Press Releases
| Following Rabbi Neuda Footsteps... |
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... this motto became the leading creation idea for the participants of the Summer Photo Workshop organized by the Visual Arts Department of the Youth and Children House Olomouc. The basic theme of this year´s photography project were the visual values of the Jewish culture. The young photographers have found them (and sometimes arranged them) in the rooms of the synagogue and in the area of nearby situated Jewish cemetery. Fourteen young people interested in creative photography and led by the skilled lecturers were working for one week following the assigned theme. These photographic workshops have been organized regularly since 1995 and their goal has always been to offer the young people the possibility of concentrated photographic work enriched with knowledge of cultural and historical items of life in the considered area. This experience enabled the young photographers to create the pictures from inside and not simply from outside as usual. It was necessary to familiarize them with the important moments of the Jewish history and consequently with the everyday life of this nation and, last but not least, with the roots and sources of the Jewish wisdom.
The basic point of experience followed by the "staged" photographic creativity, was the Sabbath Supper, which is a family ritual in the evening before Sabbath - the most important holyday of the Jewish week. All participants of the workshop, being members of one large family, sat down to the set table in the synagogue and thus they became witnesses of the ritual lighting up the candles, hands washing and blessing the wine and bread (Challa). And then the common supper began accompanied by common talking about the present time.
Making the photo pictures was alternated with various enjoyment activities. We were reading mediations from the book Hours of Devotion written by Fanny Neuda, the wife of Abraham Neuda - the Rabbi of Loštice. We were reading Jewish fairy tales, we tried to dance Jewish dances and we learned to sing a Jewish song. Very important was the night we had spent in the local synagogue. Shortly before going to sleep, at the end of the day, in the darkness of the shadowy hall we were listening to the romance for violoncello and orchestra Kol Nidrei from Max Bruch.
During our visit of the Jewish cemetery we full filed our motto "FOLLOWING RABBI NEUDA’ FOOTSTEPS .." and tried to find the gravestone of historically very important rabbi who was serving in the synagogue of Loštice from 1835 to 1854. Many thanks to the members of the association "Respect and Tolerance" who enabled us this beautiful work in the synagogue and in the area of the Jewish cemetery and who helped us to learn more about the Jewish culture.
SUMMER PHOTO WOORKSHOP 2011 Town Loštice: Synagogue and Jewish cemetery, from 9th to 15th July 2011 Realisation: Youth and Children House Olomouc, Visual Arts Departement Project leader: Vladimír Janek, photography Lecturers: Jaroslav Šimeček, photography Věra Mikulcová, dramatic education Michaela Melzrová-Janková, dramatic education Photo from workshop HERE |
