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JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE
An Online Resource Centre
ROMANIA NEWS PAGE
Bucharest - Peter Jacobi to Design Holocaust Memorial
Jewish Heritage Routes to Include Hasidic Culture
On 23 August, 2006 the Romanian Ministry of Culture chose Romanian-born artist Peter Jacobi to create a new Holocaust memorial in central Bucharest. The foundation stone will be laid on Holocaust Memorial Day, 9 October, the Romanian Mediafax agency reports.
This highly prominent monument is the first Government-sponsored Romanian Holocaust memorial. It has its origins in events of 1991, when a monument in the form of a bronze menorah was unveiled in front of Bucharest's historic Choral Synagogue.
At this event, Romania's Chief Rabbi and other Jewish representatives publicly denounced Romanian involvement in the massacre of Jews during the Holocaust, and the country's subsequent silence about the matter. Many anti-Semitic episodes followed the fall of dictator Nicolai Ceauşescu; while as recently as 2003, President Iliescu of Romania and other senior figures have denied that any Holocaust occurred in Romania at all.
The International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania was set up after the 1991 controversy. Chaired by Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, the Commission produced a 400-page report in 2004, containing strong recommendations about the need for Holocaust education and commemoration in the country. The present monument is one result of this.
Jacobi envisions a sculpture the size and shape of a seven-metre high building - large enough to be entered. At its centre will be a glass roof with metal beams. Light and shadow will be reflected on a floor of black, polished granite. A Star of David will stand next to the building - and a wheel, a symbol of significance for the Romanian Roma, who were also persecuted by the Nazis. The names of Romanian Holocaust locations and other texts will be engraved on a fibreglass wall. The competition jury recommended that the artist collaborate with an architect so as to create the best possible urban setting for the memorial.
Jacobi was born in Ploiesti, Romania, in 1935, and graduated from the Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of the Plastic Arts in Bucharest. From 1961 and 1970 he exhibited with his wife Ritzi Jacobi in Lausanne and Venice. In 1971, he became a professor of design in Pforzheim, south-west Germany. Jacobi returned to Romania in the 1990s, and exhibited his work in Bucharest and other centres. In 1974, he received the Lewis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in New York; in 1976 the Baden-Wurttemberg State Prize; and in 1981 a prize from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. In 2002, he had a retrospective exhibition at Romania's National Art Museum, for which he was awarded the Ion Andreescu Prize of the Romanian Academy. He lives in Pforzheim.
For more about the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania's report and recommendations, see the
Yad Vashem and
ushmm websites.
(1 September 2006)
The organisers of the European Jewish Heritage Route met in Bucharest in April 2006 to explore ideas for a new 'Route of Hasidism' in Central Europe as part of the European Route of Jewish Heritage. The meeting was held at the Romanian Ministry of Culture and Cults by the Consultancy Centre for European Cultural Programmes, and was partly funded by the Council of Europe and the European Institute of Cultural Routes, during the Romanian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
Participants in the meeting included representatives of the Ministry (Virgil Nitulescu, Secretary of State for Cultural Heritage; Delia Mucica, Secretary General), the Council of Europe (Françoise Tondre), the European Institute (Michel Thomas-Penette), and representatives of the main associations involved in the management and the development of the European Jewish Heritage Routes (Claude Bloch, Assumpcio Hosta and Mariano Schlimovich). Hasidism is a complex phenomenon, and it is not known if the challenges involved in interpreting it were discussed. No representatives of active Hasidic groups are reported to have participated in the meeting.
On the Romanian side, Harry Culler (expert), representatives of the State Jewish Theatre; Ioan Holban, Director of the Theatre; Vasile Alecsandri (of the town of Iasi) and Speranta Radulescu presented historical accounts of important aspects of non-material heritage, and Dan Matei suggested some directions for the creation of a website.
In conclusion, Vladimir Simon presented an action plan in which the Institute proposed the enlargement of the concept of the Jewish Heritage Route substantially beyond the successful series of routes devoted to Sephardi Jewish Culture, which are mainly in Spain.
A follow-up meeting is scheduled for 19 September 2006.
The programme of the Bucharest meeting, an introductory document and the Action Plan can be read online at:
www.culture-routes.lu/php/fo_index.php?lng=en&dest=bd_ac_det&id=00002245.
To learn more about the European Routes of Jewish Heritage see:
www.jewisheritage.org/.
(24 August 2006)
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