European Days of Jewish Culture 2023: Memory

ended

More than twenty years ago, an initiative was born to give visibility and raise awareness of European Jewish heritage to local audiences, the European Days of Jewish Culture (the EDJC). Born through a small, but symbolically, transnational cooperation in the Alsace-Lorraine region. Today it is a European-wide event that highlights the diversity and richness of Judaism, with the firm intention of promoting dialogue, recognition and exchange through conferences, concerts, performances, guided tours and other activities, which take place simultaneously throughout the continent. The success of the EDJC lies in the active involvement of an increasing number of local participants. Any institution that shares the values of the EDJC is invited to participate free of charge. Jewish, non-Jewish, public, religious and interfaith institutions participate in the EDJC every year, coordinated by the AEPJ, whose annual theme provides inspiration for entering unique crevasses of each region history. The last edition in 2021, with the central theme of “Dialogue”, for example, more than 200 cities from 20 European countries, participated with an audience of more than 100,000 people. The European Days of Jewish Culture 2023 will not be just another edition, but a unique edition with a very different character than usual. We see the EDJC not only as a means to make visible the European Union's Strategy to combat antisemitism and foster Jewish life, but also as an opportunity to implement it in an inter- and trans-sectoral way, taking advantage of the network formed by the actors with whom we collaborate in the field of cultural heritage, both in education and research and in cultural and artistic production. This transversal approach to the strategy will allow us to deepen above all the line of commemoration, research and education on the crimes committed under totalitarian regimes, but also to work on different aspects of the line of resistance, transition and democratic consolidation.