Florence is the city of the Lily and of David, the young future king of Israel, immortalized in marble by Michelangelo. A bronze copy of the statue of David dominates the center of Piazzale Michelangelo, which overlooks the city. Our visit to Jewish Florence starts from this place, from which you can admire the vast panorama of the city with the high medieval towers of Palazzo Vecchio and the Bargello, the bell towers and the many domes including that of the Duomo, the work of the great architect Filippo Brunelleschi, and the green one of the Synagogue built at the end of the 1800s.
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Girona Jewish Trail
The labyrinthic distribution and medieval atmosphere of its streets, the steep steps make frequently avoid the different levels of urban orography, the charm of the barri vell shops, the historic and didactic contribution of the Bonastruc ça Porta centre and, in particular, the firm commitment to recovering the old Jewish quarter make the Girona Jewish quarter into a unique, fascinating place. The transformations the district underwent after expulsion of the Jews in 1492 have not prevented the call dels jueus from retaining today a large part of this Kabbalistic mystery which characterised the Jews of Girona in an environment which has remained in exactly the same spot since the Middle Ages.
Lithuania Trail App
Discover Jewish Lithuania is not only a brand, but also a different way of unlocking Jewish cultural heritage in Lithuania – through various different stories, through different shtetls, and through augmented reality technology that would enable us to feel the 600 years of Jewish history in present day Lithuania.
Netanya Market
Netanya Market is located in the city center. This multicultural market has evolved organically as the city grew over the years. On any given day, locals and tourists alike can be found doing their weekly shopping or just browsing the stores. Like many other markets in Israel, Netanya Market has a variety of stores and restaurants which will give you a taste of the many different ethnicities of which the Israeli society is comprised.
Cork Jewish Culture Musical Walking Tour
In the late 1800s, a Jewish community formed in Cork City,
which grew to its zenith in the 1930s – 40s. Now, the old synagogue is closed,
and very few are left in Cork of the old community.
Ruti Lachs, musician and member of the new Cork Jewish
Community, will guide you on a one to two-hour walk, taking in the historic –
and more recent – Jewish sites in Cork City, telling stories of the old
community, and playing for you some of klezmer music and Yiddish song, the
music of the Lithuanian Jews who made their home in Cork a hundred and thirty
years ago. There will be plenty of time for questions during the walk.
Depending on your personal requirements, the walk can be extended to include,
for example, Cork music venues, good foodie places, and other sites of
interest.
Ruti has been researching the old community (the
Cork Hebrew Congregation) through interviews with locals and with ex-Cork
residents now scattered worldwide. Her research was collated into two
documentary videos, Cork Jewish Culture Virtual Walk, which won a National
Heritage Week award, and Memories of a Cork Jewish Childhood.
Amsterdam City Trail
Learn all about the history of the Jewish community in Amsterdam and the city’s wartime history with a walk through the old Jewish Quarter.
The Jewish Quarter is an old neighborhood in Amsterdam where a large Jewish community lived from the 16th century until the persecution of the Jews in World War II. At the end of the 16th century, Jews moved from Portugal to Amsterdam. The Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue recalls this history, the structure dates from the 18th century.
The history of the Jewish community in Amsterdam is followed from the beginning based on the sights. There are many memorials to the events of the Second World War and the persecution of the Jews. Visits to the Jewish Museum, the Holocaust Museum, and the Resistance Museum can further enrich the route.
Venice Jewish Ghetto Trail
Founded in 1516, the Jewish Ghetto in Venice was the oldest of its kind in all Europe. At the time, Venice received order from the Pope to expel all Jews from the city, but the Venetian government opted to lock them onto a small island in the district of Cannaregio. Since then this small area has been the center of Jewish life in Venice, with buildings rising vertically to accommodate the rising number of Jews. By the mid-17th century the population numbered over 5,000. It wasn’t until 1866 that they were granted their freedom, following which they acquired citizenship and dispersed.
Today the Ghetto is enjoying something of a revival and is definitely worth a walk-through, as it comprises a Jewish school, great bookshops, a kosher restaurant, a Jewish bakery and some amazing old synagogues that you must visit – even if from the outside only. There are five of them in all, two of which are still in use, hidden from sight behind the ghetto’s walls – which is too bad, as they have been there for a long, long time and are truly little treasure boxes. While walking from one to another, look out also for the (rather moving) brass plaques in the paving outside doorways where Jews were arrested and sent to German camps during WWII.
Izmir Project
The Route of Jewish Heritage in Izmir is a project under development, but already offers many things to explore. Its presence dating back to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the Jewish heritage of Izmir exhibits a unique character with its dominant Sephardic traditions of religion and worship, along with the architectural styles of the synagogues that existed in medieval Spain.
Out of many magnificent synagogues built in previous centuries in Izmir, only ten remain today within the Old Juderia and two in the New Juderia. Izmir is the only city to encounter the typical architectural features that survived collectively to the present day.
Some preserved, some in ruins, these synagogues together with the cortejos, the cemeteries, and an elevator tower, also constitute a living testimony to community’s life in Izmir, which was one of the most spectacular of its kind and had the most spiritual and cultural influence on all Jewish diaspora communities in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Ybor City Walking Tour
There is no better way to experience Ybor City than at street level on foot. Come discover this vibrant and diverse city. There are walking tours to explore the many layers of history that make up the fabric of Ybor City.
Rediscovering Jewish Lviv
Pre-war Lviv was the center of the Jewish cultural, religious and political life. Writers, poets, scientists and satirists lived and worked in this city. Thanks to the legacy of these authors we can use our imagination to go back in time to the complex multi-cultural reality of pre-war Lviv. In our virtual walk, we will explore the places related to Jewish life, the places of interaction and cultural exchange as well as the tragic history of Lviv ghetto. Our city walk is also an invitation to reflect together on the possibilities and challenges of preserving Jewish heritage for future generations of Lvivians.
City Walk is one of three tours, developed in frames of the workshop “Lemberg/Lwów/לעמבערג/Львів: literary and artistic paths of a multicultural city” of the Summer school, “Jewish History, common history and heritage, culture, cities, environment””, organized by the Center for Urban History in East-Central Europe on 11 July – 5 August 2016.
