rediscover - project launched

In the framework of the Environment and culture responsible Danube region Priority of the Interreg Duna Transnational Program, the project REDISCOVER, (Rediscover, expose and exploit the concealed Jewish heritage of the Danube Region, DTP2-084-2.2) has been granted an overall EU funding of 1 569 394,47 EUR. The project is implemented by the following 18 institutions representing 9 countries of the Danube Region:

Szeged (HU, as Lead Partner), Szeged and Surroundings Tourism Nonprofit Ltd., Municipality of Galati (RO), Municipality of Timisoara (RO), World Heritage Management City of Regensburg (DE), Institute for Culture, Tourism and Sport Murska Sobota (SI), City of Osijek (HR), Municipal Museum of Subotica (RS), Kotor Municipality (ME) and City of Banja Luka (BA).

The partnership is based on cities of similar historical background with Jewish heritage and similar cultural and tourism missions. Thematic partners associated with local governments are also involved in the project: City of Subotica, City Municipality Murska Sobota, Jewish Community of Szeged, Jewish Community Timisoara, part of Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania, Jewish Community of Osijek, Jewish Community of Montenegro, Jewish Community of Banja Luka and Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities.

Today's Jewish society in the Danube region is fragmented: the capitals and large regional centres have a significant residual community with preserved religious and cultural heritage background. Mid-sized cities with limited built cultural heritage are usually linked to well-known heritage centres on the tourism market. For them, the main challenge is to find ways to explore the tangible/intangible elements of Jewish cultural heritage in order to create competitive cultural products with potential tourism prospects.

The re-discovery of the Jewish cultural heritage of project scenes means that besides intangible elements that are well-known to the wide audience (synagogues, cemeteries, memorials, public/ business/residential buildings) are to be organised into creative attractions, to include and integrate intangible elements usually not recognised by the mainstream community and visitors. Such elements like arts, events, testimonies, history and legacy of outstanding personalities etc. This project would like to help creating competitive advantages for cities with otherwise scarce JCH attractions.

The main objective of the project is to explore, revive and present the hidden intellectual heritage along with locally available Jewish cultural heritage of project partner cities, creating a jointly presented, synergistic tourism tool/service that is accessible to the wide audience as well.

The Rediscover project’s launching conference and kick-off meeting was held by the Lead Partner in Szeged at IH Event Centre on 5-6th July in 2018. At the event, after the opening addresses, Hungarian lecturers gave inspiring and high-quality presentations to the audience. László Marjanucz from the University of Szeged elaborated the concrete historical processes of the coexistence and joint urban development of various Jewish groups of Szeged. A presentation by Norbert Glässer - also from the University of Szeged - along with András Zima (Budapest University of Jewish Studies) gave insight into the changing Jewish community life - inherited cultural products - roles in local social development. At last, but not least Krisztina Frauhammer’s (the University of Szeged) lecture was about the representation of the Intangible Heritage in the written sources of Judaism of the Danube Region.

After the launching conference, which was open to the wide audience, the event continued with the kick-off meeting restricted to the representatives of the project partners. This was the first time for the partners to meet and have a chance to get to know each other better in person and create a friendly working environment. In addition to the informal networking, during the day-and-a-half meeting, partners got acquainted with the detailed concept, purpose and implementation rules of the project.

The project’s implementation period is 1st June 2018 - 31st May 2021.

dtp.interreg-danube.eu/rediscover

local stakeholder meetings

In line with the project’s main objective to build on currently undiscovered potential in the Jewish cultural heritage of cities, and develop contemporary tourism solutions, as a start of the thematic activities of the project, a community focused survey of tangible and intangible Jewish heritage portfolios of each participating partner city is to be created. To accomplish it, a participatory approach is applied, with a strong emphasis on local stakeholders’ participation in the process. To mobilize local stakeholders, project partners of the REDISCOVER project held Stakeholder Meetings locally between November 1 2018 and December 20 2018.

During the stakeholder meetings local stakeholders had the opportunity to get acquainted with the most important activities, outputs and objectives of the project. Also, the importance of local stakeholder groups, their involvement right from the initial stage was emphasised, and the role stakeholders played during project implementation was outlined as their key members actively taking part in the dissemination of results and multiplying existing knowledge and experience or new ideas.  

Among the members of the local stakeholder group a wide range of professionals and stakeholders are represented, including local governments, tourism organizations, experts, local bodies responsible for preserving cultural heritage, representatives of the local chambers of commerce, members and prominent figures of the local Jewish Community. A very first instance of the significance of the local stakeholder group in shaping the project was the role it played in deciding on the theme of Personal History Files, which is a series of social media posts on visions, ambitions and key members of the local stakeholder group. During the local stakeholder meetings an important issue was to determine who the prominent figure to be interviewed should be. Among the interviewees we can find outstanding members of the local Jewish Communities, experts with deep knowledge related to Jewish Cultural Heritage, practicing tourism professionals. The series of video recordings produced under the generic headline „Personal History Files” is going to published through social media interfaces of the project.

During the meeting, work started to lay the foundations of the local repository of Jewish Cultural Heritage by discussing methodological aspects. A key issue in it was to determine the main categories along which tangible and intangible heritage elements will be enumerated, and city level inventories shall be compiled. In general, we can find synagogues, cemeteries, other sacral buildings, residential buildings, schools and social institutions among tangible heritage elements, although the main focus is on the intangible, so far hidden cultural heritage elements, like songs, music, dance, literature, cuisine, crafts, sciences, testimonies, oral history, legacy of outstanding personalities. In many cases, a tremendous amount of information is available related to local Jewish Cultural Heritage, which makes an appraisal system to evaluate their tourism potential also necessary. Local repositories will eventually form the basis of a joint, web-based tourism service and attraction portfolio available for the general public.

walkshop in timisoara

In the framework of the project REDISCOVER, a WALKSHOP was organized for project partners by the Municipality of Timisoara in cooperation with the Jewish Community of the city. The walkshop, guided by Rabbi Zvika Kfir and Mr Gabriel Székely was an on-site case study visit of Timisoara’s Jewish cultural heritage, combining its tangible and intangible elements, including the synagogues, the Jewish cemetery, representative buildings designed by Jewish architects or owned by Jewish families, the headquarters of the Jewish Community of Timisoara.

The Walkshop was used as a working tool, based on a methodology for its preparation and implementation, for knowledge exchange and highlighting the local Jewish Cultural Heritage. The tour provided an opportunity to test the city’s tourist potential, the main attractions that the participants were interested in, and the scheduling and transportation challenges presented by such a tour. 

The Walkshop started with a visit to the local Jewish cemetery, which contains the oldest extant tomb in the city, dating from the 17th century. The cemetery visit was guided by Rabbi Zvika Kfir, who presented the religious history of Timisoara’s Jewish community (that included both Sephardi and Askhenazi families). The Rabbi gave insight into the Jewish funerary traditions and elaborated the changes and ideas that evolved through the past three centuries, leading to the apparition of two different Jewish communities, namely Orthodox and Neolog. These differences are also reflected in the styles of the tombs and the types of burials, which vary greatly, illustrating the level of conformity to Jewish tradition or the assimilation to the mainstream culture, whether Austro-Hungarian or Romanian. Various types of tombs were visited, from the newest to the oldest (dating to the 17th century), and the Rabbi explained the symbols and the religious meaning behind them. The cemetery tour included a visit at the tomb of Rabbi Oppenheimer, who lived in the 19th century and who is considered by some to be a “miracle performer”. His tomb is a place where visitors, mostly non-Jews, leave notes with prayers and requests. The reason why Jews leave small stones on tombs instead of flowers was also explained, and the fact that in Judaism the emphasis is on life and that the dead should be left behind and forgotten in order for the living to continue their life was highlighted.

During the guided tour project partners had the chance to visit the Iosefin synagogue, which is the only one of Timisoara’s four synagogues that is still functional, and the mikvahs, the Rabbi elaborated on the religious ceremonies and practices in the community. 

The Walkshop continued with a visit to the city’s historical center. This part of the tour was guided by Mr. Gabriel Székely, who presented the most important elements of the architectural heritage designed by Jewish architects or owned by Jewish people. These elements of tangible Jewish heritage include buildings designed by the famous architect Lipót Baumhorn.

At the end of the day the Jewish Community of Timisoara invited the participants at their headquarters. The President, Ms. Luciana Friedmann, presented the particularly rich cultural and social activity of the Community, the elderly care programs, traditional holidays and customs. The project partners listened to a presentation about an upcoming book entitled On the Traces of Jewish Timisoara. The author of this guide is Ms. Getta Neumann, the daughter of the late Prime Rabbi of Timisoara, Dr. Ernest Neumann. The volume is the result of the author’s lifelong study and passion for keeping alive the history, culture and memory of the Jewish community in Timisoara. The evening ended with a traditional meal, an outstanding opportunity for the participants to taste Jewish culinary art.

coming soon...

The implementation of the project REDISCOVER has reached its first important stage, as project partners are coming close to finalising their local repositories of Jewish Cultural Heritage. This will lay the foundations of the product development workshop series to be held in the forthcoming months.

The first element of the series is the Inventory Workshop soon to be organised in each partner city. These focus on the overview and discussion of local Jewish cultural heritage inventory, the presentation of inspiring case studies from other partner cities and brainstorming of potential local and joint tourism products.

As a second step in the process, Capacity Building Workshops for local tourism development partners empower participants to share ideas, develop joint initiatives and to engage into product development and implementation processes. As participants are selected from authorities, SMEs and the civil sector, the events represent sustainable skill development on both individual, institutional and stakeholder level. The workshops will include the following themes: cooperation skill development, product development methodology and training, business planning methodology training.

Finally, the Match-making Workshop is to be organised in each partner city, involving local stakeholder groups, tourism service providers and related institutions. These professionally mandated moderated events already aim at identifying integrated tourism initiatives and cooperation opportunities among the selected stakeholders, and include the presentation of case studies from other partner cities.