Sefer Center's field expedition to Mogilev
(August, 14 - 19, 2022)
(August, 14 - 19, 2022)
On August 14-19, 2022, the Sefer Center in collaboration with Center for Slavic-Judaic Studies (Institute of Slavic Studies, RAS) , invited by the Mogilev Jewish Community, conducted a field expedition in Mogilev. Researchers and students from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Warsaw, Stockholm, Minsk, Vitebsk and Brest took part in the event. This year we did not announce a competitive selection of participants, since we did not receive funding for the project. However we invited a small group of specialists who were ready to take part in the project as volunteers. The expedition was also supported by the Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Associations and Communities (SBEOO).
The epigraphic track of the expedition was led by Mikhail Vasiliev - a linguist, lecturer at the Institute of Asian and African Countries ot Moscow State University, coordinator of university programs and the SFIRA project at the Sefer center. 14 people took part in the epigraphic track. According to preliminary data, about 750 gravestones have been documented. However, in the older part of the cemetary around 1000 gravestones can be located.
The ethnographic track was led by Anna Yudkina - anthropologist, manager of educational projects at the Sefer Center. Ethnographic team of four researchers conducted 20 interviews (some of them were over 3 hours long) according to Sefer's research methodologies.
We thank the head of the Mogilev Jewish community, Ida Shenderovich, and journalist and photographer Alexander Litin for the invitation and assistance in organizing the expedition. Also many thanks to Oleg Dyachkov for the 3-hours long excursion and also to Sergey Busko for help and support.
Our expedition in media:
