Mapping the Historic Synagogues at Risk in Europe
Creating an inventory of all 3,347 historic synagogues of Europe rating each according to their importance and condition in order to focus its own Jewish heritage preservation work on saving the most endangered synagogue sites
| Jewish heritage in Europe faces special challenges as a result of the events of the 20th century and the tragedy of the Holocaust where many buildings lost their communities due to mass murder. Under communism, the Holocaust was a forbidden subject which added to the precariousness of such sites that were left to languish in the landscape, used for other purposes or completely abandoned. Launched in 2018, The Foundation created an inventory of all 3,347 historic synagogues of Europe- synagogues being the most iconic and representative Jewish building - rating each according to their importance and condition so that the Foundation could focus its efforts on saving the most important buildings most at risk. Less than a quarter are used today as synagogues. A quarter were identified as being at risk either being in poor or very bad condition. It is calculated that there were 17,000 synagogues in 1939. |
Project Details
Location: Europe
Organiser(s):
Foundation for Jewish Heritage
Project partner(s): Center for Jewish Art - Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Funder(s):
Foundation for Jewish Heritage
Funding received: Undisclosed
Commencement Date: 12/2016
Project Status: Completed
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