Jewish Heritage Europe

Poland Cemetery clean up and restoration updates: Zywiec, Bialystok, Czechowice-Dziedzice

An anonymous Polish benefactor is financing the restoration of the Jewish cemetery in Zywiec, in southern Poland. Volunteers organized on Facebook cleaned up the devastated Jewish cemetery in Czechowice-Dziedzice. More than 300 gravestones are uprighted, cleaned, and documented during this summer’s volunteer … 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 →

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 →

Belarus: Saving the Great Synagogue in Ashmiany?

Efforts are developing to mount a campaign to restore the  Great Synagogue in Ashmiany, (Oshmyany) Belarus — a brick and wood structure whose architectural features, particularly the wooden roof and painted interior cupola, recall the elaborate wooden synagogues that were … continue reading →

Ukraine: Dozens of matzevot rescued from under L’viv street; had been used as paving

Volunteers from the L’viv Volunteer Center (LVC) of the Hesed Arieh All-Ukrainian Jewish Charitable Foundation have been working this week to remove dozens of Jewish headstones that were found to be paving Barvinok street in downtown L’viv. “The whole street … continue reading →