This week, the Thrive project partners convened at the World Jewish Congress headquarters in Brussels to kick off a groundbreaking initiative supported by the European Union’s Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) program.Thrive is designed to empower Jewish communities across Europe by strengthening resilience, fostering inclusivity, and promoting awareness of Jewish cultural heritage. Aligned with the EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, Thrive aims to support Jewish communities in claiming and celebrating their heritage in the face of modern challenges.

Led by the World Jewish Congress, the European Union of Jewish Students and the AEPJ, the Thrive project brings together key Jewish institutions to empower communities through resources, visibility, and cultural engagement. This initiative underscores the importance of a vibrant Jewish presence within Europe’s cultural landscape, offering communities tools to sustain their heritage while countering antisemitism and fostering intercultural understanding.

In a significant cultural milestone, Europe’s first international arrangement competition for musical remembrance culture was launched a few days ago in Hanover, during the chor.com European festival. The German Choral Association, in collaboration with Schott Music and Project 2025 – Arche Musica, AEPJ member since 2023, has introduced this competition centered on the German-Jewish Songbook of 1912. This initiative seeks to foster a dynamic choral remembrance culture while promoting engagement with Jewish musical traditions in both Germany and Israel.

The competition is the first of its kind and carries a total prize fund of 20.000 euros, with three winning compositions to be published by Schott Music. Musicians from Germany and Israel are invited to create new arrangements of songs from the Hebrew and German sections of the 1912 songbook, offering them a unique opportunity to make an impactful contribution to a new form of remembrance culture.

Between September 25 and 27, 2024, the AEPJ took part in the 13th Annual Council of Europe Cultural Routes Advisory Forum, held in the historic town of Visegrad, Hungary. Organized by the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (EPA) and the European Institute of Cultural Routes, in cooperation with the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Innovation and the Hungarian Open Air Museum, this year’s event focused on “Transmission and Innovation: Encouraging Youth Participation along the Council of Europe Cultural Routes.”

The Forum brought together over 400 participants from 40 countries, including delegates from CoE-certified routes, international organizations such as UNESCO and the United Nations, representatives from 41 member states of the EPA, as well as academics, tourism professionals, and civil society organizations.

Last week, the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage took part in the 20th General Conference of the European Coalition of Cities Against Racism (ECCAR) held in Heidelberg. The conference, under the theme “Don’t let Europe go backwards,” gathered municipal leaders, human rights organizations, and civil society representatives to discuss strategies for combating racism and fostering diversity across Europe.

Federico Szarfer, project manager of the European Days of Jewish Culture, represented AEPJ at the conference. In collaboration with Robin Sclafani from CEJI (A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe), they led a participatory workshop to gather input for the NOA Guidelines on Fostering Jewish Life. This document, part of the NOA (Networks Overcoming Antisemitism) project, complements the EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, focusing specifically on the local level by addressing municipalities and civil society.

The European Association for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage had the honor of participating in the sixth meeting of the Working Group on the implementation of the EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, held on September 20-21, 2024 in Budapest, Hungary. This important international forum, organized in collaboration with the European Commission and the Government of Hungary, brought together experts, government representatives, and community leaders from across Europe with the aim of strengthening efforts to combat antisemitism and promote Jewish life on the continent.

AEPJ Director Victor Sorenssen was invited as a speaker at the forum, presenting the NOA Guidelines on Fostering Jewish Life. In his address, Sorenssen emphasized the critical importance of these guidelines for the strengthening and revitalization of Jewish life in Europe, highlighting how Jewish heritage and culture can play a decisive role not only in combating antisemitism but also in building vibrant and sustainable Jewish communities.

The annual training meeting of the European Routes of Jewish Heritage (ERJH), explicitly designed and aimed at the network of Route managers, reached its sixth edition (the fifth face-to-face) this September, from Monday 23rd to Wednesday 25^th, hosted by the University of Oxford and Waddesdon Manor, the developers of the Palaces, Villas and Country Houses Route, based on a long term research project, Jewish Country Houses – Objects, Networks, People (JCH). On this occasion, the programme aimed to delve into the specificities of the members of the ERJH, providing more specific training in the different approaches the Incubator deals with.

Participants explored the process of creation and development of the JCH from its conceptualization, continuous research, the construction of a network of heritage sites and regular dissemination activities.

The third and final training of trainers of the MiDorLeDor Europe (MDLDE) project, developed with the support of the CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values) programme of the European Union, has taken place in the city of Berlin between Sunday 8^th September and Thursday 12^th, consisting of an intense work program designed to consolidate the learnings and the planning of the actions that will follow.  These will consist of the deployment of the process of training for Jewish heritage educators, guides and mediators in the Upper Rhine area, between France and Germany, in southern Italy, connecting multiple localities with relevant Jewish heritage, many of which currently lack active communities; in Spain, interconnecting the Centro Sefarad Israel with the network of cities that work on the promotion of Jewish heritage under the umbrella of Caminos de Sefarad; in Greece, where the Jewish Community of Athens is in the process of creating the cultural route that will have its epicentre in the Greek capital; and in Poland, from Lublin, where Brama Grodzka TNN is developing the Shtetl Routes, which interconnects a vast area where shtetls were placed formerly and represents a great opportunity to involve Ukrainian professionals despite the current difficulties; and from Warsaw, where the Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning has been rolling out the project since 2012 and intends to give it continuity by developing a full review on their previous programmes thanks to this co-learning process.