Agudath Israel has received a grant from the Ministry of Culture in Moldova to develop activities in the context of the Jewish History Tours project. Jewish History Tours is an innovative project that leverages the power of location-based storytelling to create engaging and high-quality tours on Jewish life and culture, dealing with pan-European topics, such as multiculturalism, persecution and migration. The project to be developed by Agudath Israel, “Along the Routes of the Jewish History of Moldova” (“Pe rutele istoriei evreieşti a Moldovei”) is an innovative form of preserving material and cultural Jewish heritage on the territory of Moldova in the form of audio and online tourist guides in the main European languages, created on the basis of European platforms in cooperation with the Cultural Routes projects of the Council of Europe.

The AEPJ General Assembly meeting was held online on Friday, June 30th.

Led by AEPJ President François Moyse, representatives of AEPJ member institutions were present at the General Assembly, during which they shared constructive feedback regarding the projects of the previous year. AEPJ Director Victor Sorenssen also shared information pertaining to new projects and initiatives for the AEPJ, especially regarding the development of the European Days of Jewish Culture, the European Route of Jewish Heritage, certified by the Council of Europe, and additional European projects in collaboration with partner institutions. Additionally, Patrick Bikard was named as new AEPJ Treasurer.

The AEPJ network continues to grow in terms of its members, institutions and future projects and collaborative initiatives that allow us to be very optimistic about the future.

With its unique partnership of major Jewish networks, the NOA Project aims to evaluate EU Member States’ policies across areas, from education to culture and security, and to help them develop holistic national action plans to address and prevent antisemitism. The AEPJ is very happy to have taken part in the NOA Project over the past three years, a project financed by the CERV programme of the European Commission and whose first edition is coming to an end.

Members from the AEPJ team were invited to attend and to speak during the two-day NOA conference, which brought together over 100 representatives from civil society organisations and public authorities to reflect on the results, lessons, measures and experiences in addressing, preventing and fighting antisemitism, informed by the tools developed in the NOA Project.

We are happy to announce that, following the regular evaluation that each of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe program undergoes every three years carried out by the EPA Governing Board, the renewal of the certification of the European Route of Jewish Heritage, one of our flagship projects, has been approved.

We are very proud to participate in this program and to be the institution that represents Jewish heritage in Europe. It is our commitment to continue working not only to meet the technical requirements, but also to promote European values in all our projects and initiatives in European Jewish heritage and culture, in an open, pluralistic, collaborative, and inclusive way.

We thank and congratulate all of the AEPJ members who have worked toward the preparation of the dossiers for the evaluation, the AEPJ team, as well as our external evaluator, Maria Laura Gasparini from the University of Bologna, who accompanied us at the Incubator in Izmir, having had the opportunity not only to know our work first-handedly, but also to offer us good recommendations for further improvement.