Next Sunday, September 2nd, the European Day of Jewish Culture 2012 will be celebrated in Europe, in Spain as well as here in Mallorca. This year’s event will be under the theme of The Spirit of Jewish Humour. According to the German poet Heinrich Heine, German humour is as heavy as German beer, English humour is misty like whiskey, French humour is light, fizzy and shiny like Champagne, whereas the Scots are deprived of any sense of humour (quoted from the jewisheritage website). Heine was born into a Jewish family, but later converted to Christianity in 1825, age 28.

In case you want to learn something, a Shofar (photo top) is a traditional Jewish blowing horn made of a mature ram’s horn, used as an instrument for religious purposes. And the photo (bottom) shows USA Rabbi Joseph Wallis, centre, at the site of a former synagogue in Palma in 2011 which had been replaced by a Roman Catholic church during the 16th century.

A concert will be given by Ana Alcaide at Castell de Bellver on September 1st, 21h00, as part of the European Day of Jewish Culture. The synagogue in Palma will hold a day of Open Doors on September 2nd, 10h00 to 14h00. There will be guided tours through Palma’s Jewish Quarters on the same day at 10h00 (Catalán and English), 11h45 (German and Spanish), 17h00 (Catalán and German) and 18h45 (Catalán and Spanish), starting from Plaza de Cort. A documentary about the fate of the Chuetas will be screened at Teatro Xesc Forteza, at 20h30.

There will also be a Ciclo de Cine Judío. The following movies will be shown at the Teatro Municipal Catalina Valls in Palma (Passeig Mallorca), quite possibly in a Spanish dubbed version:

04/09/2012: El mundo según Barney/Barbey’s Version (Richard J. Lewis, Canada/Italy 2010).
13/09/2012: Judíos en el espacio/Jews in Space, or Why Is this Night Different from All Other Nights? (Gabriel Lichtmann, Argentina 2005).
18/09/2012: Te quiero, Alice B. Toklas/I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (Hy Averback, USA 1968).
27/09/2012: El Rabino y el Pistolero/The Frisco Kid (Robert Aldrich, USA 1979).

The photo (top) was chosen from my archive. It was taken in Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: September 7th, 2008. The time was 13:08:55. The photo (bottom) was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of nytimes.com and the International Herald Tribune. Many thanks also to the photographer, Marta Ramoneda.

Thank you very much.