Tour guides from Speyer, Worms and Mainz were able to celebrate the completion of their tour guide training in time for the signing and handover of the World Heritage application to UNESCO. Accompanying the application of the ShUM Sites for inscription as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, experienced tour guides from Mainz, Worms and Speyer were trained to introduce guests to the ShUM communities and their monuments. On the initiative of the SchUM-Städte e.V. and the tourism experts of the three cities, renowned lecturers from the ShUM application team could be won over for the diverse training topics such as religion and history or methodology and didactics by supporting the Regioakademie of the Bezirksverband Pfalz. The practical preparation and communication of the special features of the ShUM topic took a large part. The tour guides received their certificates on January 14, 2020 at a small ceremony in the presence of the Mayor of Speyer, Stefanie Seiler. Mayor Seiler is also the chairman of the SchUM-Städte e.V.
»With this further education we would like to make a contribution to the increasing demand for spiritual journeys and the wish for a stronger networking of the three cities. In this context, ShUM is developing into an important topic for our target groups, which also include many guests who are following in the footsteps of their own history,« says Gisela Neumeister, chairwoman of the Wormser Gästeführer interest group. For the first time, tour guides from the three cities had come together for a joint further education course. »We benefit from the exchange of experience with our tour guide colleagues and can now jointly conduct one-day and multi-day tours for groups of guests through the ShUM cities«, Neumeister continues.

The special exhibition »INNOVATION MADE IN SchUM« was opened at the Museum SchPIRA on August 23, 2020. It can be visited during the regular opening hours of the museum until the end of 2021. It is an exhibition of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate with the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate in cooperation with the city of Speyer with the participation of the Institute for European Art History of the University of Heidelberg. The focus of the exhibition is the Judenhof Speyer - the earliest preserved Jewish community center in Central Europe. »The exhibition is a unique opportunity to refer to the creative power of the SchUM communities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz. In addition, it provides insights into the current UNESCO World Heritage application process, the results of which the people of Speyer are eagerly awaiting,« said Mayor Stefanie Seiler at the opening of the exhibition. »The presentation that we are opening today temporarily adds two aspects that are important to UNESCO to the already existing, meaningful offerings of the Museum Schpira: On the one hand, it focuses on SchUM as a serial nomination. On the other hand, it conveys the essential ideas of the World Heritage Convention that there are sites worldwide that 'have a cultural significance so extraordinary that it is important beyond national boundaries and is of importance to both present and future generations of humanity'. I would like to thank all those involved in the conception of this extraordinary exhibition and also especially for their intensive support in the preparation of the World Heritage application,«, said Dr. Denis Alt, State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Government Commissioner for the UNESCO World Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate.

Sandra Simovich is the only Consul General of the State of Israel in the European Union. Now the Consul General traveled to the SchUM cities of Speyer and Worms on August 25, 2020. In Speyer, Lord Mayor Stefanie Seiler and Mayor Monika Kabs received Sandra Simovich. The meeting focused on the exchange of information about the joint UNESCO World Heritage application of the ShUM cities Speyer, Worms and Mainz as well as the joint visit of the Judenhof and the Mikwe. On this occasion, Mayor Seiler underlined the emotional significance of the World Heritage application: »It is not only a matter of preserving the architectural monuments, but also of setting an example of how important the Jewish history of the SchUM cities was and is, and how inseparably connected Judaism is with the three cities, which are considered to be the roots of European Judaism«. Consul General Simovich hopes that the application will be successful. »It is important that the Jewish heritage of the ShUM cities, which is taught about in Israel at an early stage in history lessons in schools, also receives the recognition it deserves outside the country«.
In the City Hall of Worms, Lord Mayor Adolf Kessel welcomed Sandra Simovich. The ShUM sites have a very special meaning for the Consul General, which was clearly noticeable in the conversation. Anna Kischner, chairwoman of the Jewish community Mainz/Worms, agreed: »Many great rabbis come from Worms. The city was once virtually a center for European Jews«. Following her short visit to the city hall, the Consul General visited the Jewish cemetery Heiliger Sand, the oldest preserved Jewish cemetery in Europe, and the synagogue to see for herself the important monuments.

An exhibition of the city of Worms with the Jewish Museum Worms in cooperation with the State of Rhineland-Palatinate with the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (GDKE) with the participation of the SchUM-Städte Speyer, Worms, Mainz e.V. Supported by the foundation »Gut.für die Region« of the Sparkasse Worms-Alzey-Ried
»Shum on the Rhine - From Middel Ages to Modernity« takes you on a time travel into the heyday of the Jewish communities in the ShUM-commuinties of Speyer, Worms and Mainz.
The exhibition was opened on September 13. Representatives of the City of Worms, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (GDKE), the Jewish Community of Mainz, the SchUM-Städte e.V., but also those responsible for the exhibition - scenographer, carpenter, printing technician, lighting technician - were present as well as some invited guests. A representative of the Foundation of the Sparkasse Worms-Alzey-Ried was also pleased with the exhibition. Due to the applicable distance and hygiene measures, the opening was in a small circle. After speeches by Mayor Kosubek, Dr. Gerold Bönnen, Director of the Jewish Museum Worms and the General Director of the GDKE, Thomas Metz, the guests were invited to take guided tours of the exhibition.
Have a look: The exhibit

... The precious moonlight of the spirit
From Worms, from Mainz, from Speyer ...
(Abraham Valt /Avrom Liessin, 1872-1939)
In 2020, the cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz jointly organized the Jewish Cultural Days in SchUM for the first time. Despite COVID19 several events took place. Some had to be cancelled. But some of them will be made up for. SchUM shines, sounds and discusses again.
Information

Golem: inanimate mass, a being without a will of its own. Right?
Golem returns! Back to Worms on the Rhine, where the idea of a somehow protective being that can defend Jews and help them was already born in the 13th century. At the heyday of the SchUM cities, Rabbi Eleazar ben Jehuda Kalonymos (ca. 1165-1230) lived in Worms. Eleazar was married to Dulcia; they had a son, Jacob, and two daughters, Belette and Hannah. This modern, urban and emotionally close family was attacked by two crusaders/murderers in Worms in November 1196. Dulcia and her two daughters were murdered, the son was injured. Some time later Eleazar ben Jehuda wrote a commentary on the time-honored »Book of Creation« and introduced the idea of creating a Golem by using certain numbers and letter combinations of the Hebrew alphabet. Golem was conceived! From Worms, Golem wandered as a legend into the world, to Prague and Poland, and later, in an altered form, to the USA: Are Superman or the Bear Jew in »Inglorious Basterds« not also Golem? In Israel, the first computer in the 1960s was called Golem! And today? Modern fiction even knows female golems.
In the new exhibition in the Raschi House (Info on the exhibition), the Golem sculpture by the US-american artist Joshua Abarbanel is on display - one of many highlights.
A tour of the golem in mid-October 2020 brought 15 interested people together under applicable hygiene and distance rules. In the beginning of dusk, the tour went through the Judengasse, along the city wall, in the footsteps of Eleazar and his family. An encounter with the golem Abarbanels rounded off the evening. And behold: some of the participants created golems. A blue little golem by S. Schach, a helping golem hand for superheroes by G. Neumeister and the proof by F. Chiostergi, who encountered the golem everywhere in Worms. Have a look yourself.