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Hello Bardejovers and friends!
We hope you have enjoyed the summer. As we approach Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish New Year 5787, we are pleased to share some updates from Bardejov.
First, we are happy to announce that the Bardejov Jewish Preservation Committee is now the Bardejov Jewish Heritage Foundation, a name that better reflects our work to honor and preserve Bardejov’s lost Jewish heritage.
Our work continues to focus on three pillars: restoration, education, and commemoration. We remain committed to preserving Bardejov’s former Jewish heritage sites and educating future generations about the legacy of its Jewish community before the Holocaust.
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WHAT'S INSIDE
- Annual Commemoration Ceremony Recap & Video Link
- Educational Center and Museum Updates
- Archaeological Research Continues near Jewish Suburbia
- Welcoming Guests to Bardejov
- Books of the Bikur Cholim Synagogue
- Holocaust Education Beyond Bardejov
- More Ways to Keep Updated: Social Media
- A Message from Our Founder, Mr. Emil A. Fish
| | ANNUAL COMMEMORATION IN BARDEJOV: JUNE 2026 | | On June 24, the Bardejov Jewish Heritage Foundation hosted its annual Holocaust Commemoration Ceremony under the theme of "Memory and Responsibility". As always, the event brought together Holocaust survivors and their families, diplomats, officials, educators, students, visitors, and local Bardejov citizens, to honor the victims of the Holocaust and to preserve the legacy of Bardejov's Jewish community. | | |
The program featured our traditional Memorial Candle Lighting by local students, remarks emphasizing Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism, and messages from community and international leaders.
The annual Holocaust Essay and Art Contest also recognized students from nine local schools for their creativity and commitment to learning about Jewish Bardejov.
The evening concluded with student exhibitions, a reception, a Jewish Suburbia tour, and a screening of BARDEJOV. We are grateful for another meaningful gathering and look forward to our next event in June 2027!
Click here to Read more about the Commemoration Ceremony
| | Students from Leonard Stockel School Light Memorial Candles | Guests at the Appetizer and Dessert Reception after the Ceremony | | Mr. Fish delivers an Inspiring Speech during the Ceremony | An evening tour of the Jewish Suburbia for Ceremony Guests | | |
EDUCATIONAL CENTER AND HERITAGE MUSEUM IN THE NEWS
We continue working to bring our Educational Center and Heritage Museum to life. The center will be established in Beit Hamidrash and will extend throughout the Jewish Suburbia complex. We are currently looking for artifacts from Bardejov to be donated or loaned to the center and have received many positive responses from those eager to contribute.
Our efforts have caught the attention of two Slovak television stations, which visited the Jewish Suburbia to report on the news of the emerging museum.
Additionally, the “Jewish Heritage Europe” website learned about the establishment of the museum on social media and wrote an article about our organization’s work in Jewish Bardejov.
Click below to:
Read the Online Article
Watch the BTV News Report
Watch the Regina TV News Report
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ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN JEWISH SUBURBIA
A professional archaeological excavation continues in the Jewish Suburbia, offering more insight into Bardejov’s Jewish history. Excavations beneath the Mikvah have uncovered an older ritual bath and additional structures, providing further evidence of the long and rich history of the Jewish community of Bardejov.
| | Archaeological excavation in the Jewish Suburbia between the Mikveh and the Memorial, 2026 | |
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WELCOMING GUESTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
In addition to our June Holocaust Commemoration, we are grateful to welcome visitors to Bardejov throughout the year. Students, local groups, and international tourists visited the Jewish Suburbia and cemetery, including students from Sweden through the ERASMUS+ program. Summer is always our busiest season, and we were pleased to welcome hundreds of visitors to our sites.
| | Emil Fish (standing 3rd from left) and Giora Solar (standing 4th from left) with a group of Tourists in the Jewish Suburbia in front of the Mikveh, 2026 | | |
BOOKS OF THE BIKUR CHOLIM SHUL
Established in 1929, the Chevra Bikur Cholim synagogue in Bardejov was protected during the Nazi occupation by a Christian woman and later maintained by Meyer Špíra, one of Bardejov’s last Jewish residents.
Today, the synagogue and its collection of prayer books and Jewish artifacts preserve Bardejov’s heritage. Recently, Dr. Marjorie Lehman of The Jewish Theological Seminary—and daughter-in-law of a Bardejov Holocaust Survivor—visited to document its historic books as part of the “Footprints” project.
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Books of the Bikur Cholim
by Marjorie Lehman
This year I had the opportunity to spend several days in the synagogue with my research partner, Deborah S. Kleiner, whose mother was also a native of Bardejov and a Holocaust survivor, examining every volume we could.
Our goal was to create an inventory of the surviving library while documenting the traces left behind by generations of readers. Together we photographed title pages, recorded ownership inscriptions, identified printers and booksellers, and attempted to reconstruct the lives hidden within signatures, stamps, marginal notes, and fragments of paper tucked between pages.
Throughout the week I found myself returning to the words engraved on the Bardejov Holocaust Memorial: "Every person has a name." The books have become another kind of memorial. Each signature, stamp, bookseller's label, and handwritten note recalls a person who prayed in the synagogue, studied from its shelves, or hoped that a beloved volume would continue to be used long after they were gone.
Recording these books is therefore about far more than bibliography. It is an act of recovering names, relationships, and fragments of communal life that might otherwise have been forgotten.
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Row of Old Books inside Bikur Cholim Synagogue, 2021
Photo Credit: Ferdinand Hazlinsky
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HOLOCAUST EDUCATION BEYOND BARDEJOV
The Emil A. & Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Yeshiva University held a spring dinner, “The Power of Holocaust Education: Bearing Responsibility to Remember, Educate and Respond.”
Students, professors, and supporters gathered to emphasize the importance of accurate Holocaust education. Israeli journalist and author Nadav Eyal discussed antisemitism and his experiences in Israel and abroad with Fish Center Director Dr. Shay Pilnik and Monique (Fish) Mogyoros.
| | L-R: Monique (Fish) Mogyoros, Esther Muller, Emil A. Fish, Professor Nadav Eyal, and Dr. Shay Pilnik | | In April, Ramaz High School in New York welcomed Mr. Fish to speak with students and parents preparing for a heritage trip to Europe. He shared his Holocaust experiences and discussed the importance of preserving Jewish heritage through his work with the Bardejov Jewish Heritage Foundation. He also gifted the school signed copies of his memoir, Emil: Surviving Bergen-Belsen and Reclaiming My Hometown’s Lost Heritage. | | Mr. Fish presents the Memoir at Ramaz School | | Mr. Fish signs copies of the Memoir after the presentation | | KEEP UPDATED ON SOCIAL MEDIA | | |
We recently launched a new Facebook page in Slovak: Suburbium - Židovský Bardejov. Our Slovak posts—translated to English by Facebook—include interesting facts about what’s happening in Bardejov, as well as recommendations for books, podcasts, and films, through which people can learn more about the Jewish culture. There is also a series about the Jewish community, its beginnings, the first families, and religious life.
Additionally, we continue to post on our English Facebook page, ‘Bardejov Jewish Preservation Committee’, and post news on our website.
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MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER
Dear Friends and Family of Bardejov,
I invite you to watch the footage from our commemoration held this past June. It was a moving and meaningful event as we honored the lost Jewish community of Bardejov and memorialized all victims of the Holocaust. We hope you will join us in person next year for our gathering in June 2027.
Throughout the year, we continue to welcome visitors to the Jewish Suburbia—including the Old Synagogue, Bet Midrash, Mikvah, Holocaust Memorial, and the Jewish cemetery.
Together, it remains our shared responsibility to honor Bardejov’s lost Jews, preserving their names and legacy for generations to come.
With my best wishes for a Shana Tovah,
Emil A. Fish
| | Missed out on our previous issues? Click here to visit the Archive. | | | | |
