The winners of the International Youth Competition on Local Jewish Cemeteries have been announced.
They include 15 projects from six countries: Five from Ukraine, four from Hungary, two each from Georgia and Moldova, and one each from Slovakia and Lithuania.
Mazel tov to all the winners! (And congratulations to all those who took part).
The competition was open to students from those countries and also Poland and drew nearly 90 entries. There were two categories: videos and online brochures — all can now be viewed online. (Click here to see the full list and links to the projects.)
The competition was sponsored by the European Jewish cemetery Initiative (ESJF), the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, and Centropa in the framework of the project “Preserving Jewish Cemeteries – Protect, Educate, Respect,” co-funded by the European Union.
In addition to the 15 winners – which each receive a €250 gift card for electronic equipment for their school, there were 14 runners up (which receive €150 gift cards) and 10 Special Prizes, or Third Place (€100 gift cards).
One of the winners was an online guide brochure on the ISSUU platform put together by students in the town of Horodok, Ukraine. We posted about their project in January, describing exciting discoveries the made during their research — including the discovery of a matzevah bearing the rare “Three Hares” image that was thought to have been destroyed more than a decade ago during botched cemetery clean up.
Around half of the entries in the competition were from Ukraine. This is partly because Ukraine is the largest country involved in the competition — but also a remarkable illustration of both the dedication of the students and grassroots interest in Jewish heritage as war still rages in the country.
In fact, the students in Horodok dedicated their project to Pavlo Zalutskyi, of the Horodok Museum of Local History (G-Museum). Their mentor and project consultant, he was killed in March during the fighting near Bakhmut.
(The Horodok students in fact became interested in Jewish heritage thanks to a photographic art exhibition at the G-Museum, by historian Dmitry Polyukhovich, on the carved designs of the centuries old gravestones in the historic Jewish cemetery in Sataniv.)
Local commentators noted that projects for the competition had been submitted from nearly all regions of Ukraine (except the territories occupied by Russia and the war zone), including an entry from Pavlohrad, near the front, which received a Special Prize.
Click here to see the awards list and links to view the projects online