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Description
By implementing this project, we will contribute to the preservation, revitalization and presentation of finds that constitute an important part of the cultural heritage of the local Jewish community, yet remain almost unknown to the general public. Through cooperation and activities undertaken with local communities in East Bohemia and with students of Palacký University in Olomouc, we will try to strengthen the local community’s relationship of the local cultural heritage, and to increase students’ interest in the local Jewish heritage.
The aim of the project is to treat (conserve or restore), process (catalogue and digitize), place in permanent storage (in a renovated depository) and comprehensively present to the public (online and through exhibitions and accompanying programmes) an exceptional set of more than 3,000 finds from Bohemian and Moravian genizot in the Museum’s collection.
We will make the finds available, including digital documents, through our own online web database of the collections of the Jewish Museum in Prague and through a profile on the international social media platform Historypin. We will bring these unique finds to the attention of the general public (by promoting the topic, specific genizah sites, finds and the project itself, as well as by organizing educational activities for professionals and the general public) via the Genizot.cz website and through two large exhibitions at regional museum institutions in East and West Bohemia, which are also partners to the project. We will produce a publication and in cooperation with the Norwegian project partner we will organize a workshop on the possibilities of using the movable cultural heritage assets of minorities for the purpose of educating the public.
Summary of project results
The project''s contribution was the restoration of cultural heritage (improving the conditions for their protection, conservation, restoration and storage of the finds from the genizas), and the presentation of the form, character, significance and uniqueness of these unique finds and the introduction of the term genizas to the professional and general public. The challenge was the introduction of the term geniz into the public consciousness. No major problems occured in the implementation.
The project introduced the exceptional finds from the Czech and Moravian synagogues through exhibitions in the regions where the finds originated and through an online catalogue (https://collections.jewishmuseum.cz/), www.geniza.cz site and the social networks Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/100075505284683) and historypin (https://www.historypin.org/en/ceske-a-moravske-genizy). Together with the Regional Museum in Chrudim and the West Bohemian Museum in Pilsen, exhibitions were created and a bilingual catalogue was published. For professionals and museum educators the Norwegian Centre for Holocaust and Minority Studies in Oslo co-organised the workshop on the topic of genizah and its pedagogical potential. The second workshop was in 2022 in Chrudim, where restorers and the public learned about approaches to these objects.
Thanks to the successful implementation of the project, the management of cultural heritage was strengthened through the renewal of technical facilities for the restoration, conservation and storage of collections, the provision of restoration and conservation of collections, comprehensive access to collections via the Internet and short-term exhibitions, and the promotion of collections through publications, workshops, accompanying programmes and other marketing activities.
In total, over 2 500 finds were restored or conserved, and approximately 3 500 people attended the exhibitions and accompanying events.
Summary of bilateral results
The Norwegian partner "The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies" co-organised a workshop for the professional public, museum educators and staff working with the museum public, thanks to which the professional competences of the staff of memory institutions in the field of mediating the cultural heritage of minorities to the general public were strengthened. Thanks to the cooperation with the partner, the knowledge of the staff and participants of the 2023 workshop on Norwegian research and education on the Holocaust, genocides, anti-Semitism and extremism was increased. The partner also participated in the preparation of the project, and a joint meeting was held in Prague in spring 2019. Currently, there is no specific joint project with the partner, however, close contact remains for the further cooperation.