Europe -- New Project to Digitize Jewish Cultural Collections

Photos at Jewish Museum, Florence. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Judaica Europea has just been launched -- it's a 3 million euro project aimed at providing internet access to items Jewish cultural interest in the collections of leading cultural institutions across the continent. It forms part of Europeana, a broader EC project to digitize Europe's cultural resources.

Judaica Europeana will work with European cultural institutions to identify content documenting the Jewish contribution to the cities of Europe.

It will digitize 10,500 photos, 1,500 postcards and 7,150 recordings as well as several million pages from books, newspapers, archives and press clippings. The digitized content will be available at Europeana.eu.

The target audiences are university teachers and students, schools, cultural heritage professionals, cultural tourists and the general public: "anyone interested in the history of European cities or Jewish culture."

The ambitious two-year project was announced this past week, with the launch of its web site. Partly funded by a 1.5 million euro  grant from the European Commission, it will initially involve ten institutions across Europe under the leadership of  the London-based European Association for Jewish Culture and the Judaica Collection of the Goethe University Library in Frankfurt.

Other partners include:
Alliance Israélite Universelle, Paris
Amitié, Centre for Research and Innovation, Bologna
British Library, London
Hungarian Jewish Archives, Budapest
Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw
The Jewish Museum of Greece, Athens
The Jewish Museum London
Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Rome

Judaica Europeana will begin by digitizing millions of pages and thousands of other items selected from the collections of its partner libraries, archives and museums. The next stage will be to aggregate other digital collections on Jews in European cities — wherever they may be.

"Jewish culture has been predominantly text-based; it will be a particular challenge for us to bring in as much audio-visual material as possible," said Lena Stanley-Clamp, the project’s manager and director of the European Association for Jewish Culture.

Rajasthan text by Dhamendra Kanwar

Rajasthan is the largest state of the Republic of India in terms of area. Though a desert with a few hilly spurs, Rajasthan is one of the world's most colorful regions, with heritage that spans the historic and the chivalric, blending it with the artistic and the aesthetic. Rajasthan is replete with splendid palaces, temples, wells, exotic wildlife sanctuaries, colorful festivals, and rich culture-in brief everything that travelers find interesting. I hope that one day I would visit Rajasthan with my kids when they're big enough and ready for interesting and exciting adventure.
This book, Rajasthan (text by Dhamendra Kanwar ), is a tribute not only to their kingdoms and the culture they developed, but also to the joie de vivre which marks the people and their lifestyle even today. In this book with amazing photography, you will learn alot and get inspiration through their architecture building, their lifestyle, especially their clothing and jewelry which we like.

Jaipur's signature building is the Hawa Mahal. Tonk was a Muslim kingdom, the only one in Rajasthan, and its Suehri Kothi or Golden Palace is appropriately named for its gilded interiors which are among the most lavish in Rajasthan.
JEWELRY INSPIRATION
Her jewelry reminds me of my Dries van Noten scarf spring09.

Her jewlery inspires me to bring out my beautiful Dries van Noten scarf which was made in India. I paired it with a Janis Savitt necklace, RO tank, Zara leggings, Christian Louboutin ankle boots. The scarf and the necklace for this look were inspired by reading through this book.

The jewelry of Indian lady also reminds me of Dries van Noten sandals-spring09, especially these pairs. Photo from style.com

Wishing everyone a wonderful day!!!Thank you for reading!!!

Kisses...Hanh ;-)