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Showing posts from May, 2016

JACOB JR, MY JEWISH WORLD. HLUBOKÁ CASTLE. HLUBOKA NAD VLTAVOU/CZECH REPUBLIC

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Sunday, Iyar 21, 5776. May 29, 2016. Shalom! World. Neo-Gothic jewel of South Bohemia Hluboka Castle is the ideal destination in South Bohemia for history buffs, incorrigible romantics and even those who worship sports. The castle owes its current appearance to the Schwarzenberg family and is often describe as the most beautiful Czech castle. A piece of Windsor England in the middle of South Bohemia That's how one could sum up the magical Hluboka Castle, which got its present appearance in the 19th century after a Neo-Gothic reconstruction. Hluboka Castle was originally founded as a guardian castle in the middle of the 13th century by Bohemian kings. Within the context of the Romantic modification of the noble residence, the Schwarzenberges founded an expansive landscape park in the mid of the 19th century.  Castle tour The castle with its 140 rooms and 11 towers offers several tour variants. During the tour of the castle, one can peek insid

JACOB JR, MY JEWISH WORLD. ELEPHANT CAFÉ. KARLOVY VARY/CZECH REPUBLIC

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Monday, Iyar 15, 5776. May 23, 5776. Shalom! World.   A small gilded statue of an elephant, which can be seen onn the house standing behind the former Strauss House, will attract the attention of passerby instantly. It is the famous Elephant Café. It was in this café where J.W. Goeth celebrated his 37th birthday in 1786. Frantisek Palacky , Karel Havlicek Borovsky and other protagonists of the revolucionary year 1848 met here to hold political discussions.  Shalom! Aleichem. Cultural Support:  Jacob Jr B.A.C.E., avec L'Integration d'Association avec Israel et dans le Monde/Cz.

JACOB JR, MY JEWISH WORLD. THE SYNAGOGUE. CESKY KRUMLOV/CZECH REPUBLIC

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Thursday, Iyar 11, 5776. May 19, 2016. Shalom! World. Built in 1909, this neo-Romanesque Synagogue with an eight-sided tower and Torah shaped windows was used as a christian church for american soldiers in 1945 and as a Czech Hussite church from 1945 to 1968. It later fell into disrepair. In 1997 it was restituted to the Jewish community, which partenered with the Cesky Krumlov Development Fund (an independent entity owned by the municipality), to restore the building as a cultural venuewith a permanente exhibition about Jewish history in the town installed in the entryway/winter shul. The Temple was cronstructed, following the purchase of a garden plot, according to the plans of achitect Kafka from Praha, it was built by builder Sosna and master builder Hauber. Among others, the temple building commitee comprised: Ludwig Spiro, Dr. Emanuel Spiro, Dr, Schwarz, Julius Spiro, Dr. Kohn, Dr. Loria, Ignaz Lederer, S. Kobias and Julius Epstein. Each of them supported the pro

JACOB JR, MY JEWISH WORLD. THE JEWISH QUARTER. TREBIC/CZECH REPUBLIC

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Sunday, Iyar 7, 5776. May 15, 2016. Shalom! World. The first Jews came to Trebic as early as the 13th century, possibly in reation to the construction of St. Procopius' Basilica, and started to settle on the left bank of the Jihlava River. The Jewish Quater gradually grew till the second half of the 17th century when it reached its greatest extent.  In 1723, the then landowner, Jan Josef of Wallenstein, issued an order to exchange houses between the townspeople and the Jews in order to create a separated Ghetto. Therefore the Jews were closed in a designated area for a long time, and clearly separated from their christian neighbours with whom they lived for centuries without any major conflicts. During World War II, all the Jews were taken away to concentration camps, thus the Jewsih community disappeared entirely. Today the Jewish Quarter posesses a unique complex of 123 historical buildings. To name some of  them, there are two Synagogues, the Jewi

JACOB JR, MY JEWISH WORLD. LOKET/CZECH REPUBLIC

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Yom Shishi, Nissan 28, 5776. Friday, May 6, 2016. Omer: day 13. Shalom! World. Loket is a significant historical settlement enticing to touring the local monuments. At the same time it is a tourist centre with a wide offer of interesting destinations and options of spending the leisure time. The town is situated in a picturesque landscape of the Ohre River and Slavkov Forest. The dreamy, mildly undulating country with deep forest is full of colours in every season and it offers peace, idyllic places and natural points of interest such as the mythical Svatos Rocks. The gothical castle, open year-round and presenting a very interesting exhibition, stands out not only by its position. You will find the typical Loket burgher houses under the castle. The reconstructed town walls and the Trinity Column in the town square are unique as well. All is looked upon by the Baroque church of St. Wenceslas. The town offers a lot of new knowledge and once-in-a-li

JACOB JR, MY JEWISH WORLD. THE MUSEUM THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA. MADRID/SPAIN

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Monday, Nissan 24, 5776. May 2, 2016. Shalom! World. The Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza, which contains one of the world's foremost and most distinguished private art collections, opened on 8th October 1992. Acquired over two generations, the collection is directly linked to the names of Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1875-1947) and Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1921-2002). The most important group of paintings gathered together by the Thyssen-Bornemisza family was acquired by the Spanish State in July 1993 and spans a period dating from the late 13th century to the 1980s. In 1992 this historic collection was installed in the Palacio de Villahermosa after the building's conversion into a museum by the architect Rafael Moneo.  THE MASTERPIECE 1 EDWARD HOPPER - HOTEL ROOM, 1931 The loneliness of the modern city is a central theme in Hopper's work. In this painting, a woman sits on the edge of a bed in anonymous hotel room. It's night and she is t