Applied Heritage – Research and Practice of Jewish Heritage
In cooperation with
International Conference “Applied Heritage – Research and Practice of Jewish Heritage” as part of the DFG Priority Programme “Jewish Cultural Heritage” (SPP 2357)
Jewish heritage is a vital and vibrant part of Europe’s cultural landscape — yet its preservation and interpretation are constantly shaped by contemporary social and political debates.
This international conference brings together researchers, museum professionals, educators, tourism experts, and community representatives to explore how Jewish heritage can be preserved, interpreted, and made accessible to diverse audiences.
Across the week, participants will address museums, memorial sites, education, cultural policy, community initiatives, and everyday Jewish life. Together, we will examine how engaging with Jewish history and heritage can deepen our understanding of the past, respond to the challenges of the present, and inform the way forward.
The conference aims to:
- strengthen collaboration between research and practice,
- exchange successful approaches from across Europe, and
- develop ideas for responsible, inclusive, and meaningful engagement with Jewish heritage today.
We welcome scholars, practitioners, and anyone working with and interested in Jewish heritage in a professional or community capacity to join us for days of exchange, discussion, and collaborative thinking.
Further Information:
Location: University of Amsterdam
Visiting Address: Bushuis, Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
Präsenzen – Netzwerk jüdische Gegenwartsforschung e.V.
Funded by
Conference Program
| Bushuis – F0.01 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 11:00 | Registration & Welcome Coffee | |
| 13:00 | Guided Walking Tour: Jewish Heritage in Amsterdam | Daniel Metz: Exploring the Jewish Cultural Quarter + Portuguese Synagogue (approx. 3 hours) |
| 16:15 | Welcome Address | Sarah Ross: Speaker of the Priority Program “Jewish Cultural Heritage” (SPP 2357) |
| 16:30 | Opening Lecture | Bart Wallet: Applied Heritage, Jewish Communities, and non-Jewish Societies: (Post-)Critical Reflections on Jewish Heritage in the Netherlands |
| 17:15 | Coffee Break | |
| 17:30 | Film Screening | Ulrike Schneider, Laura Brüggemann & Irine Beridze: My Life Part 2, followed by discussion (approx. 2 hours) |
| BUSHUIS – F0.01 | F1.14 | |
|---|---|---|
| 9:30 | Jewish Museums in Germany | Repairing the Sacred: Applied Heritage and the Afterlives of Holocaust Torah Scrolls |
| Christiane Dätsch: Jewish specificness or multiculturalism? New narratives of the Jewish in German Jewish Museums | Jay Prosser: ‘The Jewish Elgin Marbles? The Reparation of the Salonikan Shoah Torah Scroll Shoe Soles | |
| Angela Kolb-Janssen: Teaching intercultural competencies through a partnership between the Moses Mendelssohn Academy in Halberstadt and two universities | Eva Frojmovic: Fugitive Pieces: Reflections on Torah Scroll Fragments Reused as Painting Supports | |
| Sarai Hannah-Marie Schulz: Local Jewish Museums and German Remembrance Culture: The Example of the Jewish Museum Göppingen-Jebenhausen | Marc Michaels / Mordechai Pinchas: Repairing Holiness: Dating, locating and recreating the Shoe Soles Torah |
| 11:00 | Coffee Break |
|---|
| BUSHUIS – F0.01 | F1.14 | |
|---|---|---|
| 11:30 | Living and Transmitting Jewish Heritage | Jewish Heritage and Resilience |
| Ina Henning: Jewish education and the prevention of antisemitism – two sides of the same coin? | Marina Sapritsky-Nahum: Jewish Heritage as Refuge. Ukrainian Jews in Germany after Russia’s War and October 7 | |
| Carmen Levick: Beyond the Museum: Living Heritage in the Age of Digital Practice | Dani Kranz: Jewish Heritage as Resilience and Resistance. The Case of Jewish Academics | |
| Samuel Weigel: Digital Futures of Cantorial Learning? Musical Tradition between Institutionalized and Autodidactic Transmission on the Internet | Anthony Kauders: Group Formation, Heritage, and the Costs of Resilience | |
| Laila Bat Chen Seri: The Task of the Transmitter: A Feminist Rethinking of Tradition in and of the Talmud | Sarah Ross: Framing Jewish Heritage and Resilience. Theoretical Perspectives from Critical Heritage Studies |
| 13:30 | Lunch Break |
|---|
| BUSHUIS – F0.01 | F1.14 | |
|---|---|---|
| 15:30 | Doing Jewish Heritage: Identity, Belonging, and the Self | Following the Trail of European Successes |
| Tom Kellner: Whose Heritage? Negotiating Jewish Heritage Between Individual and Community | Duifje van de Woestijne: Synagogue in Groningen, the Netherlands | |
| Mercedész Czimbalmos: Studying Jewish Heritage from the Inside Out: Positionality and Belonging in Cross-Community Research | Neele Menter: Synagogue in Schirmeck (Alsace), France | |
| Naomi Leite: Thinking Through “Heritage”, or Why Stakeholder-Scholar-Practitioner Misunderstandings Persist | Mirko Przystawik: Bornplatz Synagogue and Tempel Poolstraße – The Discourse on two Hamburg Cases, Germany | |
| Dóra Pataricza: Self-Heritage and Heritage Mediation in the Szeged New Synagogue | Zuzanna Światowy: The Upper Silesian Jews House of Memory in Gliwice Poland |
| BUSHUIS – F0.01 | |
|---|---|
| 9:00 | The Dutch Method |
| Daniel Metz and Duifje van den Woestijne |
| 10:30 | Coffee Break |
|---|
| BUSHUIS – F0.01 | |
|---|---|
| 11:00 | Dutch & Amsterdam Jewish Heritage |
| Sietske van der Veen: Jewish Country Houses as Applied Heritage Sites – The Dutch Case | |
| Julia van der Krieke: Amsterdam’s ‘The Jewish City’ Project – Viewing Jewish Heritage as Shared Heritage | |
| Paul Ariese: Heritagising the Space of Jewish Religious Life – Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter Synagogues | |
| Nicolette van den Bogerd: Sounding History, Mediating Memory: Listening to/in Amsterdam’s National Holocaust Museum |
| 13:00 | Lunch Break |
|---|
| BUSHUIS – F0.01 | F1.14 | |
|---|---|---|
| 14:30 | Approaches to Jewish Heritage Sites | Music, Sound & Living Heritage |
| Johannes Heil and Patrick Locher: The Worms Synagogue as Lieu de resilience (1100-1961) | Miranda Crowdus: Baqashot as Portable, Iridescent Iterations of Jewish Musical-Liturgical Heritage | |
| Michaela Böttner: Jewish (Cultural) Heritage in Germany: Heritagization Processes of a Contested Heritage | Carine Alders: Forbidden Music Regained: A Practitioner Case Presentation | |
| Pia Schlechter: ‘Feeling‘ Jewish Heritage: Affect and Mediation at Jewish Heritage Sites in Germany | Dalya Markovitch: Heritage and Positionality: Engaging with Current Societal Challenges | |
| Imen Ben Temelliste: From Memory to Visibility: Jewish Heritage Mediation and Antisemitism “Prevention” in a German Post-Migrant Society | ||
| 16:00 | Coffee Break |
|---|
| BUSHUIS – F0.01 | |
|---|---|
| 16:30 | WORKSHOP: Jewish Data Space – Designing a Future Jewish Heritage Data Space |
| Pavel Katz: interactive workshop (60–90 min): participants collaboratively design a hypothetical Jewish Heritage Data Space from their own datasets, exploring interoperability, governance, and cross-institutional collaboration |
| BUSHUIS – F1.14 | F2.11B | |
|---|---|---|
| 09:00 | Synagogues in the Past and the Future: Examples of Physical and Digital Reconstruction | Synagogues, Sites & Mediation |
| Part 1: Physical Restoration | Daniel Leviathan: From Synagogues to Knowledge Centers | |
| Nesim Bencoya: Restoring heritage synagogues in Izmir, Turkey | Markus Tauschek: Freiburg’s Destroyed Synagogue and the Domestication of Jewish Heritage | |
| Andrei Nedelcu: The Restoration of the historic synagogue in Constanta, Romania | Joshua Krug: Staging Jewish Heritage: Museums, National Narratives, and the Politics of Inclusion | |
| Part 2: Digital Reconstruction | Victoria Heifetz: A Face Among the Stones: Walking Jewish History Through Story | |
| Prof. Alanna Cooper: Using Mixed Reality to Digitally Reinstall a Synagogue War Memorial, Cleveland, USA | ||
| Dr. Elias Messinas: Restoring and Reconstructing Historic Synagogues in Greece |
| 11:00 | Coffee Break |
|---|
| Uilenburgersjoel | ||
|---|---|---|
| 14:00 | Visit to the Jewish Museum | Curator-guided visit: (approx. 90 min) |
| 18:00 | Keynote Lecture | Erica Lehrer: Concordia University |
| 19:00 | Lecture-Concert: From Archive to Sound – Italian-Jewish Musical Heritage in Practice | Ensemble Nuria |
| 20:30 | Reception and closing of the conference |
Downloads
Registration
Conference Fees
- 4-Day Conference Pass (Professor) – 50 Euro (plus ticket fee)
- 4-Day Conference Pass (Regular) – 35 Euro (plus ticket fee)
- 4-Day Conference Pass (Student) – 25 Euro (plus ticket fee)
- 1-Day Conference Pass – 15 Euro (plus ticket fee)
Contact
Coordination Office of the SPP2357 “Jewish Cultural Heritage”
E-Mail: spp.ezjm@hmtm-hannover.de
