Deep Dives

You can read the full Deep Dive Report here or download it as a PDF.

The outcomes for the programme include a digital audio walk, a photographic exhibition, bilingual booklets, a writer-in-residence programme, freely downloadable education packs for schools, a digital mapping project and a documentary film - all of which you can view and download below.

A teachers’ pack that explores Georgian Jewish History and Jewish cemeteries in the country, which are uniquely different to other burial grounds across Europe. It includes: historical information, activities including drawing the symbols from a Jewish tombstone and interpreting epitaphs in Georgian Jewish cemeteries, customs and traditions of Jewish death and burial, some personal stories of Georgian Jewish figures and a quiz for students to test their knowledge. This pack is now freely available in both Georgian and English.

A documentary tells the story of the Jewish community of the city of Szombathely and their cemetery, exploring the fate of Hungarian and Central European Jewry through the history of just one town. The nearly 15-minute film is in Hungarian but subtitled in English and has been produced by the staff of Szombathely Television in collaboration with the Foundation for Jewish Heritage and many other local partners. This film has been shared widely in Hungary (on Szombathely Television and other places) and is available to view on Youtube.

A creative writing project led by award winning Lithuanian writer Aneta Anra in collaboration with the Samueli Bak Museum, a branch of the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History in the capital of Vilnius. Local Jewish school children had tours with a guide to the Jewish cemetery, followed by workshops with Aneta in both the museum and their school. They learnt about the history of the Jewish cemetery and the community then developed creative responses in the form of stories and poems which resulted in the publication of the students work. A small publication, which includes photographs of the workshops and cemetery visits as well as drawings by the students is available here. 

A photographic project exploring the history and beauty of historic cemeteries in Kazimierz. Local university students from the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University were trained in photographic and artistic techniques then encouraged to look at these familiar places in new ways. They received training in photographic techniques in a workshop at the Galicia Jewish Museum, then developed a collaborative and interdisciplinary photographic exhibition. The exhibition was held at the High Synagogue in 2023.

An AudioWalk of 10-12 minutes, available in Romanian, English and Russian, that specifically explores the history of and stories about individuals buried in the Chișinău (Kishinev) Jewish Cemetery in Moldova. The objective has been to create a deeper and more immersive experience for visitors, that can be listened to both onsite and from anywhere around the world. This high quality AudioWalk builds on the early work of Centropa and is freely downloadable in a compressed MP3 format here and from the Centropa websites.

A unique educational project for primary school pupils in the region, which focuses on both the history, ecology, and biodiversity of a Jewish cemetery in Slovakia. A freely downloadable PDF format education pack has been produced which has been specifically designed to appeal to primary school children (with bright graphics and plenty of activities) by master’s students training to be teachers. The pack explores both the biodiversity and history of a Jewish cemetery in Banská Bystrica and includes photos, activities and other details about the plants, grasslands, wildlife, bugs, beetles, and birds that live in these places alongside information on the history of the Jewish community buried there.

The pack can be downloaded in English and Slovak language.

A digital memory map of the Jewish cemetery in the town of Zbarazh has been produced that builds on the work of Ukranian historian Tetiana Fedoriv. On this ‘Living Memory Map' you will find historical information about the Jewish community of Zbarazh and the local Jewish cemetery there, alongside archival research, photographs, and stories of 15 individuals buried there. To explore the site, click on one of the coloured shapes and information will automatically pop up about that grave in both English and Ukrainian. The Foundation for Jewish Heritage would like to express particular thanks to both Tetiana and Andrii who have been working on this project in extremely difficult circumstances during this past year in Ukraine.  
This map can be freely accessed at livingstories.memorymapper.org.

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