Thanks to its expressive form, the New Synagogue and the Jewish Community Centre in Mainz erected in 2008–2010 is a powerful sign in the urban space, creating a sort of aesthetic energy of the place. Its shape and influence results from the special synergy of an ultra-modern form and content deeply rooted in tradition. Serving particular functions, the building at the same time becomes an important urban art piece, determining and defining identity of the place.
This article focuses on the new processes of revival of the Jewish community and the rediscovery and reinterpretation of Jewish heritage observed in Cracow in recent years. Referring to the richness of the Jewish heritage in Cracow accumulated during the centuries-long presence of this ethnic minority in the city, particularly in the quarter of Kazimierz, it moves beyond the popular narratives on touristification and commercialization of the city’s Jewish past. The author covers a range of topics from the emergence of new Jewish activities and the greater visibility of diverse Jewish communities in the urban space to the establishment of new museum institutions and the evolution of the Jewish Culture Festival and new interpretations of memorial spaces.
This article describes the circumstances in which a German crew shot a film in the Warsaw Ghetto in May and June 1942. The author employs visual materials and eyewitness' accounts of Warsaw Ghetto Jews. They are an important counterpoint, revealing the background and the persuasive dimension of the Nazi message. The text is aimed at an understanding of the propagandistic intention, rooted in the specifically Nazi techniques of persuasion. To do this, the author refers to the sources of anti-Semitic imaginarium and the modes of depiction of the Jew as an enemy figure. The reconstruction of the image of the Jewish community in this film is reinforced by references to broader ideological and socio-cultural contexts.
The Role of Visual, Semantic and Sensual Aspects of Architecture in Perpetuating the Memory of the Past – the New Synagogue in Mainz