JEWISH GRONINGEN
AGENDA
> Activities > Calendar
Stories about Judaism and Jews in Groningen
Did you know that Jews have been living in Groningen for more than four centuries? The exhibition introduces you to the history of the Jewish community in Groningen up to the present day. About entrepreneurs and teachers, about poor relief and superstars. You will also learn about the Jewish religion and the meaning of the holidays. And all that in the colorful shul of Groningen!
Imagining, not depicting -
Fred Pollack
exhibition - 8 December 2024 to 4 May 2025
​
‘Creativity born out of lack’; this is how Fred Pollack (1943-2022) names his work in an interview. Art with a tarnished past. Both his parents are murdered in the Shoah, Fred grows up with foster parents. He gets the chance to study and becomes a doctor. Later, he settles in Garnwerd, Groningen. There he developed into a versatile artist, for whom painting is intuitive. Or as he himself writes on a note: ‘A painting does not tell a story about reality; but represents a reality itself’.
Two exhibitions - in Synagoge Groningen and at Kunsthandel Ongering - provide an impressive insight into this artist's work.
Feb 15 | 20:00 | NSKK Concert | Voices of the City
In a varied programme of modern and ancient choral music, 32 participants sing, on the one hand, about the problems that city dwellers have faced for centuries, such as displacement, isolation, devastation and overstimulation. On the other hand, we also sing of the festivity, togetherness and diversity of the metropolis. After all, the city is a world of contradictions. Led by conductor Lodewijk van der Ree and supported by a fantastic Artistic Team, the Nederlands Studenten Kamer Koor will use everything in its creative arsenal to create a true Gesamtkunstwerk.
Mar 6 | 7:00 PM | Course Series | Introduction to Modern Hebrew
7-part course series
On Thursday 6 March ‘25 a new course Getting to know modern Hebrew will start. Various interesting aspects of this ancient as well as modern language will be discussed, such as its influence on Dutch. The course is low-threshold and requires no previous knowledge, but it is necessary to register in advance for this 7-part course.
​
Course dates:
6, 13, 20 and 27 March; 3, 10 and 17 April; 19:00-21:00.
Cost: €85 for the whole series; payable on the 1st evening.
Apr 20 | 3:00 PM | Storytelling Concert | What Remains is the Music…
the tragic story of Menachem Asscher
A story full of hope with music that has long remained hidden. Pianist Imri Talgam plays previously unheard work by Menachem Asscher, a pianist and composer from Groningen who was sent to Germany at the age of 22 and never returned. Lilian Kars uses fragments from, among others, Danseres zonder benen by Menachem's mother Clara Asscher-Pinkhof to tell the story of Menachem, which is further brought to life with music by Beethoven and Bach, among others. A 'storytelling concert' that leaves no one unmoved.
More info coming soon!
May 4 | 10:30-17:00 | Open Jewish Houses / Houses of Resistance
Commemorative programme
During this annual programme of the Jewish Cultural Quarter, life stories of Jewish citizens and resistance fighters are shared at the locations related to these personal stories.
The programme will be announced in early April.
May 8 | 20.00 | Concert 4MeiProjekt | Suitcase full of Secrets
What do you tell your children when you have experienced a war? In 1945, most people preferred to keep that suitcase full of secrets closed. That is still the case today. Refugees come to the Netherlands with their own suitcases. They also prefer to keep them closed. But knowing what war is helps to celebrate peace.
In the new musical performance of the 4 May Project and STEK (the young offshoot of the 4 May Project), the suitcase opens with stories and songs about hope and silence, looking away, about heroes and perpetrators. Poet and choir member Sylvia Dragtstra wrote the poem 'Hese stenen' especially for this performance. The young Groningen composer Karel Stegeman set it to music. The stories in the performance are based on personal and family histories of choir members, musicians and players.
May 11 | 3:30 PM | Performance | In search of Josef Cohen
Josef Cohen (1886-1965) was a colourful figure in twentieth-century Groningen as director of the library in Groningen, as a writer and as a man. A performance with Albert Secuur based on an idea by city historian Beno Hofman, who died in 2023, with lots of fantastic live music by the Bolotny Trio.
