'Jewish' country houses - objects, networks, people

作为一个泛欧洲的研究'犹太'国家的房子，这是一个开创性的研究工作。我们的目标是建立“犹太人”的国家房屋-由犹太人拥有，建造或更新的财产-作为研究的重点，欧洲记忆的网站和欧洲犹太遗产和物质文化的重要方面。乡间别墅在我们国家遗产景观中的中心地位说明了它在国家建设中的重要性，这一现象在其他欧洲国家也有类似之处。对犹太精英的研究也是在民族国家的框架内进行的，阐述了强调民族独特性的范式。这个项目将是第一个照亮“犹太贵族”的国际化世界，它的关系，它的建筑和它的东西，展示这个国际网络如何重塑“犹太”和“欧洲”的文化和社会。“犹太人”的乡村房屋及其所有者没有得到系统的研究，因为他们不符合乡村房屋研究或现代犹太历史的既定概念框架。然而，“犹太人”的乡间别墅--通常集中在首都附近或高档海滨和温泉度假胜地附近--在19世纪末和世纪初的欧洲随处可见。我们并不是要建立一个固定的“犹太”乡村住宅类型学，而是要探索从19世纪后半叶开始在欧洲各地激增的许多变体，以及支撑它们的社会、政治、文化和熟悉的关系。无论是个人还是集体，这些房屋都代表了这个时代犹太人私人财富和犹太艺术专长增长的顶峰和终点。该项目将通过两个互补的研究领域调查这一现象：社会文化（侧重于收集）和社会政治（侧重于慈善事业）。我们对犹太精英在农村的社会和政治作用的关注，与现有的犹太精英研究工作背道而驰，后者的重点是城市和资产阶级。它有望重塑我们对同化、文化适应、融合和差异的思考方式。我们还通过将所有参与犹太乡村住宅的创建，维护和装饰的参与者团结在一个单一的分析框架中，在社会历史，建筑历史，收集的材料和知识历史以及艺术市场的历史之间建立了一座桥梁，从而打破了新的方法论基础。与国家信托基金会和欧洲保护和促进犹太文化和遗产协会密切合作，并与沃德斯登庄园和草莓山庄等相关财产密切合作，我们将通过开发一个知识框架和实用资源来改变遗产领域的实践，这些知识框架和资源将比该项目更持久，使英国和欧洲大陆的遗产专业人员能够更好地参与“犹太人”的活动。这些乡间别墅和它们经常引起争议的历史

As a pan-European study of 'Jewish' country houses this is a pioneering research endeavour. We aim to establish 'Jewish' country houses - properties that were owned, built or renewed by Jews - as a focus for research, a site of European memory and a significant aspect of European Jewish heritage and material culture. The central place of the country house in our national heritage landscape speaks to its importance in the construction of nationhood, a phenomenon with parallels in other European countries. Work on Jewish elites too has operated within a nation-state framework, elaborating paradigms that emphasize national distinctiveness. This project will be the first to illuminate the cosmopolitan world of the 'Jewish aristocracy', its relationships, its architecture and its things, showing how this international network reshaped 'Jewish' and 'European' culture and society.'Jewish' country houses and their owners have escaped systematic study because they do not fit established conceptual frameworks in country house studies or in modern Jewish history. Yet 'Jewish' country houses - often clustered within easy reach of capital cities or near exclusive seaside and spa resorts - were ubiquitous across Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century. Far from seeking to establish a fixed typology of 'Jewish' country houses, we will explore the many variants that proliferated across Europe from the second half of the nineteenth century, and the social, political, cultural and familiar relationships that underpinned them. Individually and collectively, these houses represent the summit and terminus of the growth in Jewish private wealth and Jewish artistic expertise in this era. The project will investigate this phenomenon through two complementary research strands: socio-cultural (focusing on collecting) and socio-political (focusing on philanthropy). Our focus on the social and political role of Jewish elites in the countryside works against the grain of existing work on Jewish elites which has an urban, bourgeois focus. It promises to reshape the way we think about assimilation, acculturation, integration and difference. We also break fresh methodological ground by uniting into a single analytical framework all the actors involved in the creation, maintenance and decoration of the Jewish country house, creating a bridge between social history, architectural history, the material and intellectual histories of collecting, and the history of the art market. Working closely with the National Trust and the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage, and with relevant properties like Waddesdon Manor and Strawberry Hill House, we will transform practice in the heritage sector by developing an intellectual framework and practical resources that will outlive the project to enable heritage professionals in the UK and continental Europe to better engage the 'Jewishness' of these country houses and their often contested history.