Education, technology and local mobilisation at the forefront of project
across seven European countries
Dozens of international activists and experts are set to gather for an EU-funded conference next week on Jewish cemetery preservation in Europe.
The conference, entitled “Jewish Cemeteries of Europe as a Shared Heritage” takes place on Monday, July 3, beginning at 13:00 CET and concluding at 16:15 CET.
Registration for this public event is available at the following link:
https://forms.gle/EFQFwXRkoqHzFL7E7
“There were thousands of Jewish communities in these regions prior to the Shoah and the Jewish cemetery is regularly the final physical witness both to the existence and contribution of these communities to European heritage as well as a direct reminder and educational message of where antisemitism, intolerance and racism can lead,” ESJF Chief Executive Officer Philip Carmel said.
It will take place online, most particularly in order to enable participants from war-torn Ukraine to attend. Despite the Russian invasion, the project has continued and entrenched its activities in the country throughout the recent period and owes a great debt to the commitment of local Ukrainian activists working in the field.
“Protecting the Jewish Cemeteries of Europe” is an EU-funded project with the aim of preserving the thousands of Jewish cemeteries in Jewish communities which were largely destroyed in the Shoah. It attests to hundreds of years of Jewish contribution to European history and culture.
The project is run by a consortium of three leading Jewish heritage organisations – the ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, Centropa, and the Foundation for Jewish Heritage. It has taken place in seven European countries over the last 18 months: Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.
It builds on work over previous years under EU pilot projects which saw the ground and drone surveys of close to 4,000 Jewish cemeteries in the region and the organisation of education projects in schools and colleges, as well as teacher training programmes.
The consortium has succeeded through this project in raising awareness of Jewish cemeteries in local communities, spearheading education projects, and empowering local actors and public authorities to preserve cemeteries.
The initiative is one of the deliverables of the EU’s strategy for Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life.
The conference will be opened by Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission’s Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life and will feature sessions, inter alia, on stakeholder advocacy, the educational potential of cemeteries, use of technology in heritage protection, cemeteries as locations for pilgrimage and tourism, legal frameworks for cemetery protection, what cemeteries teach us about how to combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial, and preserving this vital heritage even in times of war, such as the current conflict in Ukraine. Experts in these various fields will address the event.
For more information and the agenda visit the project website:
https://www.jewishcemeteries.eu/conferences/concluding-conference-preserving-jewish-cemeteries