Information Autriche

Volume 55, Septembre/Octobre 2002
Dix ans de Gedenkdienst
D'une réalité virtuelle à changement social
De Benedikt Breinbauer, Simon Niederkircher et Fabian Schroeder

À la place du service militaire, les trois auteurs de cet article participent en tant que stagiaires autrichiens du Gedenkdienst à la Congrégation Shaar Hashomayim de Montréal, au Canada, pour le compte de la Fondation de la famille Kleinmann. Ce programme innovant et unique a été fondé par le Dr Andreas Maislinger il y a plus de dix ans, en 1991. Les trois stagiaires du Gedenkdienst participent à la création du Musée virtuel juif canadien et des archives. Leur travail consiste à examiner et à rechercher la contribution des survivants de l'Holocauste à la communauté canadienne, à numériser des documents, des artefacts et des photographies, ainsi qu'à développer et à entretenir le site web (http://www.cjvma.org). Le musée virtuel est soutenu par le ministère du Patrimoine canadien du gouvernement fédéral. Ce ministère est responsable des politiques et des programmes nationaux visant à promouvoir le contenu canadien, à favoriser la participation culturelle, la citoyenneté active et la participation à la vie civique du Canada, et à renforcer les liens entre les Canadiens. Naomi Kramer, conservatrice du musée, résume les objectifs du musée : L'histoire des Juifs canadiens n'est pas bien connue du grand public. Cette histoire est particulièrement pertinente dans la mosaïque canadienne d'aujourd'hui, avec ses nombreuses cultures, religions et groupes ethniques. Les possibilités d'éducation dans les domaines de la tolérance, des droits de l'homme, des libertés civiles et du rôle du Canada en tant que leader internationalement reconnu et promoteur des droits des groupes minoritaires sont toutes glanées dans l'histoire des Juifs canadiens".

Fabian Schroeder participe à la création et à la mise en œuvre du programme de vidéoconférence, qui impliquera les élèves de son ancien lycée, BG XIX, à Vienne. S'appuyant sur les documents du CJVMA, le programme est conçu pour sensibiliser les élèves aux droits de l'enfant, aux droits des minorités et des ethnies, à la discrimination sexuelle et de genre et aux effets de l'immigration. Le programme comprendra également une "visite virtuelle" des quartiers de Vienne où ont vécu les survivants de l'Holocauste vivant au Canada. Les étudiants canadiens suivront cette visite via Internet et participeront aux discussions avec leurs partenaires autrichiens. Simon Niederkircher espère transmettre aux minorités autrichiennes et au grand public la leçon suivante tirée de l'histoire juive canadienne. Cette histoire canadienne offre un modèle de groupe minoritaire qui a travaillé loyalement et assidûment pour aider à construire le pays qui lui avait offert un foyer. Les stagiaires autrichiens actuels, ainsi que l'ancien stagiaire Lothar Bodingbauer, ont créé une base de données qui permettra aux organisations communautaires juives de partager leurs fonds. Benedikt Breinbauer est convaincu que la participation du gouvernement autrichien à cette initiative renforcera et améliorera les excellentes relations entre le Canada et l'Autriche dans le domaine des échanges culturels. Copyright © 1995-2002 Austrian Press & Information Service, Washington, D.C. et GlobeScope Internet Services.

Virtual’ Jewish museum launched October 10, 2002

By JANICE ARNOLD Staff Reporter

“The Canadian Jewish Virtual Museum and Archives (CJVMA), an ambitious project that aims to tell the history of the Canadian Jewish community online, has been initiated by Congregation Shaar Hashomayim with a major grant from the federal government. The project includes both a Web site (www.cjvma.org), aimed at the general public and in particular high school students, and a larger database for the use of any Jewish organization, synagogue or school in the country, which wants to digitally preserve its records or artifacts. Besides the Shaar, the founding partners are Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, United Talmud Torahs of Montreal, Centre Communautaire Juif, Communauté Sépharade du Québec and the Holocaust Literature Research Institute of the University of Western Ontario, which holds one of the largest collections of survivors’ testimonies outside Israel. CJVMA curator Naomi Kramer said the intention is to make the project as national as possible, and interest has been especially strong in smaller communities that do not have the resources to digitize their holdings. “We hope it will raise awareness of the need to document materials that are often left to gather dust in basements, or worse, thrown out,” she said. “[The Shaar] encourages all organizations and individuals across Canada to participate in the creation of this communal archive,” says synagogue president Mel Hershenfield in the CJVMA’s brochure. “Databases that speak the same computer language and that have the option to be published on the Internet will enable us to preserve and record our history while building the future.”

Currently, about 1,000 archives are online. They have been scanned page by page or, in the case of objects, accompanied with known information. Under another major heading, Vignettes, is an eclectic mix of stories related to the Canadian Jewish experience. The content of these two major headings are linked so that if a user wants to understand a record or artifact from a historical or personal perspective, they can do so with a click of the mouse. The long list of searchable categories includes expected headings, such as anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, religion, education, immigration, philanthropy and volunteerism, as well as topics such as entertainment, sports, military and politics. The site is fully bilingual. A third heading, Albums, which is still being developed, will provide in-depth background information, through bibliographies, online texts and pedagogical resources. It will also be a video-conferencing site for the twinning of Canadian and Austrian high school students who want to talk to each other about such common issues as human rights, immigration and prejudice. A fourth heading, Links, has connections to other Jewish virtual museums in the world. The CJVMA, which will be officially launched at the Shaar Oct. 15, is not a conventional history; information is not presented in chronological order nor is it, by any means, comprehensive. Kramer said it has avoided “the great man, great events approach” to history, and instead aims to “relate economic, social and cultural factors surrounding historical events.”

The site does not have the kind of information sought by genealogists: birth, marriage and death records. As it is for the use of everyone, basic traditions and customs of Judaism are explained.

The project began modestly last year when the Shaar decided to move its museum upstairs to the lobby. Kramer, who previously worked at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre (MHMC), was hired to go through the congregation’s huge collection of items, many of them valuable, and display a selection of them. Kramer was also asked to establish a database of the synagogue’s vast records accumulated over its 156-year history.

Coincidentally, Heritage Minister Sheila Copps announced an over $500-million grant program for Canadian culture, which included digitization projects, Kramer said.

Last February, the CJVMA received a $181,000 grant towards the project’s $330,000 start-up costs. A second application has been made to see the project through to April 2004, she said.

The stories told through the virtual museum were built around what papers and artifacts the founding organizations provided, plus other supplementary materials from, for example, the Canadian Jewish Congress and Jewish Public Library archives, as well as outside sources such as the National Archives of Canada and the CBC.

The latter turned up a 1945 recording of Georges Vanier, then Canadian ambassador to Paris, talking about his visit to the liberated Buchenwald concentration camp.

With news of the CJVMA spreading, individuals are starting to come forward with personal memorabilia they would like recorded. One example is a 100-year-old shochet’s knife brought in by a woman. David Mendelson contributed a musical tape of his late father Nathan who was cantor at the Shaar. The tape has been incorporated on the site with a series of photos of him

Working with Kramer on the technical aspects are three young Austrian men, Benedikt Breinbauer, Simon Niederkircher and Fabian Schroeder, who have volunteered to come here under a program called Gedenkdienst. This allows young Austrians to work in Jewish communities abroad for a 14-month period in lieu of performing military service.The database was created by Lothar Bodingbauer, a former Gedenkdienst intern at the MHMC. The CJVMA has a historical, literary and advisory review board chaired by Carole Rocklin, among whose members are academics and community leaders.”