Hillel Minsk Shares Their Story

 

The heritage project happened in partnership with Shalom Corps and U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. Shalom Corps is proud to have contributed to Hillel Mink’s mission.

Hillel Minsk has just organized their 7th MEGA (Memory. Education. Generation. Action) volunteering project on preservation of Jewish heritage in Brest, Belarus. The city has a rich Jewish history but, unfortunately almost all Jews were killed in Brest during WWII and no one could protect the cemeteries. In 2014 more than a 1000 headstones were found and in 2020 Hillel Minsk decided to go and put everything in order.

Thirty students took part in the project with great desire to impact change and to work fiercely over 4 days. They sorted all the headstones, cleaned them, read them, photographed them and put them into a catalogue. The local Brest Jewish Community intends to create a museum of these headstones and soon they will hopefully be displayed to the public to honor them. Amazing work!