Nominations are open for the 2020 World Monuments Fund Watch list of endangered heritage sites — a recognized way of drawing attention to projects aimed at saving the sites.
The 2020 World Monuments Watch will include 25 sites from around the world in need of urgent action, each site telling a local story that carries global significance.
Through the Watch, World Monuments Fund will partner with local stakeholders to jointly design and implement targeted conservation programs—including advocacy, planning, education, and physical interventions in the historic built environment. […]
Heritage sites of all types and from any cultural period—ancient to modern—are eligible for inclusion on the 2020 World Monuments Watch. They may include archaeological sites, civic buildings, commercial or leisure destinations, residences, religious or sacred buildings and sites, engineering or industrial structures, gardens, parks, cultural landscapes, and cityscapes or entire historic city centers.
Jewish Heritage Program & The Watch
The WMF notes that since the World Monuments Watch launched in 1996, it has included thirteen Jewish sites. Eight of these developed into successful projects under the WMF’s Jewish Heritage Program.
The first Watch listed several Jewish heritage sites, among them the Etz Hayim Synagogue in Hania, Greece, which was restored and then rededicated in 1999, and the art nouveau Synagogue in Subotica, Serbia, which was restored after decades of fitful work and rededicated in 2018.
An example from the 2014 program is The Great Synagogue of Iaşi in Iaşi, Romania
WMF supported the restoration of the nineteenth-century Aron Kodesh (Ark). Inclusion in the program helped renew local interest and support for the full restoration of the synagogue. The 2018 Watch includes two sites of Jewish heritage: the Jewish Quarter of Essaouira, Morocco and Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria, Egypt. Both are sites of memory for once-flourishing Jewish communities, which carry important stories about the diaspora, and stand as reminders of the diversity of the Jewish experience.
Click here for full details on how to nominate a site