UK-based charity launches online archive of Jewish survival

World Jewish Relief calls on Jews around the world to upload their families' stories in a bid to preserve the memories of previous generations.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
survival stories website 370 (photo credit: Screenshot)
survival stories website 370
(photo credit: Screenshot)
The UK-based World Jewish Relief recently launched an interactive website aimed at sharing and preserving survival stories and family histories of Jews around the world.
The international charity is calling on web users to upload historical documents, including birth and death certificates, photographs, videos, audio files or letters, which they may pin on their families town or country of origin on a virtual interactive map.
Site users may follow and contact others via the website enabling them to discover previously-lost family connections.
Commenting on the launch, Paul Anticoni, Chief Executive of WJR said: “We’re all very excited about this unique website which will record stories and pinpoint locations of interest from the Jewish community across the world."
He expressed hope that the site would "inspire people to retrace their family’s history by going through their drawers and photo albums at home and uploading those old photos, passports, visas and letters from previous generations that might otherwise lay dusty and forgotten."
Anticoni explained that through the 80 years of work done by the WJR, previously known as the Central British Fund, the organization learned of hundreds of inspiring survival stories while working with vulnerable people across Europe and other regions. The new website, he said, provides members of the Jewish community with a platform to share their own families' "stories of survival," as well as constituting a method of commomorating communities that once existed and celebrating those that are now flourishing.