The Lithuanian Jewish Community has appointed the writer and veteran Jewish heritage activist Sergey Kanovich as Coordinator of Jewish Heritage Projects.
His role will be to involve regional municipalities, regional museums, schools, and members of local communities in working with the Jewish community to participate and systematically take care of material Jewish heritage objects.
“My goal is to achieve a sustainable partnership based on regionally developed heritage related projects which will ensure continuity of preserving it on permanent basis,” Kanovich told JHE in an email.
“Education will also be a big part of this mission,” he said.
The aim, he said, is to develop “a properly working network of parties who are interested in keeping, marking, and story telling using material memory left by our ancestors.”
This will also involve indexing and digitizing Jewish related items kept/exhibited by regional museums.
Kanovich is the founder of the NGO Maceva, the Litvak Cemetery Catalogue, established in 2011 to document and preserve Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania. In December, he wrote a “Long(er) Read” essay for us summing up the organization’s activities in 2024.
He was also the founder and Executive Director of the Lost Shtetl Museum in Lithuania, but earlier this month announced that he was stepping away from his involvement with the museum, which is under development and scheduled to open this year in the town of Šeduva.
In 2018, Lithuania’s then-president Dalia Grybauskaitė awarded Kanovich a high state honor, the medal of the order “For Merit to Lithuania,” for his work to preserve Lithuanian Jewish heritage.
1 comment on “Lithuania: Lithuanian Jewish community names Sergey Kanovich as Coordinator of Jewish Heritage Projects”
This is good news for Lithuanian Jewish heritage, in all its aspects. Sergey is a proven leader in this field. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience, and the highest standards for excellence in preservation work and truth in history and education.