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International Conference on Jewish Heritage of Europe Paris, France - 12.99

In January 26 - 28, the International Conference on Jewish Heritage of Europe took place in Paris. This conference, which dealt for the first time with the issue of preservation of Jewish monuments in Europe, followed the "Future of Jewish Monuments" conference held in New York in 1990, organized by the World Monuments Fund. The event in Paris was organized by the French Ministry of Culture, the Museum of Art and History of Judaism in Paris, the Sefardi Museum of Toledo, the Jewish Museum of Greece, the Warsaw Jewish Historic Institute, and the Program for Jewish Culture in Bologna. The presentations focused on the conservation, documentation and reutilization of synagogues, cemeteries and mikveh, undertaken successfully in Poland, Hungary, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, and other countries of Europe. In addition, an update of the conservation efforts of the synagogues of Hania and Veroia in Greece were presented in detail. 
Among the distinguished lecturers and guests from Greece were Zanet Battinou, curator of the Jewish Museum of Greece, Freddy Abravanel, member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Museum of Greece, and architect-researcher Elias Messinas, editor of Kol haKEHILA. Nicholas Stavroulakis, founder and director Emeritus of the Jewish Museum of Greece, was not present at the conference, but his conservation work at the synagogue at Hania, Crete, was presented in detail by Samuel Gruber, director of the Jewish Heritage Research Center, and representative of the World Monuments Fund in the United States. 
In addition to the conservation of the synagogue of Hania, the identification and preparation phases of the conservation of the synagogue of Veroia were presented in detail, by Elias Messinas, the architect coordinating the project. 
The conference was followed by an informal meeting of selected participants, organized by the European Council of Jewish Communities, London. The purpose of the meeting was the formation of common strategy towards the preservation of the European Jewish heritage for the next ten years. 
Among the participants at this meeting were Laurence Sigal, director of the Jewish Museum of Paris, Max Polonovski, director of the Jewish Heritage division of the French Ministry of Culture, curators of Jewish museums in Greece, Poland, Czech Republic, the United States, and France, representatives of ICOMOS, Jewish institutions, and Jewish press. 
The conclusions of this meeting, which are to be finalized in the coming weeks, will be presented in one of the coming issues of Kol haKEHILA.


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