Foundation for Jewish Heritage

The mission of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage is to ensure that the most significant Jewish heritage sites across the globe are identified, saved and reimagined for a sustainable future.

The Foundation aims to:

  • bring a strategic and comprehensive approach to Jewish heritage preservation
  • identify the most important heritage sites in danger
  • develop solutions for such sites that preserve their historic fabric while bringing the buildings back into use in a way that secures their future
  • ensure such sites serve educational purposes and provide social benefit to the local communities in which they are situated
  • prioritise sites that can provide a Jewish dimension to the solution 

The Foundation’s work has four core elements:

  • research – creating an inventory of Jewish heritage sites, and prioritising those at risk
  • advocacy – making the case for Jewish cultural heritage preservation and promoting interest in specific sites
  • expertise – providing professional advice and guidance to create solutions for vulnerable sites working with local partners, while nurturing expertise in Jewish heritage preservation
  • resources – securing funding to invest in Jewish heritage sites at risk to ensure these are preserved, given a sustainable use, and saved for the future.

The Foundation is currently supporting efforts to save a number of prioritised historic synagogues in danger that were identified through the mapping project that the Foundation commissioned the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to undertake. This established an inventory of all the historic synagogues of Europe – www.historicsynagogueseurope.org. It was this work which led to the Foundation taking on the former Merthyr Tydfil synagogue as one of its projects.