Mihaela Groza A TALE OF TWO SITES: JEWISH HERITAGE PROTECTION AND INTERPRETATION IN A TRANSYLVANIAN CITY MA Thesis in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management. Central European University CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2017 A TALE OF TWO SITES: JEWISH HERITAGE PROTECTION AND INTERPRETATION IN A TRANSYLVANIAN CITY By Mihaela Groza (Romania) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ________________________Professor Carsten Wilke____________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ Examiner CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2017 A TALE OF TWO SITES: JEWISH HERITAGE PROTECTION AND INTERPRETATION IN A TRANSYLVANIAN CITY by Mihaela Groza (Romania) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2017 A TALE OF TWO SITES: JEWISH HERITAGE PROTECTION AND INTERPRETATION IN A TRANSYLVANIAN CITY by Mihaela Groza (Romania) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Supervisor CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2017 I, the undersigned, Mihaela Groza, candidate for the MA degree in Cultural Heritage Studies: Academic Research, Policy, Management declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 29 May 2017 __________________________ Signature CEU eTD Collection Abstract This study discusses how minority heritage is used to attain certain goals, be they political, social or historical, in the Transylvanian city of Alba Iulia. It seeks to do so by discussing perceptions of Jewish heritage sites in the above-named city, from a spatial and temporal point of view. The author approaches these issues by collecting oral data, such as interviews and surveys, and analyzing the impact collective memory had on the interpretation and protection of Jewish heritage sites. Results show that when included in a larger local historical narrative, the Jewish heritage sites trigger automatically different meanings, at times incompatible with the everyday realities and the historical past of Alba Iulia. The author concludes that for a better protection of the Jewish heritage sites it is needed a holistic approach of the idea of heritage, approach rooted in shared concerns and not divided interests. CEU eTD Collection i Table of contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Am I my brother’s keeper? Jewish Places and their Perceptions ................................................... 5 1.2. What is Jewish Heritage in Alba Iulia?.............................................................................. 17 1.2.1. The Jewish Cemetery .................................................................................................. 18 1.2.2. The Ashkenazi Synagogue.......................................................................................... 21 1.3. A city and its perceptions................................................................................................... 23 1.4. What is a Jewish space and how can it be interpreted? ..................................................... 28 1.5. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 30 Chapter 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 32 Jewish Heritage, a time capsule .................................................................................................... 32 2.1. The Jews of Alba Iulia ....................................................................................................... 33 CEU eTD Collection 2.2. Opening Pandora’s Box ..................................................................................................... 40 2.3. Down the memory lane ...................................................................................................... 41 2.4. Heritage of the past, heritage of the future......................................................................... 43 2.4.1. Jewish Time ................................................................................................................ 43 ii 2.4.2. Romanian Time........................................................................................................... 45 2.4.3. Hungarian Time .......................................................................................................... 47 2.5. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 49 Chapter 3 ....................................................................................................................................... 50 When heritage meets contemporary society: Jewish patrimony and the different meanings it triggers in Alba Iulia ..................................................................................................................... 50 3.1. How interest in Jewish heritage developed in Romania .................................................... 51 3.2. Heritage Counts: Meanings and Indicators ........................................................................ 54 3.2.1. Jewish Heritage as indicator of urban identity............................................................ 54 3.2.2. Jewish Heritage as a substitue of cultural diversity .................................................... 55 3.2.3. Jewish Heritage as indicator of democratic values ..................................................... 57 3.2.4. Jewish Heritage as a counter narrative........................................................................ 57 3.3. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 58 Chapter 4 ....................................................................................................................................... 59 One hand washes the other and both wash the face: a list of ideas for preserving, interpreting and promoting Jewish heritage in Alba Iulia ....................................................................................... 59 4.1. Overview of the chapter .................................................................................................... 59 CEU eTD Collection 4.2. Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 62 4.3. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 69 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 70 iii Bibliography.................................................................................................................................. 74 CEU eTD Collection iv List of Figures, Tables or Illustrations Figure 1: Map of Alba Iulia, dated 1741,.................................................................................... 10 Figure 2 : Josephinische Landesaufnahme, 18th century .............................................................. 11 Figure 3 : Current map of Alba Iulia ........................................................................................... 15 Figure 4: Map of Alba Iulia which indicates the location of the synagogue and the cemetery .... 16 Figure 5: Jewish cemetery of Alba Iulia ....................................................................................... 20 Figure 6 : Plan of the synagogue, 2017........................................................................................ 22 CEU eTD Collection v Introduction The present study examines the impact of local collective memory on the representation and usage of Jewish tangible heritage in post-communist Romania. A specific feature of Romanian Jewry, at the end of the Second World War, was that