News

On the 14th, 18th and 19th December 2022, the ESJF was proud to meet with 50 Ukrainian Jewish heritage activists for a three-day EU Masterclass on the importance of preserving Jewish cemeteries. A total of 148 registered to receive the recordings of the event and shared their input via email. Connecting online from countries far […]

The Batrad Jewish cemetery in Ukraine was cleared of over-growth early this month. The ESJF fenced and protected this burial site in 2016 with funding from the Auswärtiges Amt. The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown, but it can be assumed that it emerged in the 19th century. The ESJF recently cleared this […]

The EU workshop we hosted last week over the 16th and 17th November 2022 was exciting, interesting and above all a great success! Over the two days, we gained a small insight into the difficulties the citizens of Ukraine have, unfortunately, on a daily basis. The first day started in the basement instead of the […]

Drones, unfortunately, have been rather a common site in Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine in recent weeks and months, targeting civilians and infrastructural installations as part of the Russian war effort against Ukraine. Now, Kyiv hosts a conference on drones for their positive usage as the ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative conducts an EU […]

Did you know that an autumnal clearing makes all the difference to the long term maintenance of Jewish cemeteries? And here’s why… This week, the ESJF visited the Nadvirna Jewish cemetery in Ukraine, one of the few sites which the ESJF has fenced and protected that also has received additional sponsorship for yearly clearings.   […]

ESJF are pleased to announce that last week we wrapped up our surveys in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, during which we were able to visit 88 sites. Now, our teams are making progress on cemeteries in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and yesterday, they sent us these photos from the Pavlohrad Jewish cemetery. There are records […]

The European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative (ESJF) continues its educational outreach in Ukraine. On February 20, Students gathered at Lviv Polytechnic University to learn about the ESJF’s cultural heritage preservation work from both a historian’s and a technologist’s perspective. ESJF’s Olena Andronatiy introduced students to the project, providing an overview of ESJF’s mission, methods, and results […]

Ukraine has been and remains a home for many ethnic and religious groups, each of which has left its influence on the culture of the country. But today these communities are decreasing in number and have in some places dissapeared entirely— their heritage sites going unnoticed, lost or forgotten, despite being important parts of Ukraine’s […]

In the framework of the pilot project Mapping the Jewish Cemeteries of Europe, co-funded by the European Commission, we already held teacher training seminars in Greece and Slovakia in 2019. These seminars help us to bring Jewish heritage to classrooms beyond the framework of the project itself, enhancing educators’ practices, and providing a platform for […]

The completion of the educational project in Vyshnivets, Kyiv oblast on November 14th marks the end of the ESJF’s secondary school outreach programme in Ukraine, under the pilot project co-funded by the European Commission. Students from four schools in Vyshnivets and the surrounding towns of Stary Vyshnivets, Butyn, and Bodaki were invited in small groups […]

ESJF’s educational activities have begun in Ukraine, under the pilot project sponsoring the mass surveys from 2018-2020. On November 6th, educator and Jewish cemetery expert Dr. Alexandra Fishel led 50 secondary school students on an excursion to the Jewish cemetery in Bohuslav, Kyiv oblast. ESJF’s educational projects work in close cooperation with schools and educators […]

ESJF has begun the process of surveying in Chernivetska oblast, and have already visited over 60 sites. In many cases, our work focuses on areas where historical records suggest the likelihood of a long-term Jewish presence, but where accurate documentation is missing, in order to determine whether a Jewish cemetery was ever present. In that […]