Lecture: Jewish Cemetery: History, Epigraphy and Research

On Thursday, November 20, at 5:30 p.m., lecturer and researcher Oleksandra Fishel talked about Jewish cemeteries as a part of urban landscapes and their significance as cultural heritage sites, as well as the history of their research. During the lecture, Oleksandra will talk about the decorative motifs of Jewish cemeteries, inscriptions, the information found in them.

Oleksandra talked about The European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative (ESJF, https://www.esjf-cemeteries.org/), which continued the work of the “Lo Tishkach” project from the early 2010s. The lecturer talked about the work of the ESJF, their principles of documenting Jewish cemeteries, the range of solutions offered for the preservation of Jewish cemeteries (which, of course, are also useful for other cemeteries) and cooperation with representatives of other fields, e.g., engineering sciences in the field of cultural heritage. The ESJF plans to start work in Latvia next year.

Oleksandra Fishel (Kiev/Paris) is a specialist in Jewish paleography, especially medieval and modern Jewish epigraphy. Since the late 2000s, she had documented hundreds of Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine (including Crimea before the occupation), Belarus, Moldova and other countries, including the Jewish cemetery of Ludza, as part of various initiatives. She is currently a lecturer in the Judaica program at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy; for several years she headed the ESJF Education Department, and is now the Head of the Communication Department (www.esjf-cemeteries.org ).