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At the Tip of Your Fingers
Theatre performance:
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK
PERFORMANCES
On Wednesday, 31 May, as part of the supporting programme, we toured with our performance The Diary of Anne Frank at the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium Ljubljana. The performance received an excellent response and a standing ovation from the students. The performance was followed by a discussion about the history of the Jewish presence in Slovenia, moderated by Robert Waltl, and then the actors answered very interesting questions from the students.
Author: Anne Frank
Director: Vinko Möderndorfer
Set designer: Branko Hojnik
Costume designer: Meta Sever
Video: Atej Tutta
Proofreader: Jože Faganel
Cast:
Anna Frank: Gaja Filač
Margot Frank: Saša Pavlin Stošić
Edith Frank: Medea Novak
Otto Frank: Tadej Pišek
Gospa Van Daan: Barbara Vidovič
Gospod Van Daan: Aleš Kranjec
Peter Van Daan: Timotej Novaković
Stage movement:
Uršula Teržan
Mask:
Mirela Brkić
Coproduction:
Jewish Cultural Center Ljubljana
Mini teater
We thank The Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Ljubljana for their support.
The dramatisation is based on the text of the book THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, translation - Polonca Kovač, Mladinska knjiga, 2019, 2022.
Performing rights S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; ©
For ages 12+.
Premiere:
25 December 2022
Born on 12 June 1929 in Frankfurt am Main, Anne Frank emigrated with her parents to Amsterdam in 1933. When the German Wehrmacht invaded and occupied the Netherlands in 1940, Anne Frank's family, together with four others, hid in Otto Frank's company house. During this time, 13-year-old Anne confided her feelings and thoughts to a diary, in which she recorded her daily life in hiding and her fear of being discovered. The diary ended on 1 August 1944: three days later, the Jewish inhabitants of the last house were denounced and arrested, and the Frank family was deported to Auschwitz, where they were separated. Anne Frank and her sister Margot died seven months later in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Her mother Edith died in Auschwitz on 6 January 1945. Otto Frank, Anna and Margot's father, is the only survivor from the last house. After the war, he received his daughter's diary and published extracts from it for the first time in 1947. To date, the full version of Anne Frank's diary has been published in more than 80 languages.
ABOUT THE PLAY:
The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most important texts of the 20th century. And not only because of the calamities that the Jewish people have endured, that Anne Frank's family has endured and not survived. The diary is also an important work of literature. And the little girl Anne is an exceptionally gifted observer of life and human character.
We can sense a great talent for writing in her work. Anna committed herself to writing at a very early age. It was her desire, her ambition, her joy, her talent, which she felt was her personal mission.
Reading the diary, one also wonders how many talents, how many Mozarts, Beethovens, Michelangelos... how many great writers, painters, can be killed by genocidal politics. And not only talents, but how many lives, and every life is a universe, have been lost because of the foolish hatred generated by politics. Not only in the past. Even today.
The Diary of Anne Frank is an extremely relevant work. Young and talented people are living on the brink of life and death even today. The diary of a young girl who spent two years in hiding and eventually died a horrific death as a result of betrayal will remind us that even today we are constantly living on the brink of the Holocaust. The younger generations, in particular, should be more aware of this. That is why Mini teater's decision to include this text in its theatre programme is one of the most important repertoire decisions in Slovenian theatre.
Dramatisation was a very challenging job. I wrote it from the moment Robert Waltl offered me the director's chair. I don't know how many times I read the diary before I finally found the right form of dramatisation. I tried to keep the form of the diary, despite the dialogue scenes. It was necessary to shape the dramatic scenes and at the same time to remain faithful to the impression of the characters that the young writer presented in her diary entries.
I was particularly interested in how two very different families, with three teenagers, live their hidden lives in a claustrophobic space, constantly exposed to fear for their lives.
I have extracted the most important and intense scenes from the text, where the anguish of living together and the conflicting human characters, forced into an impossible situation by hatred, are revealed. Father Otto Frank is the person who tries to maintain optimism at all costs in the increasingly nervous life of two families. Otto Frank fights against sadness, against all the ills of living together, no matter how much he himself suffers in the process. He is an extremely strong personality who can be an example of humanity and kindness in a cruel time.
In specific situations, the most ordinary things of life (washing, bathing, toileting, etc.) become the most severe ordeals. But Anna is also a very lively girl. She is cheerful, curious, witty... In the extremes of life people fight against evil and for survival also with humour. I also found this important in our dramatisation.
The Diary of Anne Frank is a vivisection of human relationships in specific circumstances. But it is also a vivisection of growing up. The birth of love. It is, in fact, the story of Romeo and Juliet at the time of the Holocaust and the European apocalypse. It is the story of how love wants to conquer death. But it is also a story of disillusionment. It is a story of fear. A story of a future stolen from millions of people.
Somewhere in her diary, Anna says: "It makes me sick to think that all those who were so close to me, my classmates, are now at the mercy of the worst rabble that ever existed. Why? Because we are different? Are we really different? Because we are all human. People who feel pain, fear, love... I don't understand, I really don't understand. What happened to the people?!"
We need to question this also today.
We must always ask ourselves questions like Anne Frank, just so perhaps history will not repeat itself in the most horrible way.
Anna's story is our story.
Are we aware enough of this?
Vinko Möderndorfer
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Vinko Möderndorfer (1958) is a writer, poet, essayist, playwright and director. He graduated in directing from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana. He started working as a director at the Experimental Theatre Glej in Ljubljana, where he was also the artistic director for a while. He has subsequently worked with various theatres and as a radio, television and film director. To date, he has directed more than a hundred theatre and opera performances. In 2003 he was awarded the title of Assistant Professor of Theatre Directing. He began his literary career in the second half of the 1970s. He first turned to poetry, and then continued in all areas of literary creation - from prose to drama, essays, radio plays, film scripts, children's and young people's literature. He has published more than sixty works in prose, poetry, drama and essays in book form. His professional articles and essays deal with theatre directing, dramaturgy and acting, as well as current social events. Among the works he has produced in recent years are the poetry collection for children: Pesmi in pesmičice (Poems and Little Songs), the novels for young people: Kot v filmu (As in the Movie) Kit na plaži (Whale on the Beach) and Jaz sem Andrej (I am Andrej), and for adults novels: Balzacov popek (Balzac's bellybutton), Konec zgodbe (The End of the Story), Druga preteklost (Another Past), the novella collection Navodila za srečo (Instructions for Happiness), the essayist work Ljudomrznik na tržnici, ….
Theatre performance:
THE JEWISH DOG
PERFORMANCES
We toured with the performance THE JEWISH DOG in Mengeš and Šenčur as part of the supporting programme. In Šenčur we performed the show for pupils of Šenčur Primary School and Naklo Primary School. The performance was a great success and it impressed the young audience. After the performance, there was a very interesting discussion between the pupils of Šenčur Primary School and the actor Miha Rodman.
Author: Asher Kravitz
Director, author of the concept, adaptation, set
and costume design: Yonatan Esterkin
Translator: Katja Šmid
Performed by: Miha Rodman
Voices in the recordings:
Miha Rodman, Yonatan Esterkin
Dramaturgy: Anja Krušnik Cirnski
Video and sound: Vid Hanjšek
Language consultant: Mateja Dermelj
Co-production: Jewish Cultural Centre Ljubljana,
Mini teater and Prešeren Theatre Kranj
With special thanks to Asher Kravitz
The Jewish Dog (Yediot Books, 2007) is an autobiography of Cyrus, a dog born in mid-1930s into the household of the German-Jewish family Gottlieb. Cyrus is a special dog, unusually sensitive to humans’ emotions and determined to fully comprehend human speech. The novel follows his life and contemplations while he’s making his way through Europe during World War II. Cyrus witnesses the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust, and all the love he knows comes from the Gottlieb family.
A Nazi decree forces the family out of their home, and unfortunate events separate them from Cyrus. His path leads form a loving Jewish family to a stray dog, a wild pack, and even to an SS Nazi guard dog at the Treblinka extermination camp. He undergoes several name changes, he is left to himself in increasingly dangerous situations, the only thing keeping him alive is his strong survival instinct, and all he yearns is to be reunited with the Gottlieb family.
With skillful fluidity of language, Kravitz employs ingeniously harrowing metaphors and imagery to describe historic events of World War II as seen by an unusually sensitive and insightful Jewish dog. The result is a powerful and heart-wrenching narrative, and Cyrus is poignant and unforgettable character.
Theatre performance:
AMSTERDAM
PERFORMANCES
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28 April 2023 at 21.00 in OSMO/ZA
Author: Maya Arad Yasur
Translator: Nika Korenjak
Director: Aljoša Živadinov Zupančič
Dramaturge: Nika Korenjak
Stage designers:
Vadim Fiškin and Miran Mohar
Costume designer: Claudi Sovré
Music: Aljoša Živadinov Zupančič
Proofreader: Jože Faganel
Cast:
Nika Korenjak
Luka Bokšan
Borut Doljšak
Timotej Novaković
Coproduction:
Jewish Cultural Center Ljubljana
Mini teater
The dramatic work of the Israeli playwright Maya Arad Yasur is a meta-theatrical rhythmic journey from the cruel regions of the past, which left behind collective guilt and the repression of difference, to the uncertain present. Without a cosmic order, with facts and events, it places us in the role of an observer who indifferently observes the unjust unfolding of the lives of seemingly innocent individuals, so that the justice of a corrupt ideology or a man's egomaniacal rampage for his own ideal may be satisfied. The eruption of hidden stories that had been waiting to be revealed for more than seventy years started happening at the best possible time. In an era when the world order is collapsing, harmful ideologies are rising, capital is deeply rooted before human spiritual needs, empathy is almost non-existent - at this point it is even more important to remember, remind and overcome together.
About the author
Maya Arad Yasur (1976) is a dramaturge and playwright. She holds an M.A. in Dramaturgy from the University of Amsterdam where she graduated with distinction. In the years 2007-2012 Maya has been living in the Netherlands, working as a production dramaturge. She has been the dramaturge of several award-winning theatre performances which tour in festivals around Europe. Maya returned to Israel in 2012 and has been working since as a freelance dramaturge and playwright. Her plays have been staged and publicly read in various theatres in Israel, Germany, Austria, Norway and the U.S. and were published in leading theatre magazines in Germany, Poland and Israel. Winner of Theatertreffen Stuckemarkt 2018.
Awards
1st prize of the international playwriting competition of ITI–UNESCO for Suspended (2011) Habima (Israel’s national theatre) prize for emerging playwrights for God Waits at the Station (2014) Theatertreffen’s Stückemarkt prize for Amsterdam (2018).
About the director
In his theater performances, Aljoša Živadinov Zupančič (1996) follows the theme of the absurdity of power relations between individuals, both in micro and macro social structures. Why does evil approach the realm of evil in terms of exclusive decision-making power, and why must we first understand this evil before we can truly bury it once and for all? When we approach the issue of man in this way, we are implicitly always dealing with politics, in the sense of the meaning of politics as "regulating situations and deciding on them in a certain social sphere". However, Živadinov Zupančič does not characterize his developing theater practice as exclusively political or, even better, realpolitik.
All of his performances so far also thematize the social conditioning of gender and the roles that members of a certain gender must play within society. Within all the texts, perhaps written by Ivan Cankar, Odon von Horvath or Nika Korenjak, the authors consciously or unconsciously affirm, but in reality prefer to deny the given expectations that we have towards the Other (gender, race, class). It is precisely these expectations that produce the main points of conflict in and between individuals. They affirm the collective "dox", which in reality only deepens the "simulation gap" between man and the reality of the world. The most we can always do, in the here-and-now, is to realize our helplessness in the struggle with perfection and, nevertheless, on behalf of ourselves, and even better of the community, "fight against our own nature". The thesis that nowadays plays are only staged, not played, is not understood as a crisis of the theater, but rather as a crisis of the play of mimicry itself.
LINKS TO MEDIA PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS OF THE PERFORMANCE
Theatre performance:
SEVEN SECONDS ETERNITY
Author: Peter Turrini
Translator: Aljoša Vrščaj
Director: Jean-Claude Berutti
Dramaturge: Diana Koloini
Stage design and costumes:
Rudy Sabounghi
Co-author of costumes: Michael Ross
Composer: Janez Dovč
Proofreader: Jože Faganel
Performed by: Polona Vetrih
Musicians: Janez Dovč, Goran Krmac
Coproduction:
Jewish Cultural Center Ljubljana
Mini teater
A Seven seconds is a duration of the scene in which, for the first time in the history of art cinema, a naked woman appeared. This scene made Hedy Lamarr famous - and perhaps even destroyed her. She was celebrated in Hollywood as the most beautiful woman in the world, but she was also quickly kicked out. She was also the author of important technological inventions, and her invention of Frequency-Hopping is now regarded by some as the forerunner of Wi-Fi, though she was not celebrated at the time. She was an extraordinarily beautiful and highly intelligent woman, but she did not have a happy life. It was shaped by the mass murder of Jews, anti-Semitic Vienna, the insecurity of movie fame, possessive men and deceitful wealth, alcohol and loneliness. Her story, though extraordinary, is also a story about XX century.
LINKS TO MEDIA PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS OF THE PERFORMANCE
INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY 2023
On January January 27th , on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Jewish Cultural Centre, the Jewish Community of Slovenia, the Liberal Jewish Community of Slovenia and Mini teater traditionally organised a central commemoration ceremony, which took place in Mini teater at Križevniška 1 in Ljubljana.
The participants were first addressed by the Director of the JCC Ljubljana, Robert Waltl, followed by a speech by the Ambassador of Israel to Slovenia, His Excellency Zeev Boker.
The keynote speaker was the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, mag. Urška Klakočar Zupančič.
In an emotional programme, Slovenian theatre actors Timotej Novaković, Nika Korenjak, Barbara Vidović, Aleš Kranjec, Luka Bokšan, Robert Korošec, Karin Komljanec, Julijan Pop Tasić and cellist Klemen Hvala performed the stories of Jewish families in Ljubljana.
The names of the Slovenian victims of the Holocaust were traditionally read out at the commemorative event, which this year, in addition to Robert Waltl, was also read out by the German Ambassadors to Slovenia, Natalie Kauther and Adrian Pollmann.
On the same day, in the morning, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland and Mini Teater also organised a screening of the film Warsaw: a City Divided, which tells the story of the origins of the Warsaw Ghetto from both sides of the Wall and the legacy of the Ghetto in modern Warsaw.
Both commemorative events were attended by important representatives of public, religious, political and cultural life in Slovenia, as well as many ambassadors and representatives of the diplomatic corps in Slovenia: Former Presidents of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr Borut Pahor and Dr Danilo Türk, Bishop of the Slovenian Evangelical Church Leon Novak, Vice-Mayor of MOL Dejan Crnek, Ambassador of Poland H.E. Krzysztof Olendzki, Ambassador of Albania H.E. Pëllumb Qazimi, Ambassador of Croatia H.E. Boris Grgić, Ambassador of Kosovo H.E. Valdet Sadiku, Ambassador of Slovakia H.E. Peter Zeleňák, Ambassador of Brazil H.E. Eduard Prisc Parais Ramos, Ambassador of the United States of America H.E. Jamie L. Harpootlian, Ambassador of Ireland H.E. Adrian Farrell, Ambassador of Romania H.E. Alexandru Grădinar, Ambassador of Bulgaria H.E. Mladen Tcherveniakov, Ambassador of Great Britain H.E. Tiffany Sadler, Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Slovenia Dr. Jerneja Jug Jerše, ...
The event was also attended by representatives of all three Jewish communities in Slovenia: the Jewish Community of Slovenia, the Community of Traditional Jews in Slovenia and the Liberal Jewish Community of Slovenia.
Performance for children:
THE NUTCRACKER
Author of adaptation:
Alena Ivanušenka
Director:
Aleksander Januškévič
Design of puppets and costumes:
Ljudmila Skitovič
Stage design:
Aleksander Januškévič and Ljudmila Skitovič
Music composed by:
Andrej Jevdakimav
Cast:
Lina Akif / Nika Korenjak
Tadej Pišek
Luka Bokšan
Translators at the rehersals:
Manca Golob
Valentina Žabkar
Ana Končar
Costumes tailored by:
Michael Ross
Slavica Janošević
Coproduction:
Jewish Cultural Center Ljubljana
Mini teate
Premiere:
27 November 2021
Duration: 50 minutes
Puppet performance for children from 5 y/o
The play The Nutcracker is based on a classic story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by the Prussian author E.T.A. Hoffman. Godfather Drosselmeyer tells the girl Marie a fairy tale. Long ago, the evil Queen Misilda invoked a curse on the little princess. To free her from the curse, the Nutcracker became what we know him to be: a wooden freak who can do nothing but rub the nuts. The little girl Marie can't understand why the royal family just forgot about the Nutcracker and didn't help him. She wonders if she might really have something in common with the fairytale princess.
LINKS TO MEDIA PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS OF THE PERFORMANCE
EVENT JEWISH CUISINE AS PART OF FESTIVAL HOUSE OF TOLERANCE 2022
On Friday, 16 September 2022, the Jewish Cultural Centre Ljubljana and Mini teater hosted the Jewish Cuisine event as part of the festival House of Tolerance 2022. It was the last shabat before the great holiday, before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. We prepared a Shabbat dinner with a wonderful chicken goldzip soup and matzoh dumplings and challah for Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah (with honey), then we went through the dishes for the Jewish holidays of Pesach, Purim, Hanukkah and finally prepared a selection of dishes for Rosh Hashanah. The great chef Siniša Martin Mars helped preparing the food according to the recipes of the director of Jewish Cultural Center Ljubljana and Mini teater, Robert Waltl. All of this was accompanied by music by excellent musicians.
On 5 September 2022, we opened the 8th edition of the House of Tolerance Festival 2022 - The House of Others, which will run until 21 September 2022, at the Mini teater and the Jewish Cultural Centre Ljubljana. This year's festival will give the audience the opportunity to see some of the most engaging films of the latest production, focusing on tolerance, human rights, the relationship between the individual and the state, social engagement, as well as topical and important issues such as media propaganda, refugees, wars and the culture of remembrance. More than fifteen films from the USA, Poland, the Netherlands, Myanmar, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Sweden, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Canada will be screened at the festival.
All films are subtitled in English and Slovenian.
A very important part of the festival is a special programme for primary, secondary schools and colleges - the Education Morning programme. This year, it will be marked by film screenings and talks with a number of guests on topics related to tolerance.
In the theatre programme, audiences will be able to watch performances of La Machine de Turing, Seven Seconds Eternity, The Little Match Girl and Birds of a kind. Musicians Sigrid Hagn piano and Romane Rauscher viola will perform Ariela, a concert project dedicated to Jewish women composers and the preservation of their music and the memory of the horrors they experienced. The festival will also include the launch of Tvrtko Jakovina's book Budimir Lončar od Preka do vrha svijeta, which will be addressed by the last Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a special programme dedicated to Jewish cuisine.
All programmes of the House of Tolerance Festival, except the theatre programme, are free of charge for visitors. Tickets can be picked up at the Mini teater box office. The full programme of festival events can be found at www.mini-teater.si.
In 2022, the Festival is supported by Municipality of Ljubljana – Department for culture, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, U.S. Embassy Ljubljana, Embassy of Israel, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Austrian cultural forum Ljubljana, French Institute in Slovenia, Embassy of Poland.
CEREMONIAL LAYING OF THE STUMBLING STONES - STOLPERSTEINE
On Friday, 2 September 2022, there was a symbolic commemoration with the ceremonial laying of the stumbling stones - stolpersteine in front of the Cukrarna Gallery in Ljubljana of more than 150 Jewish refugees, mostly from Croatia, who were expelled from their homes during the Nazi regime and found temporary safety in Cukrarna in Ljubljana in 1941. From there they were later deported to Italy, many of them taken to concentration camps in Europe where they were murdered.
The ceremony was attended by the Rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Community of Slovenia, Alexander Grodensky, the Cantor of the Munich Synagogue, Nikola David, the Chief Rabbi of Croatia and Montenegro, Moše Prelević, the President of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, the Vice-Mayor of the Municipality of Ljubljana, Dejan Crnek, historian and curator Dr Blaž Vurnik, actors from the Mini Theatre and the Yiddishpiel Theatre from Israel, as well as ambassadors to Slovenia, representatives of the diplomatic corps and relatives of Holocaust survivors.
Street performance:
JEWISH LIFE IN LJUBLJANA
Idea and scenario: Robert Waltl
Written by: Vinko Möderndorfer
Director: Yonatan Esterkin
Costume designer: Claudi Sovre
Cast: Hanna Hill, Nathan Hecht, Omer Rozenblum, Nika Korenjak, Barbara Vidovič, Timotej Novaković, Tadej Pišek
Kletzmer band: Tomaž Zevnik – klarinet, Aleksander Jovetić – violina, Žiga Vehovec - harmonika
Co-production:
Jewish Cultural Center Ljubljana
Yiddishpiel Theater, Tel Aviv
Mini teater
The performance is supported by: Municipality of Ljubljana, Turizem Ljubljana - Visit Ljubljana and Embassy of Israel
In the street play-performance Jewish Life in Ljubljana, for which the script and text were prepared by Robert Waltl and Vinko Möderndorfer, actors from Mini teater and Yiddishpiel teater from Israel have joined together, under the direction of the Israeli director Yonatan Estrkin, already well-known to the Slovenian audience. In eight scenes they will present a fragment of pre-war Jewish life in Ljubljana with Jewish customs and celebrations, as well as the occupation and the Holocaust period in Ljubljana, when thousands of refugees joined the local Jews, first from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and after 1941, especially hundreds of Croatian Jews, who were persecuted by the NDH and found a temporary safe haven in Ljubljana. The performance will then take us through the persecution of the Jews of Ljubljana and their deportation to the extermination camps, to their participation in the Liberation Front and the partisan units. All of this will be linked by Jewish music, performed live by musicians from the Kletzmer Trio. The performance will be in Slovene, Hebrew and Yiddish with simultaneous translation.
LINKS TO MEDIA PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS OF THE PERFORMANCE
April 26
Holocaust Remembrance Day in Slovenia
Before the Second World War, the largest Jewish population in Slovenia lived in Prekmurje. We commemorate the Slovenian victims of the Holocaust in various Slovenian cities on April 26, the anniversary of the beginning of the mass deportations of Jews from Prekmurje.
US Ambassador visit
Today, on the occasion of the Slovenian Holocaust Remembrance Day
Today at the Jewish Cultural Center Ljubljana and at the headquarters of the Liberal Jewish Community of Slovenia, we were visited by the USA Ambassador, HE Mrs. Jamie Lindler Harpootlian. HE Mrs. Jamie Lindler Harpootlian and Robert Waltl, director of the Jewish Cultural Center, had a long, friendly and meaningful conversation. They also watched two short movies about the history of the Jewish community in Slovenia and the work of the Jewish Cultural Center Ljubljana with its museum, gallery, library, and synagogue. We look forward to new meetings and collaborations.
Traditional reading of names of those who perished in the Holocaust in Slovenia by Robert Waltl
The Jewish Cultural Center serves the social life of urban Jews and foreign visitors by presenting innovative, entertaining, and educational content through theater and puppet shows, concerts, lectures, Jewish holidays, and other social gatherings. Through a close partnership with the Mini Theater, JCC is the epicenter of critical events and festivals and promotes tolerance, inclusion, history, and education from western Slovenia to northeastern Italy.
Hanukkah, also called the Festival of Lights, is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the restoration and re-establishment of the Jerusalem Temple in the 2nd century BC during the Maccabean Wars. According to legend, a supply of olive oil, which was a necessary ingredient for the proper performance of worship in the temple, for oil lamps on the menorah, was enough for just one day. Miraculously, the oil was enough for eight days, and today Jews around the world remember this event by lighting (usually from right to left) an additional candle on a special nine-frame candlestick called the Hanukkiah or Hanukkah menorah every evening. First, the candle that stands in the middle (candle maid) is lit, and with it, every other candle is lit, each following day. While lighting a blessing is recited. At one time, children were given symbolic pocket money on this holiday, but today they are mostly given gifts. During this holiday, we eat mostly donuts, latkes (potato pancakes), and food fried in olive oil, which is supposed to symbolize the oil in the Temple. In addition, we dance, play board games (dreidel) and sing.
Also this year, at the Jewish Cultural Center in Ljubljana, the members of the JCC prepared many Jewish specialties, which visitors were able to take home with them due to the "Covid rules", as group celebrations are prohibited.
The end of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah 2021
Slovenian Jews conclude the Hanukkah celebration on Sunday on Križevniška Street in front of the Jewish Cultural Center in Ljubljana with the traditional lighting of candles
Jews around the world wrapped up an eight-day Hanukkah celebration on Sunday.
For the last time, they lit candles on a special nine-frame candlestick and remembered the re-establishment of the Jerusalem Temple more than 2,200 years ago.
The ceremony marking the end of the Hanukkah celebration in front of the Jewish Cultural Center in Ljubljana has been organized by the center and Slovenian Jews for several years.
The audience was addressed by the director of the JCC Ljubljana, Robert Waltl, and the Chief Rabbi of Croatia and Montenegro Luciano Moše Prelević, who recited all the blessings and spoke about the holiday and lit the first two candles.
Among those lighting the candles this year were also Mufti dr. Nevzet Porić with his wife Elo, Evangelical Bishop Leon Novak, Mr. Uroš Kolar, and Polona Vetrih, as well as the families of Slovenian Jews Rash, Horjak, and Fischer.
Drama actors Saša Tabaković and Polona Vetrih and musicians Janez Dovč and Goran Krmac took part in the musical program that followed the lighting of the Hanukkiah in the hall of the Mini Theater. Rabbi Prelević once again addressed the audience with inspiration, and Rabbi Alexander Grodensky from Luxembourg also chimed in via the internet to congratulate Hanukkah to Slovenian Jews.
Among the guests attending this year’s lighting of the Hanukkah were the mufti of the Slovenian Islamic community dr. Nevzet Porić, Bishop of Evangelical Church Leon Novak. Among the diplomatic guests were Ambassador of the United Kingdom Ms. Tiffany Sadler, Ambassador of Ireland Mr. Myles Geiran, Ambassador of Croatia Boris Grigić, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, Mr. Krzysztof Olendzki, Ambassador of France Florence Ferrari, Ambassador of Albania Mr. Pellumb Quazimi, Ambassador of Russia Mr. Ms. Timur Eyvazov, Chargé d'Affaires of the United States Susan Falatko, Aleksandar Gatalica, First Counselor of the Embassy of Serbia. The ceremony was also attended by representatives of the Slovenian cultural, academic, and religious life. The event is organized every year by the Jewish Cultural Center, which also houses a museum, library, memorial to Slovenian victims of the Holocaust, and a Synagogue, all of which are currently under reconstruction. The opening is scheduled for June 2022.
Holocaust Remembrance
January 2022
2719:00
REMEMBRANCE
Traditional READING OF NAMES OF THOSE WHO PERISHED IN THE HOLOCAUST IN SLOVENIA by Robert Waltl at Jewish Cultural Center Ljubljana.
2720:00
"The Jewish dog" play about a dog born and raised by a Jewish family during the Holocaust. Moving and shocking story about the Holocaust, directed by Israeli Yonatan Esterkin, based on the script by Asher Kravitz. The play stars Miha Rodman.
The play will be shown in the Mini thater
2619:00
Central Slovenia event for International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Murska Sobota. Traditional READING OF NAMES OF THOSE WHO PERISHED IN THE HOLOCAUST IN SLOVENIA.
Theater Park, Štefana Kovača 30, Murska Sobota. Speech by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor.
THE ROAD TO HANUKKAH
November 28, 2021
GROSSMAN
Canceled due to COVID 19
We will however update you with a video on the successful run of the show in Ljubljana
NUTCRACKER
November 27th
Adaptation E. T. A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker" on hold due to COVID 19
HANUKKAH
December 5th
Hanukkah celebration with Rabbi Prelevic from Zagreb
