The Phoenicians’ Route and the European Routes of Jewish Heritage, two historical Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, signed a Collaboration Agreement aiming at safeguarding and promoting the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Euro-Mediterranean history, in order to launch joint activities and strategies for cultural and tourism enhancement favoring their respective territories.

On the 8th of February 2022 the two Cultural Routes certified by the Council of Europe The Phoenicians’ Route and the European Routes of Jewish Heritage signed a relevant collaboration agreement, with the aim of promoting and disseminating the tangible and intangible cultural heritage connected to products, places, traditions, civilizations at the basis of European values.

The agreement aims at promoting opportunities exchanges between these two Cultural Routes that share the same methodologies, stimulating a new co-planning and collaboration in terms of analysis, creation of tourist products, as well as actions to enhance the territories, promotion of sustainable, creative and experiential tourism, both linked to local communities.

Frescoes project for Dampierre Ramerupt and Lhuitre, North Aube, France

By The Communauté de Communes Arcis Mailly Ramerupt

In the framework of the actions of the Medieval Route of Rashi in Champagne carried by the Aube Tourisme Agency

By Delphine Yague. A touristic and artistic circuit project through villages of Aube around frescoes is being planned for 2022-2024. It is thought as a new cultural action to tell the history of former Jewish communities of Champagne.

This project is led by Communauté de Communes Arcis-Mailly-Ramerupt (a group of Municipalities situed in north Aube) in partnership with the Aube Tourism Agency, the Association Les Passeurs de Fresques and the inhabitants.

It emerged in the frame of the animation of the Medieval Route of Rashi in Champagne for the Aube Tourism Agency which carries the Route.

At the invitation of Ambassador Mr. Patrick Engelberg, the head of the Luxembourg  Permanent Representation to the Council of Europe, a lunch took place in Strasbourg with Mr. Bjorn Berge, the new Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe and two senior staff members. Together with Mrs. Claude Bloch, Honorary president of AEPJ, president François Moyse was able to outline to Mr. Berge the considerable work that AEPJ has done during 20 years and how important the topic of Jewish heritage is, in order to get citizens and communities to know and respect each other better in these tensed times.

The successful lunch will be follow-up both with the Luxembourg authorities and the Council of Europe.

Every year around 27 January, we pay tribute to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to counter antisemitism, racism, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group-targeted violence. The date marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops on 27 January 1945.

In 2022, the theme guiding the United Nations Holocaust remembrance and education is “Memory, Dignity and Justice”. Holocaust commemoration and education is a global imperative in the third decade of the 21st century.

The members of the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage (AEPJ) understand this day as paramount for the preservation of Jewish life in Europe and as an exercise of Remembrance, Dignity and Justice for a more pluralistic, inclusive and diverse Europe.