A conference in Poland next week will tackle a range of issues relating to Jewish cemetery preservation, documentation, and legal status.
The two-day meeting, organized by the Gliwice Museum, will be held at the Memorial House of Upper Silesian Jews, located in the former Ceremonial Hall at the Jewish cemetery in Gliwice. It is the first conference to be held under a program called “Forum of Remembrance of Jewish Heritage in Poland” and will include workshops as well as lectures and panel discussions.
Organizers said the meeting is directed mainly to “employees of the state administration and local government, individuals, public institutions and non-governmental organizations involved or interested in the protection of Jewish heritage in Poland” with the aim of “having a real impact on the state and behavior of tangible and intangible traces of Jewish presence in Poland.”
Speakers include representatives of state, regional, and local monuments protection offices and governments; individual researchers; representatives of NGOs and other organizations and institutions working on Jewish cemetery preservation and documentation; representatives of Jewish communities and the Rabbinical Commission on Jewish cemeteries; and others.
The sites of more than 1,300 Jewish cemeteries are known in Poland, though most have few or no gravestones, most are abandoned and/or neglected, and the exact borders of many are not defined. Many, too, have been built over — fully or in part.
Conference organizers write:
Mutilated by time and neglect, physical traces of Jewish presence on Polish territory are like a silent reproach appearing in the landscape of many cities and villages. Despite a series of measures to save them by the administrative authorities of different levels, as well as Jewish organizations and public associations, are still too many objects of Jewish heritage is in a state requiring urgent action conservation and restoration. [The conference] aims to spread knowledge about the possibilities and ways to protect Jewish heritage in our country, with particular focus on Upper Silesia.
They said the following issues are among those to be discussed:
1. Legal issues related to theprotection of Jewish cemeteries?
2. What action should or could state authorities, local government, Jewish communities, and NGOs take in the preservation and protection of Jewish cemeteries?
3. What role do non-governmental organizations play?
4. How can the progressive degradation of these objects be stopped?
5. What activities in this area are taking place in other European countries?
6. How to document Jewish cemeteries and keep them in the collective memory?
They said that the aim was primarily to exchange knowledge and experiences but eventually to develop a set of best practices that could help “institutions possessing the right tools and resources, but lacking the knowledge and skills to systematically and effectively take care of Jewish cemeteries.”
Click here to see the program of the conference and speakers