Jewish Heritage Europe

Focus on a Heritage Site: Warsaw’s Bródno Jewish cemetery; powerful site with informative new exhibit

Bet Almin – House of Eternity, the visitor’s center and permanent exhibition on Jewish funeral traditions and cemetery history at the Bródno Jewish cemetery in Warsaw’s Praga district provides a powerful introduction to a visit to the cemetery. We wrote about … continue reading →

Netherlands: Drought makes hidden gravestones visible at 400-year-old Ouderkerk Jewish cemetery

This summer’s prolonged heatwave and drought in Europe has had an unexpected effect: it has exposed buried gravestones, showing their layout in the historic Beth Haim Portuguese (Sephardic) Jewish cemetery at Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, located near Amsterdam at the confluence … continue reading →

Update: Synagogue complex & Renovation in Włodawa, Poland

As we anticipated last year, renovation is under way at the important synagogue complex in Włodawa, in southeastern Poland on the border with Belarus. Current work, expected to be completed by 2019, entails repairs to the exterior of the Great … continue reading →

On the road in CZ: the secret synagogue in Terezin (crosspost)

Take a deep dive into the history of the so-called “secret synagogue” at Terezin, the town and historic fortress north of Prague that the Nazis turned into a ghetto/concentration camp — Theresianstadt. Along with JHE Coordinator Ruth Ellen Gruber, the … continue reading →

Poland: art reveals Tykocin synagogue before restoration

A 50-year-old drawing  reveals the ravaged interior of the 17th century synagogue in Tykocin, Poland — nearly a decade before it was renovated and reopened as one of the very few Jewish museums that operated in Communist-ruled east-central Europe. The … continue reading →