Does morality and ethics need religion?
On Wednesday, October 23, 2024, we welcomed the book of the same name into the world. We introduced it with these words:
Professor of nuclear chemistry, RNDr. Jiří Hála, a member of the Jewish Community of Brno and one of the last survivors who spent three years in Terezín as a child, is publishing a new book, his fifth in a row. Unlike the first, professional ones, in which he focused on radioactivity, in his latest books he has set his sights primarily on the toxic attention paid in the past by the Catholic Church to the "children of Jerusalem".
Book Does morality and ethics need religion? compiled as editor from the reflections of nine Anglo-Saxon philosophers and one physician. The answer is not hard to guess, just from the way the title of the book is constructed. But the essays contained in the book force the reader to consider the subject in a broader context than is usual.
The publisher Martin Reiner talked with Jiří Hála, read excerpts and asked questions.
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Mr. President in Little Mehrin
Thursday, October 10, 2024 was an extraordinary date for the Little Mehrin, and thus for the entire project of the Moravian Jewish Museum Mehrin. During its
on his way to South Moravia, President Petr Pavel visited us in the early morning. He spent almost an hour at the Viennese, watched a short film about the creation of the Little Mehrin and also looked at all the exhibitions with credible interest. He was most impressed by the architectural design of the future museum and expressed the idea that not only the city of Brno, but the entire Moravian region would deserve such a prestigious building, which in the future could become
an attraction for tourists both in terms of architecture and content. The author of the photographs is Monika Hlaváčová.
The influence of great history on the fate of Jews in the Shoah on the example of Miroslav
The lecture on Wednesday 9 October was prepared by Aleš Bednařík, who has lived in Miroslav since 1999. Since then he has been privately researching the fate of the victims of the Shoah in Miroslav with varying intensity. The debate with him was led by historian Táňa Klementová, and the attentive listeners were not only regular visitors to our lectures, but also some residents of Miroslav, who had travelled to Brno and did not want to miss the talk about their former neighbours...
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Closing of the exhibition Places where the Moravian Torah Scrolls were at home - with Sheila Pallay
White Places of Jewish Moravia and Silesia
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The labyrinth of normalization in us
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E+I correspondence
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Nora Lustig – The Destiny between Brno and Norway
On Wednesday, 11 October, a lecture was held at which doc. Miluše Juříčková from Masaryk University presented one of the many fates of Jewish refugees. Nora Lustig was a member of the International League of Women for Peace and Freedom. Although she herself had helped refugees from Germany and Austria, she too was forced to go to Norway through the Nansen Foundation, but this refuge soon became a target of the Nazi occupation.
She was imprisoned, deported and murdered. Her grave can be found in the Brno Jewish cemetery.
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Boys from Boskovice
On Wednesday, October 4, our invitation to a talk was accepted by Mrs. Vicky Unwin, granddaughter of the "Moravian Kafka" Hermann Ungar. Her talk was not only about
around her book Boy from Boskovice, in which she comes to terms with her family's "history" of the complex characters of her father Thomas and
Grandpa Hermann. "We invited Mrs. Vicky not only as the granddaughter of an important writer, but as Mrs. Vicky Unwin," said Mehrin, speaking for
Táňa Klementová, and therefore the debate was also about her acceptance of her own Jewish roots and family heritage from Moravia. A recording of the entire discussion can be
see it on our Facebook page.
Organ in Jewish liturgy
On Thursday, September 21, we were honored by a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Peter, the parents of the current rabbi of Prague. Mrs. Peter had already lectured with us in May of this year, and now she came together with her husband Václav Peter, who is the organist at the Jerusalem Synagogue in Prague and an organist and music therapist. Their talk was mainly about the specific organ of the Jerusalem Synagogue, its maintenance and operation, but above all about the creation of music for this instrument - the title of the lecture Organ in Jewish Liturgy thus completely fulfilled the announced theme.
Fred Iltis - 100 - South and North of the Border
Under this title we opened the third exhibition in our premises on Tuesday, 19 September 2023...
Fred Iltis was born on April 20, 2023 in Brno. He fled with his family to the United States to escape the Nazis, where after the war he earned a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of California and in the 1960s settled with his wife Julia in San Jose, where he taught in the biology department. He became very sensitive to minority issues and injustices, and began documenting the activities of the civil rights movement through black and white photographs, among other things. He developed, printed and carefully archived his photographs at his home. With a modesty all his own, he refused offers to exhibit them. It was not until 2008 that he accepted a proposal from Daniele Ravenna, who exhibited a set of 40 photographs carefully selected by Fred in Milan in 2009. However, Fred Iltis did not live to see the opening of the exhibition. We are pleased that, thanks to the kind loan of Mr. Ravenna, we can present these photographs in Brno, just 100 years after the birth of their author, who would certainly have enjoyed his return to his hometown.
David Placzek in Café Kaprál
David Placzek, who died in Australia in 2008, was present in Brno on 26 June, of course only symbolically, or rather through his book of memoirs. However, he was more than perfectly represented by his niece Rachel Alon-Margalit, who lives in Israel and who was instrumental in getting the book published in English in 2016. Now the book is being published in Czech as the first title of the Mehrin edition, the establishment of which fulfils another of the stated tasks of the project to build the Moravian Jewish Museum Mehrin.
Since there is an exhibition at Vídeňská 14 since last week, which does not allow for a hall arrangement, we moved the "baptism" to the magnificent scenery of Café Kaprál in the city centre and we were delighted by how many people took the time to attend this festive evening. The evening was hosted by Tanya Klementová and Martin Reiner. The book launch was also attended by four
members of the Placzek family from Brno, whose Café Placzek offers excellent coffee and cakes.
Since there is an exhibition at Vídeňská 14 since last week, which does not allow for a hall arrangement, we moved the "baptism" to the magnificent scenery of Café Kaprál in the city centre and we were delighted by how many people took the time to attend this festive evening. The evening was hosted by Tanya Klementová and Martin Reiner. The book launch was also attended by four
members of the Placzek family from Brno, whose Café Placzek offers excellent coffee and cakes.
Opening of Werner Malle's exhibition
On Friday 23 June, the opening of the exhibition Traces of Light by the Czech-German sculptor and artist Werner Malle took place at Vídeňská 14. Werner spent six days in Brno with his wife and personally saw both the installation of the exhibition and the erection of the two-ton colossus Restlicht (Residual Light) on Svoboda Square, which commemorates the most difficult period for European Jews between 1938 and 1945. We would like to thank Jozv Hyžný for his significant help in the installation of the exhibition, and Mirka Holasová for the photos from the opening. Special thanks go to Petr Šesták, who came up with the idea of organizing the Werner exhibition in Brno and also connected us with each other. And we would also like to greet our colleagues from the Meeting Brno festival, with whom we worked closely with in handling the logistics of the Restlicht exhibition.
Jeřábek and Uhde about Milan Kundera
The discussion on Monday, led by PhDr. Mojmír Jeřábek and PhDr. Milan Uhde, was of great interest. The object of their interest was the personality of Milan Kundera. Whoever is interested in what was discussed can listen to the whole lecture on the Facebook page of Malý Mehrin and see the photos of Vít Mádr below...
The personality of Dr. Richard Feder will not be forgotten
Wednesday's lecture by psychotherapist and writer Zuzana Peterová struck the hearts of all present. The content of her presentation was the life story of Dr. Richard Feder, who worked in Brno from 1953 until his death in 1970. The atmosphere of the evening is probably best summed up by an observation and a question from one of the visitors at the end. In my eyes, you are carrying on the legacy of Dr. Feder, because you too are giving comfort and hope to those who turn to you! What a simply spoken tribute to both...
Students at Vienna
It is gratifying for us that the Carriers of Memory exhibition, which will be installed in Vienna until mid-June, has not escaped the attention of educators who are looking for interactive teaching methods for their pupils and students. On Tuesday, 2 May, the exhibition was visited by students from the Brno Gymnasium, tr. Kpt. Jaroše, who were introduced not only to the exhibition itself, but also to the project of creating the Moravian Jewish Museum Mehrin by Martin Reiner. The students then began to listen individually to the testimonies of witnesses and to examine the contemporary documents and documents that are displayed in the exhibition. Some of them then recorded their reflections in the visitors' book...
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The heroic act of a small number of people who were to be included in the last transport and chose to die with their heads held high is relatively well known to the world.
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the uprising (19 April 1943), we nevertheless invited historian Jiří Friedl to Vienna 14, who spoke very insightfully not only about the uprising, but about the entire history of the ghetto and life in it. Vladimír Krátký, an actor from the National Theatre Brno, read excerpts from the Warsaw Diaries
ghetto, the author of which is none other than Adam Czerniaków, a long-time chairman of the local Jewish community and then of the Judenrat, which took care of the running of the ghetto. Czerniaków's life ends tragically: he poisons himself with cyanide in his office when he discovers that he cannot prevent the transports and the liquidation of the ghetto.
A minor event in the extremely interesting evening, which was insightfully moderated by Táňa Klementová, was the participation of Edita Krystýnková, who was born in the Warsaw Ghetto and spent the first two years of her life there. The photographs were taken as usual by Vít Mádr.
Portrait of Anna Löwy
On Friday, April 14, Little Mehrin experienced something extraordinary. Ann Altman, who was born in Bristol, England, after the war, arrived from the United States, but her family tree includes several important Moravian Jewish families. None of her four grandparents survived the Holocaust, but her grandmother Anna Löwy (from the family of Znojmo brewer Rudolf Wotzilka) remained with the survivors in a beautiful portrait painting. When Ann Altman learned the year before last that the Moravian Jewish Museum Mehrin was being established in Brno, she got in touch with us, offered her help, and after some time decided to donate her grandmother's portrait to the museum. She brought it personally, talked to journalists on that occasion and in the evening at Vienna Street with the visitors of the ceremony of handing over the painting.
Thank you, and we see it as a commitment!
Visit of the Minister of Culture
On 1 April, the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic Martin Baxa visited our "temporary" museum. He was personally guided through the exhibition Carriers of Memory by its author Martin Šmok. The Minister came with his wife and stayed with us for over an hour, so we had enough time to discuss a number of questions about the future of the project and its support from the Ministry and the government. Although the economic situation of the country is not favourable due to the epidemic of covid, the war in Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis, it is clear that we are strong enough as a country to withstand it and not to give up on good and important things such as the building of the Moravian Jewish Museum. In any case, the meeting filled us with hope and optimism; it is obvious that Martin Bax has the support of our project.
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Presentation of the Brno IWalk
Documentary filmmaker Martin Šmok has prepared two virtual walks through Brno's Jewish past, one of which is now fully available. Brno has now joined the nearly ten cities in the Czech Republic that already have their own IWalk, giving teachers and students in particular
a great tool for teaching local history. The mobile app called IWalk is freely downloadable on Google Play (for smartphones
On March 27, Martin Šmok came to present his work to the visitors of the Little Mehrin, and during the discussion it turned out that there were also women in the audience who had experienced Ben Benari in person; one of the virtual guides. The audience also had the opportunity to see a part of the unpublished IWalk No.2. Thanks to the USC Shoah Foundation, OpenEye, Meeting Brno and SAKO, a.s., which
contributed financially to the creation of the Brno IWalk. As did the Mehrin Foundation, which initiated the whole thing.
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Wine tasting from the Hafner winery
Ladislav Polák is from Bratislava, where he and his wife have run the kosher restaurant Chez David since 1993. They came to Brno to present the excellent kosher wines of the Lower Austrian winemaker Julius Hafner on the day of the presidential inauguration. It is fair to say that guided tastings are one of those happy events where people leave in a good mood and, at best, a little smarter. This time there was all the more reason to raise a glass in joy, and the excellent brandy that came at the end suitably crowned the whole hilarious evening! By the way, you can taste Hafner's wine, which is known in forty countries around the world, at every event we organize in Malý Mehrin.
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Lecture by American writer Kathi Diamant
The lecture by the American writer Kathi Diamant, author of the bestselling Kafka's Last Love about Dora Diamant, was the first test of our space at Vídeňská in a "hall" setting. The thirty chairs available to us were fully occupied, and another ten people somehow crowded around, so we checked where the limits of our capacity were! (And then we bought some more chairs.:-)) The talk about Franz Kafka's last (short, but very important) love was engaging, entertaining and moving. Although it lasted an hour and a half, the audience stayed as one man until the end. We thank not only the author (and her husband, who served the pictures at the end), but also Judita Matyášová, who mediated everything, Katka Báňová, who interpreted perfectly, and finally Vít Mádra, who took these nice photos for us.
Opening ceremony, opening ceremony
The opening of Martin Šmok's exhibition The Carriers of Memory, which was also the grand opening of the museum, was a success. At least in the sense that the technology did not fail and that most of the invited guests were present, including rare guests such as Karel Ellinger (born 1928), who survived
Auschwitz and several other concentration camps, Milan Uhde, Mayor of the Statutory City of Brno Markéta Vaňková, Mayor of the Brno-střed district Vojtěch Mencl, Director of the Moravian Library Tomáš Kubíček and many others. The author of the exhibition and the author of the architectural design of the museum Radim Horák, head of the Kamkab!net studio, was also present. We toasted the success of the Little Mehrin with Táňa Klementová and the director of the "temporary" museum Jitka Králová.
The photographs were taken by Vít Mádr and the camera or the microphone pole belonged to the crew of Monika Rychlíková, who is filming a half-hour documentary about Little Mehrin for the Babylon programme.
Exhibition and interior
In the morning before the opening, our friend and excellent photographer Petr Soldán came to Vídeňská 14 and in an hour he took a series of professional shots of the interior with Martin Šmok's already installed exhibition Carriers of Memory. So we won't have to use either the visualizations of the architectural design or our own cute amateur mobile phone shots. There are plenty of images and we will certainly pull them out like rabbits out of a hat on various occasions; for now, at least a first taste.
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