Jewish community museum as a result of citizen activities

• Main Author: Peter Salner
• Format: Article
• Language: ces
• Published: Sciendo 2015-12-01
• Series: Slovenský Národopis
• Subjects: The Jewish Community Museum; E. Bárkány; ŽNO Bratislava (JRC Bra- tislava); synagogue; civic activities; M. Borský; JCR Bratislava
• Online Access: http://www.uet.sav.sk/files/5._p_salner_jewish_community_museum_as_a_result_of_citizen_activities.pdf
• ISSN: 1335-1303; 1339-9357

The study focuses on circumstances under which the Jewish Community Museum was established and officially opened in the Bratislava synagogue in 2012. Already prior to WWII, a respected architect and collector Eugen Barkány came with the idea of opening a museum consisting of Slovak judaica. He followed up his project after the liberation, too. In the second half of the sixties, it seemed that thanks to the Jewish Religious Community (JCR/ŽNO) Bratislava support there would be created a Slovak branch of the Prague Jewish Museum within the premises of the Neolog Bratislava synagogue. However, the project implementation had to be postponed for many years to come: first of all due to Bárkány’s death (1967), demolition of the synagogue giving place to the construction of a new bridge, and the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In the beginning of the next millenium, it was Maroš Borský, Art historian and Judaist, who undertook this project. He persuaded the board members of the JCR (ŽNO) Bratislava to vacate the already abandoned female gallery of the only preserved synagogue for presentation of Barkány’s collection. Apart from the permanent exhibition, the museum already offered three exhibits entitled: The Shadow of the Past (2013); We Are Here (2014); and Engerau – a Forgotten Story of Petržalka in 2015.