Milan Kundera and the Jews; lectures and discussion by PhDr. Mojmír Jeřábek and PhDr. Milan Uhde
Milan Kundera and the Jews; lectures and discussion by PhDr. Mojmír Jeřábek and PhDr. Milan Uhde The writer Milan Kundera, who grew up in the cultural "tripolis" of Brno, never made any secret of his love and admiration for Jewish artists. Mojmír Jeřábek, one of Kundera's close circle of friends in Brno, believes that Kundera's boyhood encounter with the composer Pavel Haas played a significant role in this regard. Kundera came from a musical family, so it is not surprising that he often liked to write about music. His essay on one of the greats of modern classical music, Arnold Schönberg, is brilliant - and it will also be one of the main topics of our evening. But there will also be a discussion of Kundera's relationship with Franz Kafka, and another of his old friends, the playwright Milan Uhde, will discuss Kundera's famous Jerusalem speech. Photo Guest
The one who didn't know whether he wanted to be a priest or a husband
The one who did not know whether he wanted to be a priest or a husband Accept our invitation to an evening with a rare and distinctive guest, Jan Špilar, a well-known Brno hairdresser and clergyman. As a trained hairdresser, at the age of 18 he got a job as a make-up artist at the National Theatre and from there to make-up the actors in Forman's Oscar-winning film Amadeus. He was awarded a gold medal for starting the Czech section of Haute Couture Francaise. For thirty years he has been running the successful hairdressing salon Střihoruký Edward. He has also come a long way in his quest to become a priest. It culminated in his ordination as a deacon in the Diocese of Brno, where he prepares fiancés for marriage and provides spiritual support to families. He is one of the people who enter into the lives of many people and in his unique way brings God into the public space, even over the hairdresser's chair. May's discussion will also touch on the topic of the Jewish roots of the Shpilar family on Dad's side or the story of the Kytlic family, relatives on Mom's side who were honored with the title of Righteous Among the Nations for their selfless assistance and protection of the persecuted during the Holocaust. The book that did not disappoint, Kadas Mana, will be available for purchase at the event. Five Conversations About God Outside the Church, published last year by Cesta. One of the interviews is conducted with Jan Spilar. The evening will be live streamed on Little Mehrin's FB.
Rabbi Feder and his approach to living in trauma
Rabbi Feder and his approach to living in trauma The May commemoration of the end of the Second World War can be understood in different ways. We are very happy that PhDr. Zuzana Peterová accepted our invitation. She is personally and professionally close to the topic of the return of survivors and the transmission of their trauma to the next generation, as her family lost around sixty members during the Holocaust. She works as a psychotherapist at the Prague Jewish community and is the author of a number of books, including one on Rabbi Richard Feder. The name of Dr. Richard Feder is inseparably linked with Brno. He was born at the end of the 19th century and lived to the venerable age of 95. There are still those among us who remember his educated and kind personality. At the age of sixty he was assigned with his entire family to the transport to Terezín. Even there, as a rabbi, he tried to maintain a religious life in difficult conditions, contracting marriages and supporting his surroundings with his wisdom. His wife perished in Terezín, his sons and daughter, together with their families, were murdered in Auschwitz. He was the only one of his extended family to live to see the liberation. In 1953 he was elected regional rabbi of the Moravian-Silesian religious communities and moved to Brno. He remained there after 1961, when he became the regional rabbi. From the stories of those who met him, we know that he never outwardly succumbed to his grief. It was he who visited the families of the survivors and gave comfort and hope in conversations. He died in 1970 and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Brno.
I'll bring Grandma home...
I'll bring my grandmother home... Friday, April 14, 6 p.m., Malý Mehrin Museum, 14 Vídeňská Street I'll bring my grandmother home... Ann Altman wrote to us unexpectedly this February. She talked about the portrait of her grandmother Anna Wotzilka, after whom she was named Ann, and her plan to dedicate the painting to the future exhibition of the Mehrin - the Moravian Jewish Museum. She married Emil Löwy from Slavonice, who ran a mill in Znojmo. In Brno, the couple built two houses on Botanická Street, where they moved with their two children in the autumn of 1938 after the Nazis occupied Znojmo. They find a way for their daughter Isyna to escape to Britain, but not for themselves.An extraordinary lady, Ann Altman, granddaughter of the Löwy and Körner families, wife of Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Sidney Altman, successful scientist in the field of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, awarded for her long-standing support for the development of democratic processes in Mongolia, will guide us through the story of her Moravian family, which passes through Brno and Znojmo.The debate will be simultaneously interpreted into Czech. The stream of the programme can be watched on the Little Mehrin FB, and the recording will be available on the YouTube portal ofMehrin.
Yom ha Shoah - Public reading of the names of Holocaust victims.
Yom ha Shoah - Public reading of the names of Holocaust victims Tuesday, 18 April at 14.00, Náměšt' nad Oslavou Square Organised by the Municipal Cultural Centre in Náměšt' nad Oslavou in cooperation with the Terezín Initiative Institute and Malý Mehrin. The accompanying event will be a lecture by the historian of the Jewish Museum in Prague, PhDr. JanaŠplíchalová, entitled Where did they go?, which will focus on the position of Jews during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the organisation of transports, the subsequent extermination process, with reference to specific persons from Náměšt' nad Oslavou and the surrounding area. The lecture will take place in the local Sokol Hall from 5 pm.
Warsaw: A divided city
Warsaw: A City Divided Wednesday 19 April 2023 at 8 pm, ART Cinema, Cihlářská 19, Brno During World War II, occupied Warsaw was divided by a wall - a Jewish ghetto grew up there, where not only Jews from Warsaw but also from other parts of Poland and Germany were forcibly relocated. Conditions were inhumane, and in 1942 regular deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp began. Some of the ghetto inhabitants decided to make a desperate and heroic gesture - to die in battle. On 19 April 1943, exactly eighty years ago, the uprising broke out. It was brutally suppressed by the German soldiers and the ghetto was razed to the ground. Warsaw was to become a model Nazi city, and German architects were working on plans for a massive rebuilding. Canadian filmmaker and historian with Polish roots, Eric Bednarski, discovered by happy accident a unique documentary - amateur footage from the ghetto, shot by a young Polish man who risked his life in the process. Apart from the Nazi propaganda films, this is the only surviving material depicting the daily life of the ghetto's inhabitants.Bednarski became interested in the wartime fate of Warsaw and decided to map it. In addition to the unique archival footage, his film also features survivors, as well as architects and urban activists. We follow the destruction of the city as well as its post-war reconstruction and the efforts to embody the memory of the vanished Polish-Jewish metropolis in its streets, not only in the form of monuments and museums.Directed by Eric Bednarski, 2019, 71 minutes, Polish with Czech and English subtitles.The discussion after the film will be attended by Martin Reiner from Mehrin - Moravian Jewish Museum and Lucie Zakopalová from the Polish Institute in Prague.The screening is co-organized by Kino Art, the Polish Institute in Prague and Malý Mehrin as part of the Days of Polish Culture in Brno: https://dpk.brno.cz/
Warsaw Ghetto Diary
Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto Tuesday, April 25, 6 p.m., Malý Mehrin Museum, Vídeňská 14 We would like to symbolically commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising with a debate over the diary of Adam Czerniaków, the head of the Jewish Council (Judenrat) of the ghetto. Czerniaków kept his diary from September 1939 until his death in July 1942, when he passed away by his own hand. He was reacting to the order to compile deportation lists for the Treblinka extermination camp, before which he failed to save the children from the local orphanage. From a historical and literary point of view, the diary is a document of paramount importance. The lines are not only an authentic source of their time, but also provide a powerful intimate testimony of the author's inner world. The book was published under the title The Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto by Sefer Publishing House, translated by Jiří Červenka.The invitation to the discussion was accepted by historian Jiří Friedl, a leading expert on modern Polish history and Czech-Polish relations, who lectures at Masaryk University and the University of Defence in Brno. Another guest will be NDBrno actor Vladimír Krátký, who will perform excerpts from the diary. The evening will be hosted by historian Táňa Klementová.The programme is held as part of the Days of Polish Culture in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Prague.
Meeting with documentary filmmaker MARTIN ŠMOK
Date: 27 March 18:00 After the spring break (13-19 March) we will follow up with a meeting with documentary filmmaker MARTIN ŠMOK, who will introduce the IWalk mobile app in detail. You can download this virtual guide, which connects the testimonies of Brno's witnesses with the places where crucial events in the story of the Jewish community in our city took place, for free on your phone. But it's definitely worth hearing about the circumstances of the creation of this excellent tool directly from the creator; Martin Šmok is a very entertaining and evocative narrator.
Guided tasting of great kosher wines from the Lower Austrian winery HAFNER
Date: 9 March 17:00 A guided tasting of great kosher wines from the Lower Austrian winery HAFNER combined with a talk about what kosher wine is and how it is made. The tasting will be moderated and commented by the legendary chef of the Bratislava kosher restaurant Chez David LADISLAV POLÁK. Again, the entrance fee is voluntary, but the event is limited to 30 participants for obvious reasons. Participation must therefore be confirmed by e-mail muzeum@malymehrin.cz.
Discussion with KATHI DIAMANT about Kafka's Last Love: The Mystery Of Dora Diamant
Link to Facebook event Date: 2 March 18:00 American writer Kathi Diamant has been tracing the story of Franz Kafka's last love for Dora Diamant for forty years.Her book Kafka's Last Love was published in 2003, based on years of research and study of original sources, including Kafka's original diaries, notes, and most importantly, correspondence between him and Dora that was confiscated by the Gestapo.The book has been translated into 8 languages and has won numerous prestigious international awards. The author herself, Kathi Diamant, continues to research and discover more previously unknown facts about both Kafka and his relationship with Dora. To this end, she also founded the Kafka Project http://www.kafkaproject.com/. This unique lecture and discussion is the first event of the newly opened Little Mehrin Museum. The talk will be hosted by journalist Judita Matyášová, will be held in English and will be simultaneously interpreted into Czech. LIVE STREAM HERE ON FB AND YOUTUBE CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/@mehrin-moravskezidovskemuzeum. Admission to the event is voluntary.
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