1.  ISJM Publishes New Issue of Jewish Heritage Report
ISJM has published issue II:3-4 of the Jewish Heritage Report.  The 40-pp publication carries detailed reports about the recent fire at Central Synagogue in New York (by Rebecca Anderson), Jewish monument restoration projects in the Czech Republic (by Arno Parik), Jewish Museums in Bavaria (by Otto Lohr), the Jewish Monuments Conference held in Paris (by Samuel Gruber), the Medieval Yeshiva in Rouen, France (by Norman Golb) and dozens of others stories about Jewish monuments, exhibition and books from around the world.  The issue has been sent to all ISJM members and organizations with which ISJM has a reciprocal agreement. 

2.  ISJM Authors to Lecture at International Jewish Genealogy Seminar in New York, August 8-13, 1999
ISJM President Samuel Gruber, author of the recently published “Synagogues” is one of several ISJM members who are featured speakers at the 19th Annual Conference on Jewish genealogy to be held in New York City August 8 – 13, 1999.  The conference is the largest Jewish Genealogy event in the world and a meeting place for researchers in Jewish family history many countries.

Gruber will speak on “Documentation and Preservation of Jewish Monuments in Central and Eastern Europe” (at 3:30 pm on August 9th) and “Sephardic Splendors: 800 Years of Synagogue Architecture” (2:00 pm on August 10th).

Other ISJM author members will be presenting at the conference including genealogist Miriam Weiner, author of “Jewish Roots in Poland” and the forthcoming “Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova” will speak on “Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova: Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories” (5:00 pm on August 9th).

Dr. Michael Steinlauf, author of “Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust” will speak on “Uncovering a Lost World: The Civilization of Eastern Ashkenaz (3:30 pm on August 11th).  ISJM member Robert L. Kraus will speak on “Czech Jewish Genealogy” (8:00 am on August 12th).

3.  Exhibition Opens in Tel Aviv About Greek Synagogues
Over 400 people, including Itzhak Navon, the 5th president of Israel, attended the opening of the exhibition “The Synagogues of Salonika: Community and Continuity” at Yad Vashem’s Valley of the Communities Museum on June 22, 1999.  Rare photographs, maps, architectural drawings, and a reconstructed model of Beit Shaul synagogue (destroyed in 1943), will be on display until March 2000.  The exhibition was curated by ISJM member Dr. Elias Messinas.  For more information consult

4.  International Group Initiates Program to Preserve Jewish Monuments in Sadgura, Ukraine
An international committee has been formed to promote the protection, conservation and preservation of the Jewish sites in Sadgura, Bukovina, Ukraine.  Of particular interest for preservation are the Central Synagogue, the home next door that had belonged to the Rabbi's complex, and the nearby Jewish Cemetery.

The Central Synagogue, built approximately 1770, stands in ruins since its use as a machine shop for local collective farms during the Soviet era.  It was returned to the "community" in 1991 but has been abandoned ever since.  While the walls appear to be sound, a severe roof leak has developed in the rear.  The once-elegant house located next to the Central Synagogue was used as a municipal office until at least 1995.  It too is now abandoned and rapidly deteriorating from accelerating water damage.  The unmarked, rarely visited Jewish Cemetery contains the graves of the Sadgura Rabbis and family members in a gated, enclosed area.  Recent visitors in 1998 observed that the gates had been vandalized and lay on the ground.

Working with ISJM and other organizations the Committee hopes to commission a preservation plan for the sites.  For more information or to contribute funds consult:

Bruce Reisch, Habanim 64, Nes Ziona, Israel, phone: 08 9300034, fax: 03 9669583, b.reisch@cornell.edu (after 31 July 1999:  57 High St., Geneva, New York 14456, USA, phone in USA: 315 789 7104, fax: 315 787 2239) or

Clifford Rees, 118 La Joya Rd, Santa Fe, NM  87501 USA, phone: 505 988 1091, clifford.rees@excite.com

5.  US Commission Seeks Support for Survey of Jewish Sites in Latvia
The United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad is making plans for a country-wide survey of Jewish sites in Latvia.  Since 1991, the Commission has conducted descriptive condition surveys of Jewish sites in many countries of Central and Eastern Europe, with work completed in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.  Commission researchers are still actively visiting sites and collecting data in Slovakia, Ukraine and Rumania.

For several years the Commission has hoped to extend its work to the Baltic countries, and recent agreements between the commission and the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia now encourage this effort.  As the result of a Declaration of Cooperation signed between the Commission and the Latvian government, the Commission is considering initiating a survey to inventory and identify the condition of existing Jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and former synagogue buildings in Latvia.  Scheduling the survey, which will be conducted by a joint American-Latvian will be determined by available funding.  Private sources are being sought.  At least forty Jewish cemeteries are known to have existed in Latvia before the Holocaust, and a still-undetermined number fo synagogues, schools and other Jewish institutional buildings – some of which still stand.

For further information about the Commission and its surveys consult the Commission's Web site.