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Virtual Diaspora
Exploring Jewish Communities Around the Globe
We started the year touring Israel. We continue our journey with lands around the globe to which we were exiled, only to rebuild and establish fascinating stories. All tours will be broadcast live, and led by experienced tour guides. Some will include guides onsite, walking through the location they are presenting (where possible due to Covid restrictions and logistics).
Instructions: How to join the tours
TBDJ is partnering with Living Room Tours to deliver this series. A unique access code will be sent to you via email. Please use that link in order to register at Living Room Tours. Once registered, you will have access to all the live tours, as well as recordings (for 72 hours following the tour's completion). Detailed instructions on how to access the tours on the Living Room Tours site will be shared in your confirmation email.
Join the tours and watch recordings at:
https://portal.livingroomtours.com
Budapest
Hungary
TUESDAY, DEC 8
1:00PM
Tour Guide:
Timea Tarjani
The Budapest Jewish Quarter, the heritage area which was actually a ghetto during WWII, is one of the most popular places of the city with the still perceptible beautiful past. In spite of the the terrible history of the 20th century Hungarian Jewish communities, Jewish culture has a revival in Budapest with the largest Central and Eastern European Jewish community living here. My tour brings you exactly to the heart of this district where I grew up to show and tell you its past and present.
Santiago
CHILE
TUESDAY, DEC 15
1:00PM
Tour Guide:
Turismo Judaico
We invite you to enjoy an enriching experience in visiting historic and traditional Jewish life in Chile. During the tour we'll visit the most important places of Jewish life in Santiago de Chile, such as the Jewish Fire Station "Bomba Israel" - the only such station with Jewish volunteers, the Isarelit Maccabi Stadium, several synagogues including the oldest one - "Bicur Joilim", and the Hebrew Institute Jewish day school.
Recife
BRAZIL
TUESDAY, DEC 22
1:00PM
Tour Guide:
Turismo Judaico
The first organized Jewish community in Brazil was established in Recife during the period of Dutch colonial occupation (1630–1654). Dutch Jews founded the first Brazilian synagogue in Recife: Kahal Kadosh Ẓur Israel. The estimates of the Jewish population at Recife vary greatly. Some have the peak at 1,450 members in 1645. More recently, Jewish immigration to Recife started in 1910, and a community of 1,600 member built numerous institutions. In 2000, the building where the synagogue Kahal Kadosh Ẓur Israel was located was recognized as a "national historical patrimony" and a museum opened.
Buenos Aires
ARGENTINA
TUESDAY, DEC 29
1:00PM
Tour Guide:
Turismo Judaico
Through this experience, participants will learn how Argentina's Jewish Community life was born and developed. Jews arrived in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, laying the foundations of agricultural colonization and giving rise to the emergence of the mythical figure of the "Jewish Gaucho", the “Jewish Cowboy”. We will visit the most emblematic places of Jewish life in Buenos Aires, which consists of over 100 synagogues and multiple Jewish day schools, serving more than 270,000 people today.
India
TUESDAY, JAN 12
8:00PM
Tour Guide:
Rahel Musleah
India's Jewish heritage is a rich cultural and historical saga that stretches from biblical times until today. Explore each of India's Jewish communities as we visit sites and synagogues in Bombay, Alibag, Calcutta and Cochin. Led by Rahel Musleah, who was born in Calcutta, the seventh-generation of a Calcutta Jewish family that traces its roots to 17th-century Baghdad.
Girona
SPAIN
TUESDAY, JAN 19
1:00PM
Tour Guide:
Marc Francesch Camps
Cohabitation, coexistence, convenience. Discovering the Museum of Jewish History and the Jewish quarter of Girona, we will talk about how these three words generally summarize the life of the Girona Jewish community in its situation of social minority. How was their daily life; their cultural, political and religious day-to-day; and their relationship with the Christian society. Together, we will seek answers and ask ourselves new questions about Girona, a "Mother City in Israel".
Barcelona
SPAIN
TUESDAY, JAN 26
1:00PM
Tour Guide:
Victor Sorenssen, Eva McGowan
Discover the story of Jews in Barcelona through the most important chapters from the 9th century to today! We’ll walk through the fascinating history of this important Medieval Jewish community and explore important figures and Jewish life at the time. We'll also view the return of Jews to Sepharad, take a glimpse at the Spanish Civil War and Jewish involvement, and highllight the development of Barcelona’s modern Jewish communities. This tour will be lead by two members of the Jewish cultural platform, Mozaika.
Majorca Island
SPAIN
TUESDAY, FEB 2
1:00PM
Tour Guide:
Dani Rotstein
Discover the hidden Jewish history of Majorca Island. Have you heard about the Chuetas? During the Inquisition, the Crypto-Jews or Chuetas publicly professed Catholicism while privately adhering to Judaism. Synagogues were secretly built in private homes. Signs of this “secret” community can still be found today with many of the current jewelry shops having been kept within their families for generations beforehand.
Mexico City
MEXICO
TUESDAY, FEB 9
8:00PM
Tour Guide:
Luis Sokol
Jewish immigrants arrived in Mexico in the early 20th century and settled in what is now known as the Historic Center. Its streets recreated old traditions, with grocery stores, European bakeries, and kosher butchers. The community used rooms in their villas for studying and prayers. With this city tour we visit the places where Jewish life was established, streets of the "Old Merced", its current neighborhoods, and two of the oldest synagogues in Mexico.
Moldova
TUESDAY, FEB 16
1:00PM
Tour Guide:
Irina Shihova
Moldova has a very rich Jewish history and heritage. About 200 cities, towns and villages (shtetls, colonies, târgs) had Jewish population: from a few families to 50,000 people and more than 200,000 in total, prior to WW2. Moldova once had more than 300 synagogues, numerous Jewish cemeteries, schools, shops, baths, factories, windmills and watermills, private houses, and roads- most of this heritage was destroyed and demolished. Jewish Heritage Moldova are thoroughly mapping each existing, rededicated, neglected, ruined building, and are happy to share our knowledge, and to do it with love.
Kyiv (Kiev)
Ukraine
TUESDAY, FEB 23
1:00PM
Tour Guide:
Anatoly Kerzhner
Explore Jewish life of the past and present. We'll visit major synagogues (Central Kiev Synagogue, Galitsky Synagogue, Brodsky's Synagogue), the Babi Yar Memorial - site of the Nazi massacre of Kiev's Jewish population, the house where Golda Meier lived, and other locations tht represent Ukrainian shtetl life.
Belarus
TUESDAY, MAR 2
1:00PM
Tour Guide:
Dima Slepovitch
Jewish roots run deep in Belarus, which borders both Poland and Lithuania. Over 600 years ago, Judaism became one of the area’s traditional religions (eventually, there were 50 synagogues in Minsk alone). During this tour, you will see the most important places and pass through the centuries of Jewish history in the capital of Belarus. You will walk through one of the most famous Jewish quarters in Minsk – Rakovskoye suburb, which has been preserved to this day. This area is known as a place of remembrance for thousands of Belarusian Jews who died here during the Nazi occupation of the city. You will learn about the bravery of Masha Bruskina, and later about the Bielski brothers and beyond at the unique Resistance Museum.
