European educators shown how to teach their pupils about Jewish cemeteries

Jewish heritage experts from the UK have trained a group of 40 European educators on how best to explore Jewish cemeteries across the continent, in a special EU-funded two-day seminar in Bratislava.

Dame Helen Hyde and Michael Mail from the London-based Foundation for Jewish Heritage (FJH) joined Slovakian colleagues in addressing various aspects of the Jewish heritage of Slovakia with a particular focus on Jewish cemeteries.

Delegates were taught how to understand them and how they can be used educationally by schools so students can engage in the Jewish past of their towns.

One teacher from Sambir in Ukraine spoke about living in a town that she believed had never had a Jewish community only to discover through her own personal research that it was 80 percent Jewish in 1939.

Participants took part in a Jewish heritage tour of Bratislava and visited Bratislava’s main cemetery to experience first-hand what they had been learning in the seminar. They were then able to work up their own lesson plans.

“The Jewish community of Bratislava were exceptional hosts, and special thanks are due to heritage expert Dr Maros Borsky who played a key role throughout the event,” said Mail.

“The feedback received from participants was very positive with the teachers returning to their home communities now equipped – and inspired – to work on developing educational projects for their pupils on the Jewish narrative.”