REDISCOVER – Rediscover, expose and exploit the concealed Jewish heritage of the Danube Region

The project co-financed by the European Union is implemented by the following organisations of the Danube Region: Municipality of Szeged (HU, as Lead Partner), and the following project partners Szeged and Surroundings Tourism Nonprofit Ltd., City of Banja Luka (BA), Municipality of Galati (RO), Kotor Municipality (ME), Institute for Culture, Tourism and Sport Murska Sobota (SI), City of Osijek (HR), World Heritage Management City of Regensburg (DE), Municipal Museum of Subotica (RS) and Municipality of Timisoara (RO).

The partnership is based on cities of similar historical background with Jewish heritage and similar cultural and tourism missions. Thematic partners associated with local governments are also involved in the project: City of Subotica, City Municipality Murska Sobota, Jewish Community of Szeged, and Jewish Community Timisoara, part of Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania, Jewish Community of Osijek, Jewish Community of Montenegro, Jewish Community of Banja Luka and Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities.

The project started 1st June 2018 and ends 31st May 2021.

Today’s Jewish society in the Danube region is fragmented: the capitals and large regional centres have a significant residual community with preserved religious and cultural features. Mid-sized cities with limited built cultural heritage are usually linked to well-known heritage centres on the tourism market. For them, the main challenge is to find ways to explore the tangible/intangible elements of Jewish cultural heritage in order to create competitive cultural products with potential tourism prospects.

The re-discovery of the Jewish cultural heritage of project scenes means that the tangible elements that are well-known to the wide audience (synagogues, cemeteries, memorials, public/ business/residential buildings) are to be organised into creative attractions, to include and integrate intangible elements usually not recognised by the mainstream community and visitors. Such elements like arts, events, testimonies, history and legacy of outstanding personalities etc. This project would like to help creating competitive advantages for cities with otherwise scarce JCH attractions.

The main objective of the project is to explore, revive and present the hidden intellectual heritage along with locally available Jewish cultural heritage of project partner cities. That can create a jointly presented, synergistic tourism tool/service that is accessible to the wide audience as well.

Cookbook: http://szegedtourism.hu/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Rediscover-Cookbook-online-1.pdf