacerea istoriei unei comunităţi, fiind printre sursele cu însemnătate majoră. Pentru perioada de început a unor comunităţi evreieşti de pe teritoriul României sunt adeseori invocate inscripţiile unor monumente funerare existente şi în prezent, sau văzute doar de autorii însemnărilor. Articolul urmăreşte istoria zbuciumată a cimitirului evreiesc din Strada Sevastopol din Bucureşti, înfiinţat în secolul XVII şi distrus de autorităţile române în timpul celui de-al doilea război mondial. Trecând în revistă caracteristicile deosebite – în unele cazuri chiar unice – ale pietrelor funerare, din care majoritatea au dispărut (puţinele stele salvate afându-se azi în cimitirul din Strada Giurgiului) autoarea relevă enorma pierdere atât din punct de vedere al moştenirii culturale evreieşti cât şi al monumentelor arhitectonice ale ţării.
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Concentrated in miserable conditions, in ghettos, labor colonies and camps, the Jews deported to Transnistria were in a desperate state, lacking any means. As a result of Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran’s interventions the authorization was obtained to send them relief through the Autonomous Relief Commission, which had been created in the aftermath of the Bucharest pogrom (January 1941). Medicines and money was also secretly sent with Romanian couriers, who thus showed their solidarity with the deported Jews. This paper describes the case of reserve lieutenant Ion Bogza, born in Ştefăneşti, who unfortunately forgot on a train, on March 20, 1942, a suitcase with Lei 363,500, sent by the Jews of Dorohoi to those deported in the Moghilev ghetto. This cost him his liberty, as he was court-martialed, but his dramatic negligence has allowed us to meet a person who does credit to Romanian humanism.
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The synagogues dealt with in this short presentation generally date from the second half of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century; only few of them were built in the late 17th or 18th century. The relatively numerous synagogues still standing are the most visible proof of the rich Jewish heritage in Romania. Spread all over the country, they present a complex, often heterogeneous, typology, but also fascinating particular traits and an outstanding variety of architectonic solutions both for their facades and interiors. Even this rough classification proves that Romania is an important crossroad for trends, people and ideas and, as far as the Jews were concerned, the place where the Yiddish of Orthodox Judaism could be heard along Ladino and German, the vernacular of the Haskala activists.
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The author retraces the originality of the cultural and religious universe of the “Pope’s Jews” of Southern France, living in the ‘four communities’ (arba kehilot) set up in the Venaissin County (Avignon, Carpentras, Cavaillon and l’Isle-su-Sorgue). Special attention is given to their vernacular – the shouadit (deriving from the Hebrew yehudit), a mixture of Provencal and Hebrew –, the theatre plays written in this language, and writer Armand Lunel’s testimonies on the survival of a certain number of Judeo-Provencal phrases unto this day. The paper also focuses on the three types of literary works characteristic of the “Pope’s Jews”: in Provencal – the famous “Lamb Song” (Cansoun dou cabri) of the Passover ritual; in Provencal and Hebrew – “lis obros” or pioutim, “stuffed” poems which alternate a Hebrew and a Provencal verse; and in Hebrew – pinkassim, nishmatim and tehinot. A third and last focus is laid on liturgy, with its most important prayer rituals and synagogal chants.
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