The Estonian Jewish Museum and the Estonian Jewish Community are organizing an international seminar, " Online sources for commemoration and remembrance of Jewish life in the Baltic countries and Poland".
The seminar aims to introduce the possibilities of using the internet to explore the rich and diverse history of the Jews in these countries and to share experiences in creating such resources. Jewish history in each country has unique features. While Jews have lived in Poland and Lithuania for nearly a thousand years and in Latvia for about half a millennium, a permanent Jewish presence in Estonia began only two centuries ago. In each country, evidence of Jewish life has been preserved. Unfortunately, the Holocaust destroyed the once-thriving Jewish communities in many parts of our region. In each country, varying efforts are being made to preserve the heritage of Jewish communities, including the memory of the tragedy of the Holocaust.
In Poland, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews has created the "Virtual Shtetl" online portal, which has gathered a vast amount of information about the cultural heritage of Polish Jews. In Lithuania, an interactive Holocaust map of Lithuanian Jews has been created, which also provides information about the lost communities of that country. In Latvia, a map has also been compiled with the participation of the "Jews in Latvia" museum, supplemented by a database of Latvian Jews. Our achievements in Estonia are still modest, but a group of students and faculty from Tallinn University have created an interactive Holocaust map of Estonia.
Presenting at the seminar for the Estonian Jews Forum are Joanna Król-Komla, head of the department at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews; Neringa Latvytė, associate professor at the Faculty of Communication at Vilnius University; Ilya Lensky, director of the "Jews in Latvia" museum; and Eneken Laanes, professor at Tallinn University. The working languages of the seminar are English and Estonian, with simultaneous translation.
The seminar is open to all interested persons. It is free of charge. Registration https://forms.gle/wQvXR4sEHCKP7QDH6
The seminar is organized by the Estonian Jewish Community in cooperation with the Estonian Jewish Museum with support of the project ReActMem – Rescue Memory - Activism, Arts and Public Remembrance. Funded by European Union.
