The opening session of the working seminar on Managing Jewish Immovable Heritage, being held in Krakow this week, will be live-streamed today.

The three-day, invitation-only working seminar has been convened to discuss a wide range of issues, challenges, strategies and successes regarding the care, maintenance, preservation, use and promotion of Jewish material heritage. It will be a direct follow-up to a seminar on Jewish heritage management that took place in Bratislava, Slovakia, in March 2009 and issued the Bratislava Statement, including best practices recommendations.

The opening, at 2 p.m. CET, will take place in Krakow’s Tempel Synagogue. The keynote talk will be given by Dr. Samuel D. Gruber, a pioneer in Jewish heritage documentation and preservation, who was involved with the restoration of the Tempel in the 1990s. Other speakers will include Lesley Weiss – newly named Chair of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad – and Sarah Sher – recently appointed Program Associate for Jewish Heritage, World Monuments Fund.