Along the Jewish Trails in Gorizia, guided tour with Lorenzo Drascek and Dr. Renato Podbersič
(meeting point: synagogue in Gorizia; also part of the official GO! 2025 – European Capital of Culture program)
On the guided tour Along the Jewish Trails in Gorizia, visitors will learn about the traces of Jewish cultural heritage in Gorizia, which connects the synagogue in Italian Gorizia with the former Jewish cemetery in Rožna Dolina near Nova Gorica. After the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, the unified space was divided for centuries, as was the Jewish community in Gorizia – the synagogue remained in Italian Gorizia, while the Jewish cemetery was in Rožna Dolina in the former Yugoslavia. Along the way, it will be possible to learn about the rich history of the Jewish presence, prominent individuals of the community, their activities and integration into city life. The guided tour will be conducted in Slovenian and Italian by Lorenzo Drascek and Dr. Renato Podbersič.
Along the Jewish Trails in Gorizia, guided tour with Lorenzo Drascek and Dr. Renato Podbersič
(meeting point: synagogue in Gorizia; also part of the official GO! 2025 – European Capital of Culture program)
On the guided tour Along the Jewish Trails in Gorizia, visitors will learn about the traces of Jewish cultural heritage in Gorizia, which connects the synagogue in Italian Gorizia with the former Jewish cemetery in Rožna Dolina near Nova Gorica. After the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, the unified space was divided for centuries, as was the Jewish community in Gorizia – the synagogue remained in Italian Gorizia, while the Jewish cemetery was in Rožna Dolina in the former Yugoslavia. Along the way, it will be possible to learn about the rich history of the Jewish presence, prominent individuals of the community, their activities and integration into city life.
Spelling rules for translating Hebrew, a round table with Maja Kutin, Dr. Samo Skralovnik, Dr. Helena Dobrovoljc and Rok Kuntner. The discussion will be moderated by Marjetka Bedrač.
Slovenian spelling is a fundamental work that contains rules on the Slovenian script, as well as rules for borrowing from other languages. In line with the development of the language, spelling rules are constantly being systematically supplemented, which is ensured by the spelling commission operating at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and proposals for supplementing spelling rules are also the subject of public debate. Hebrew belongs to the group of languages that are written with non-Latin letters, so when borrowing from Hebrew we often encounter conundrums about how to write Hebrew words in Slovenian.
Exhibition: People of the Book – Jewish Literature and Its Legacy
On the occasion of this year’s European Days of Jewish Culture, the Center of Jewish Cultural Heritage Synagogue Maribor presents an informative exhibition dedicated to the most important Jewish sacred texts and secular works. This is the first exhibition of its kind in Slovenia, highlighting both the role of Jewish literature in shaping Jewish thought, faith, and tradition, and introducing visitors to some of the most prominent Jewish writers.
The exhibition consists of thematic panels, each exploring a specific aspect of Jewish literature. Together, they provide a comprehensive overview that resonates with the EDJC 2025 theme, “People of the Book.” All materials are also available in English, making the exhibition suitable for touring within Slovenia and abroad.
Renia Spiegel: Renia's Diary, a book presentation with translator Jana Unuk and Boris Hajdinjak. The discussion will be moderated by Bogumiła Płachtej.
Renia Spiegel was born into a Jewish family in Poland in 1924. In 1939, just before the German and Soviet invasions of Poland, she began writing a diary, in which she described everyday life during the occupation, school, problems with friends, first love, the unbearable pain of separation from her mother, and the longing for peace. She weaved the events together with her thoughtful, caustic, and surprisingly mature poetry. The last entry in the diary was made by Renia's boyfriend in July 1942, after she was killed by the Germans. Renia's diary is part of the Bellak family's family legacy, and was only publicly published a few years ago.
Citing and researching biblical, Jewish and early Christian written sources, presentation of a scientific monograph with editors Dr. Sam Skralovnik and Mag. Aljaž Krajnec. The presentation will be followed by a practical workshop.
The scientific monograph on citing and researching biblical, Jewish and early Christian written sources is the first scientific work in Slovenia that offers systematic and unified instructions for citing scientific sources and literature from the Judeo-Christian field. The monograph is the result of many years of work and experience of higher education teachers and researchers at the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana, and its authors tried to fill the gap in the field of standardized citing of the above-mentioned sources in the Slovenian language area. The monograph is based on and builds on the work of Robert Petkovšek Citing in the methodology of scientific work at the Faculty of Theology, University of Ljubljana, with which the so-called The Chicago Manual of Style has been established as a standard for theological scientific research work in Slovenia, while also taking into account comparable scientific works published so far in Europe and the wider international space.
Maribor Synagogue – a cultural monument of national importance, open doors days, Mon-Fri
(also part of the DEKD/TKD 2025 project: Walls of our past, foundations of our future)
The former Jewish synagogue in Maribor is the only preserved medieval synagogue in Slovenia. Today, it no longer serves its original purpose, but is home to the public institution Center of Jewish Cultural Heritage Synagogue Maribor. The primary tasks of the institution are research and presentation of Jewish heritage, culture and art, which our visitors can learn about at a variety of cultural events and occasional exhibitions.
Maribor Synagogue – Cultural Monument of National Importance, Open Doors Day
The former Synagogue in Maribor is the only preserved medieval synagogue in Slovenia. Today it houses Center of Jewish Cultural Heritage Synagogue Maribor, and the synagogue building is protected as a cultural and historical monument of national importance. During the open doors day, visitors will be able to tour the former synagogue and learn more about the Jewish community that once used it.
Jewish Languages, Exhibition
Jews everywhere, wherever they live, speak and write differently from their neighbours. Sometimes their language is different because of a few extra Hebrew words, other times they speak a completely different language. In the centuries around the beginning of our era, Jews spoke Judeo-Aramaic instead of Hebrew, and a few centuries later, Judeo-Greek. As they emigrated from Israel and then created new communities in other lands, they continued to learn the local languages, speaking and writing them in their own unique, Jewish way. Over the next few centuries, quite a few languages emerged in Europe and the Middle East. With the exhibition Jewish Languages, organised in 2016 by the National Library of Israel, we offer you a small glimpse into the vast world of Jewish languages.
We need to leave something behind for the world. Beyond the Diary of Renia Spiegel, Opening of a Visiting Exhibition of the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow
The exhibition dedicated to Renia Spiegel presents the life, feelings and experiences of a Polish Jewish teenager who wrote a moving diary during World War II. This precious document of childhood, growing up and wartime fate, which was only discovered in a family heirloom in 2012, has become, after decades of silence, one of the most powerful testimonies of the Holocaust through the eyes of a young woman. The exhibition, conceived by the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, will be on display until 24 October 2025, during the office hours of the central unit of the Maribor Library.