PACE urges to preserve ancient synagogues of Europe, in particular, in Ukraine

The Council of Europe (COE) demands that states pay more attention to destroyed Jewish synagogues. This was reported on December 22 by the Times of Israel with reference to the Appeal of the parliamentary Assembly of the Council of CE, which was published in October 2019, the website Jewishnews reports.

PACE calls for the Pan-European ownership of the preservation of the Jewish cultural heritage, which is part of European culture.

The resolution adopted by European parliamentarians calls for the introduction of a programme for the protection and preservation of Jewish heritage sites, as well as for the development of educational programmes on the importance of Jewish cultural heritage in schools, universities, museums and the cultural sector. PACE also recommends introducing the award for outstanding volunteer work for the preservation of Jewish heritage.

The study found that only 22% of the 3237 ancient synagogues in Europe are used for their intended purpose, the rest are used as museums, offices, cultural centers, as well as places of worship for other faiths.

At the same time, 23% of the 3237 synagogues are in poor and terrible condition.

Synagogues in the following countries were particularly affected: Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova and Serbia about 10% of Jewish homes remained. In Poland and Croatia, this figure is 14%, in Romania - 18%.