Great Synagogue in Plzeň

10 June 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Otto Domes/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Otto Domes/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Great Synagogue (Czech: Velká Synagoga) in Plzeň (Pilsen), Czech Republic is the second largest synagogue in Europe. A Viennese architect Max Fleischer drew up the original plans for the synagogue in Gothic style with granite buttresses and twin 65-meter towers. The cornerstone was laid on 2 December 1888 and that was about as far as it got. City councillors rejected the plan in a clear case of tower envy as they felt that the grand erection would compete with the nearby Cathedral of St. Bartholomew.   read more…

Bevis Marks Synagogue in London

6 June 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London Reading Time:  13 minutes

Clock outside the Bevis Marks Synagogue © Ethan Doyle White/cc-by-sa-4.0

Clock outside the Bevis Marks Synagogue © Ethan Doyle White/cc-by-sa-4.0

Bevis Marks Synagogue, officially Qahal Kadosh Sha’ar ha-Shamayim (“Holy Congregation Gate of Heaven”), is the oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom in continuous use. It is located off Bevis Marks, Aldgate, in the City of London. The synagogue was built in 1701 and is affiliated to London’s historic Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community. It is a Grade I listed building. It is the only synagogue in Europe which has held regular services continuously for more than 300 years.   read more…

Theme Week Latvia – Liepāja

28 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Capital of Culture Reading Time:  8 minutes

University of Liepāja © Zinneke/cc-by-sa-3.0

University of Liepāja © Zinneke/cc-by-sa-3.0

Liepāja is a city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region and the third largest city in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an important ice-free port. The population in 2020 was 68,535 people. Liepāja is chosen as the European Capital of Culture in 2027.   read more…

Theme Week Latvia – Rēzekne

26 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  14 minutes

Creative Centre Zeimuls © panoramio.com - Sirujs Enobs/cc-by-sa-3.0

Creative Centre Zeimuls © panoramio.com – Sirujs Enobs/cc-by-sa-3.0

Rēzekne is a city in the Rēzekne River valley in Latgale region of eastern Latvia. It is called The Heart of Latgale. Built on seven hills, Rēzekne is situated 242 kilometres (150 miles) east of Riga, and 63 kilometres (39 miles) west of the Latvian-Russian border, at the intersection of the Moscow – Ventspils and Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railways. It has a population of 31,216 (2016) making it the 7th largest city in Latvia. Rēzekne was rebuilt after the war with an emphasis on industrial development. Rēzekne had the 5th highest industrial output in the Latvian SSR, including a dairy processor (Rēzeknes Piena konservu kombināts), a lumber mill, and an electric-instrument factory (Rebir). During this time, many Russians moved to the city, making up a large part of the population (48.5% in 2007).   read more…

Theme Week Latvia – Tukums

25 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Durbe Manor © panoramio.com - Igors Jefimovs/cc-by-3.0

Durbe Manor © panoramio.com – Igors Jefimovs/cc-by-3.0

Tukums is a town in the Courland region of Latvia. Three regions of Latvia meet in the vicinity of Tukums – Vidzeme, Zemgale and Courland. The historical center of Tukums developed between trade routes leading from the mouth of the Daugava River to Prussia. The oldest part is today’s Talsi Street that originated at the river named Zvirgzdupite where there used to be a castle mound with a wooden castle. Since 1253 Tukums was ruled by the Livonian Order.   read more…

Portrait: Ludwig von Mises, Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist

25 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  21 minutes

© Krapulat/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Krapulat/cc-by-sa-4.0

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberalism. He is best known for his work on praxeology studies comparing communism and capitalism. He is considered one of the most influential economic and political thinkers of the 20th century. Mises emigrated from Austria to the United States in 1940. Since the mid-20th century, libertarian movements have been strongly influenced by Mises’s writings. Mises’ student Friedrich Hayek viewed Mises as one of the major figures in the revival of classical liberalism in the post-war era. Hayek’s work “The Transmission of the Ideals of Freedom” (1951) pays high tribute to the influence of Mises in the 20th century libertarian movement. Mises’s Private Seminar was a leading group of economists. Many of its alumni, including Friedrich Hayek and Oskar Morgenstern, emigrated from Austria to the United States and Great Britain. Mises has been described as having approximately seventy close students in Austria.   read more…

Theme Week Latvia – Ventspils

24 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  11 minutes

Ventspils Lighthouse © Algirdas/cc-by-sa-3.0

Ventspils Lighthouse © Algirdas/cc-by-sa-3.0

Ventspils is a city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It is situated on the Venta River and the Baltic Sea, and has an ice-free port. The city’s name literally means “castle on the Venta”, referring to the Livonian Order’s castle built alongside the Venta River.   read more…

Theme Week Latvia

23 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  10 minutes

Historic centre of Riga, an UNESCO World Heritage Site © Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-3.0

Historic centre of Riga, an UNESCO World Heritage Site © Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-3.0

Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the Baltic states; and is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of 64,589 km² (24,938 sq mi), with a population of 1.9 million. The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Riga. Latvians belong to the ethno-linguistic group of the Balts; and speak Latvian, one of the only two surviving Baltic languages. Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population.   read more…

Borscht Belt or Jewish Alps in Upstate New York

4 April 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hotels Reading Time:  11 minutes

Brickman's pool area in 1977 © Library of Congress - John Margolie

Brickman’s pool area in 1977 © Library of Congress – John Margolie

Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a colloquial term for the mostly defunct summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange and Ulster counties in Upstate New York, United States. A source interviewed by Time magazine stated that the visits to the area by Jewish families was already underway “as early as the 1890s … Tannersville … was ‘a great resort of our Israelite brethren’…from the 1920s on [there were] hundreds of hotels”. A 2019 review of the history is more specific: “in its heyday, as many as 500 resorts catered to guests of various incomes”. These resorts, but also the bungalow colonies, were a popular vacation spot for New York City Jews from the 1920s through the 1960s. By the late 1950s, many began closing, with most gone by the 1970s, but some major resorts continued to operate, a few into the 1990s. Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel closed in 1986 and the Concord Resort Hotel struggled to stay open until 1998.   read more…

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