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Halberstadt - Documentation of gravestones at Jewish cemeteries | OH-H07 | 2020-08-16 - 2020-08-29 | STUD,CULT | Age: 18 - 35

IMPORTANT: If you’re going to make an application for this workcamp you need to know that you must be very motivated and understand that this is a project related to the cultural heritage of UNESCO and which will require a strong commitment to participate.

The history of Open Houses Network dates back to the mid-1980s, when a group of young people began to restore village churches in East Germany in voluntary work to protect them from decay. The initiative to save these buildings brought together people who enjoyed the freedom these activities provided, bringing life again to these places in ways which by far exceed the craftsmen s work done – through exhibitions, concerts, making music together or just sitting by a camp fire. Today, spaces free of political and ideological pressure are no longer urgently required; nonetheless, it is now rare to find places where people can meet without commercial pressure, free of bureaucracy and institutionalism, free of prejudice and the exclusion which it produces. What should be easy – to go somewhere in order to meet people and to work together – has become difficult. The tightrope walk between, on the one hand, public activities in a monetary and functional sense, and the retreat into private life on the other, is very difficult, and it requires a lot of power and permanent efforts to tackle red tape and financial restrictions. Free spaces are less and less understood as common property, and are permanently being cut back. The idea of public property seems to have gone out of fashion, and places of common responsible work have become rare. Open Houses Network tries to create and protect such spaces. In this process, we do not want to be the do-ers. We want to be those who propose vision of initiating a new change in perspective while still being aware of the need to rely in the co-operation of others. We understand our projects and events as offers – as offers to create space for commitment, for changes, for meetings.

Work: The project consist of two parts – a practical working part which will last 6 hours per day and a study part, which takes place in the evenings and during weekends. Most of the gravestones at the Jewish cemeteries in Halberstadt are endangered by efflorescence, and the inscriptions become from year to year less readable. The European Heritage Volunteers Project is the continuation of a similar project that had taken place in 2018 and 2019. In 2019, the documentation of the gravestones at the two oldest cemeteries was almost complete; in 2020 the documentation of the gravestones at the cemetery Nr. 3 will start. The work on the cemetery will require the vegetation around the grave stones to be removed and the moss at the stones will be carefully eliminated in order to prevent the ongoing impairment of the grave stones by plants. A plan locating the positioning of the gravestones will be elaborated, which will serve as base for the detailed documentation of the grave stones at the cemetery. As it was done on the previous year the documentation will include a digital photographic part and a verbal part and may be complemented at one or the other grave stone by manual drawings, to create a second transmission as well as cautious restoring measures. Within the framework of collaboration with Technical University Braunschweig a special scan technology will be used at selected gravestones that will enable to make parts of the inscriptions readable. The use of the special laser-scan technology will be particularly important at this cemetery, because many stones were made of artificial stone and are therefore more delicate and at a higher risk of loss. In the frame of the educational part various lectures and guided tours as well as an excursion will be organised that the participants can gain comprehensive and detailed knowledge about the Jewish history in Germany and Europe, about Jewish heritage, but also about the rich history and the high valuable heritage of Halberstadt in general. In addition, the volunteers will have the opportunity to meet the participants of the "Sephardic Summer School", which is held annually in collaboration with the Institute for the History of German Jews in Hamburg, and to partake in its educational activities.

Accomodation and food: The lodging will accomodate the volunteers in shared bed-rooms. It is a simple accommodation place, where all the acilities for the daily needs of the volunteers will be available. Both food and accomodation are included for the volunteers as part of this project.

Location: Halberstadt

Location and Leisure: A Jewish community in Halberstadt had existed since 13th century. Around the year 1700 the famous royal resident of Poland and agent or the Saxon court, Berend Lehmann, established a house of learning, the so called “Klaussynagogue”. The community was characterised by eruditeness and developed from the middle of the 19th century on into one of the centres of the Jewish orthodoxy. The three Jewish cemeteries in Halberstadt with in total more than 1,000 grave stones from a period of more than 300 years sire of the clarity of past days. The inscriptions represent a value that has to be saved for upcoming generations and is still waiting to be discovered. At cemetery Nr. 1 (“Am Roten Strumpf”) that had been used from 1644 till ca. 1800 around 263 of originally around 2000 grave stones are preserved. At cemetery Nr. 2 (“Am Berge”) that had been used from ca. 1800 till ca. 1896 around 450 grave stones are preserved. At cemetery Nr. 3 ("Klein Quenstedter Straße“) that had been used from ca. 1896 on around 380 grave stones are preserved. The Baroque grave stones at the oldest cemetery are rich decorated and therefore very important from the art history point of view. Important persons as Berend Lehmann are buried at this cemetery, the inscriptions provide an impression about 200 years history of the Jewish community in Halberstadt. The two younger cemeteries offer long invariably Hebraic inscriptions of a period of 140 years – from the beginning of the Jewish orthodoxy till the end of the Jewish community in Halberstadt. In an era of growing assimilation and acculturation when elsewhere the percentage of German inscriptions on Jewish gravestones was increasing, both cemeteries are representing a special feature in Middle Germany. Jewish gravestones are not only materialised evidences of Jewish culture – in difference to Christian gravestones they content numerous information about the deceased person and are therefore often the only evidences of the disappeared Jewish culture of a town or a village. Leisure time: The project will take place in a small village in rural Saxony-Anhalt , so the participants should not expect busy places and normal city activities for the leisure time during the working days. Small trips and hikes within walking distances are possible in the afternoons. There will be a free day where an excursion to nearby places of interest may be planned. Usually average temperatures in Germany during the summer time are about 20º C to 30º C; during the night it will get colder. It is possible that there may be three weeks of non-stop sunshine, but every day rain is not impossible either.

Train/Bus station: Train Station: Halberstadt (2 km)

Requirements: Motivation letter related to the project and CV + photo required Skype interview will be scheduled for selection. -Passport -EU-members should bring their European Health Insurance Card; those which have an individual travel insurance should bring the certificate

Language: eng

Extra Fee: 50 EUR

Volunteers should bring: -sleeping bag -stable work boots, really appropriate for practical work -appropriate clothes, waterproof coat -mosquito protection lotion -Dictionary -typical recipes, sweets, music, instruments and games from the participants home country for group activities -More detailed information will be sent later on the infosheet