Newsletter
 
NUMBER 5  Carrer de la Força, 8 - 17004 GIRONA - Tel.: 972 216 761 Fax: 972 216 761 SPRING 2005
 
INDEX OF CONTENTS
Editorial
Presentation - Mr. Joan Olóriz
Compendium
Presentation of Girona Judaica 1
A new publication to diffuse the Jewish heritage of Girona
Temporary exhibition 'Life and Work of Maimonides'
News
Operation The Night of the Museums in the Museum of the History of the Jews
First Seminar on Spirituality and Memory, July 8th - 9th, 2005
Announcement of the VI European Day of Jewish Culture
Culture and Heritage
Europe and the Jews: a history of convergence and divergence
Library
Review on 'Religión y tolerancia, en torno a Natán el Sabio de E. Lessing'
Review on 'Auschwitz explained to my child'
Miscellaneous
Seminars
Exhibitions
European Itinerary of Jewish Heritage
Archive of Newsletters
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  EDITORIAL
   
Presentation - Mr. Joan Olóriz
 
This past March I was shocked to see the news that in a neighboring village the Catalan police had disbanded a distributor of books, music and other material of Nazi ideology. It was a distribution point which propagated fanzines and music on compact discs which promoted an ideology of hate and discrimination and which denied the Holocaust. This tendency of promoting oblivion in order to distort the historical facts has been recurrent among the anti-democratic and xenophobic right-wingers of contemporary Europe. The two World Wars, both having originated in Europe, probably would not have occurred last century if it had not been for the systematic effort of the ideologies which use discrimination and the confrontations between nations and races as its main precept. Culture and education, scientific research of our past and the will to disseminate it is the best vaccination against the ills of xenophobia which, unfortunately, has no permanent cure and needs constant re-medication to avoid contagion.
Throughout history, the Catalan Jewish communities had moments of splendor, whenever the society, in which they formed a part, displayed tolerance. But they were also victims of persecution and forced conversions up until the expulsion decree of 1492.
The Bonastruc Center is a magnificent contribution, a great idea consolidated by perseverance, of the commitment of our city towards the values of harmony and the defense of the values of fraternity between nations. It is also a recognition of our past, with its good and bad times, in order to strengthen a present in which we must remain vigilant and defensive against any flourishing of xenophobia or racism.

Mr. Joan Olóriz
 Vice Mayor, City Hall of Girona
 Councilor of Social Services and Youth