Building on a previous Jewish Heritage Europe website, Jewish Heritage Europe (JHE) has launched. The website is envisioned as an online clearinghouse for resources, news and information on Jewish monuments and heritage sites all over Europe.

JHE is the first of several exciting web-based projects that will premiere during 2012 looking to fill significant Jewish/Israeli world media short-comings.

JHE’s primary focus is Jewish built heritage: synagogues, cemeteries, mikvaot, Jewish quarters and other physical traces that attest to a Jewish presence on the continent stretching back to Antiquity. It also includes material on Jewish museums and other cultural institutions.

A project of the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe, JHE aims to aggregate information and stimulate discussion and exchanges among professionals and the interested public.

The site organizes information in individual sections for 48 countries, features a newsfeed and calendar of upcoming events, along with sections that highlight new publications, museums, individual projects and other specific topics.

“A basic goal of this site is to collate existing information and links, not to reinvent what other people have done,” said RF(H)E Chief Executive Sally Berkovic. “So there are many links to existing web sites, databases, bibliographies and other sources.”

Berkovic continues, “As the site grows, we will post more and more information and links about where to turn for project funding, how to ask an expert about preservation and other problematic issues, and how to get involved with the preservation process on an individual, grass roots or institutional basis. Eventually, we also expect to post commissioned articles and book reviews.”

The redesigned site includes new interactive features and is being coordinated by Ruth Ellen Gruber, a longtime researcher and writer on Jewish heritage issues.