The Together Plan spotlights efforts to rediscover Eastern European Jewish life
British Jewish charity also hosting UK premiere of Brest Jewish Cemetery documentary as part of series of heritage events about Eastern Europe
Twelve years in the making, the UK premiere of a film about the Brest Jewish cemetery in Belarus will be screened on 25th March in north London by The Together Plan, as part of a series of events rediscovering Jewish life in Eastern Europe.
Decades after the Nazis and Soviets destroyed the historic burial ground, Jews and non-Jews from Belarus and around the world united to recover the cemetery’s scattered matzevot (tombstones) and transform them into an enduring memorial to Brest Jewry, finally brought together and unveiled in July 2025.
The JLTV (Jewish Life TV) documentary ‘Memory Embrace: The Brest Jewish Cemetery’ follows the journey, stewarded by The Together Plan, in partnership with its US sister non-profit Jewish Tapestry Project, and explores the historical, cultural, and human significance of restoring dignity to a site of profound loss.
The screening at Alyth Synagogue will feature co-executive producers of the film Debra Brunner and Artur Livshyts, country director for The Together Plan, live from Minsk, Belarus.
In April the charity is hosting an interactive workshop inspired by the shtetl artworks of Mayer Kirshenblatt (1916–2009), who devoted himself to preserving the world of his childhood in Opatów ((Apt in Yiddish) before moving to Canada in 1934 at the age of seventeen.
The curated paintings are part of an original exhibition at POLIN Museum in Warsaw.
The event will also welcome photojournalist and conservationist Lewis James Phillips discussing his new project documenting Holocaust sites across Eastern Europe.
As a child, Phillips, who is not Jewish, would visit his grandparents in Stamford Hill, fascinated with the community who lived there.
The Hamas massacres of 7th October 2023 galvanised him into learning about the Holocaust and prompted his first visit to Sobibor to immerse himself into the story of the uprising. His forthcoming book explores the brutal history of the camp.
For more information on TTP events, click here.
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