On the occasion of the reopening of WMF’s French office, in Paris – UNESCO is announcing the launch of a new partnership with WMF aimed to draw up an inventory of Jewish cultural heritage around the world. This project will involve the organization of international expert missions charged with mapping and assessing the condition of Jewish heritage sites and formulating recommendations to improve their preservation and management.
UNESCO and World Monuments Fund will also design an international travelling exhibition devoted to Jewish heritage sites inscribed on the World Heritage List. The show will highlight the contribution of Jewish culture to modern architecture and urban planning, as well as to the intellectual, social, and cultural evolution of societies worldwide. The launch will take place in early 2025.
A Long-Standing Partnership with UNESCO
World Monuments Fund is a long-standing partner of UNESCO. I am delighted that it has reopened an office in Paris, where our own organization has its headquarters, and that we are launching this new project for the protection of Jewish cultural heritage—in the broadest sense of the term. The purpose of the initiative is to index cultural sites as well as sites of memory and Jewish documentary and linguistic heritage, in all its extraordinary diversity.
Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General
We are delighted that the opening of a new office in France, which coincides with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, will strengthen our cooperation with UNESCO to safeguard exceptional sites. This new partnership will enable us to multiply the impact of our Jewish Heritage Program so that Jewish heritage is better recognized and protected throughout the world. WMF projects tell the story of humanity through historic places, and Jewish heritage, in all its diversity, is an essential part of our collective memory.
Bénédicte de Montlaur, President and CEO of World Monuments Fund
Numerous Jewish Sites Protected by UNESCO
As part of the World Heritage Convention, UNESCO protects numerous sites linked to Jewish culture and traditions, including the Jewish quarters of Budapest, Hungary; Odesa, Ukraine; and Prague, Czech Republic. It also protects the historic synagogues of Delos, Greece, and the ShUM sites of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz in Germany.
Created in 1965, World Monuments Fund quickly became a leading partner of UNESCO. The two organizations have carried out emblematic restoration projects in the city of Venice, Italy; the Mahadev temple complex in Nepal; the Citadelle Laferrière in Haiti; and the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia.
Since 1988, the Jewish Heritage Program (JHP) at World Monuments Fund has contributed to the conservation and protection of almost 60 sites in 28 countries. In its early days, the JHP was mainly devoted to the restoration of Ashkenazi synagogues in Central and Eastern Europe in the aftermath of the dissolution of the USSR. The Program’s scope has gradually expanded, implementing projects in Brazil, China, Morocco, and India, ranging from the documentation of traditional houses in Uzbekistan to the preservation of oral histories in the Sephardic community of Cape Verde.
This partnership with UNESCO enables the launch of new initiatives in Eastern Europe, particularly in Ukraine. It will also enable the improvement of inventories and protection of Jewish heritage in Central Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Arab world.