During the spring Rediscover project’s second thematic work package has begun. WP4 focuses on tourism product development, harmonisation and integration of attractions identified in WP3. There will be 3 product development workshops in this WP: Inventory, Capitalisation and Match-making. The first one was the Inventory Workshop.

The main topics of the workshop were:

• discussion of the Jewish heritage inventory
• identification of the local Jewish heritage elements with the potential to become tourism attraction
• evaluation and prioritisation of Jewish heritage elements of the partner city
• identification of common Jewish heritage elements joint to all partner cities with the potential to become tourism attractions 

Partners also presented the local Personal History File videos to their stakeholders.

Regarding the discussion of the Jewish heritage elements for the inventory, partners tried to find the right members from the local stakeholder group. For example, in Galati the president of the Jewish Community has offered his personal assistance with stories, data, and religion elements, filling out the inventory about intangible inheritance. In Murska Sobota Metka Fujs, director of Pomurje museum represented their outputs of tangible and intangible Jewish cultural heritage in Murska Sobota, Lendava and Maribor. She told that in Slovenia they already have many databases with cultural heritage which were not included on any website. Janez Premk suggested that the inventory should be published on Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art.

Most of the partners stated that during the workshop the most discussed aspects were those related to custom and traditions: how to make both destroyed tangible and intangible heritage visible. Some partner suggested that organising yearly festivals would greatly contribute to attracting tourists to the cities. There were some suggestions for the visibility in Murska Sobota. Janez Premk presented his handbook Tracing Jewish cultural heritage, which is a very good book with JCH from all over Slovenia, with tips for tours in cities and with pictures of houses, buildings, families. All the stakeholders agreed on creating a similar handbook for Murska Sobota, Lendava and Maribor, involved JCH from the inventory.

Beside the content of the inventory the partnership was asked to discussed the items’ touristic potential as well. Most of the partners presented good practices of touristic initiatives that can be adapted, and had a brainstorming to establish local touristic services such as thematic networks and touristic trails. Galati is planning to create a local trail for Galati-Braila area and a touristic map of Galati involving Galati Synagogue or Craftsmen’s Temple, the latest as they claimed, can be a major thematic landmark.

Szeged is also thinking about local touristic trails, for example one in the Jewish cemetery. The stakeholders said that intangible Jewish heritage such as the history and influence of the local Jewish community in Szeged can be introduced to tourists via visiting the tombs of influential and famous Jewish persons, the two Löw rabbis, the great entrepreneurs, architects and artists. But not just Szeged’s thinking about the Jewish cemetery, all the partners mentioned their local Jewish cemetery that is worth to involve as a tangible heritage.

One of the partners was not just talking about the potential touristic routs but arranged one. Osijek organised the workshop as a two-fold event: a walking tour of tangible Jewish heritage sites annexed by the family or personal stories of the building owners or users – prominent Osijek citizens of Jewish origin. During the tour which was led by Grgur Marko ivanković (art historian, senior curator of Museum of Slavonia in Osijek) several new sites of interest were detected (Rechnitz house, Ljudevit Gaj Square – the building next to the Jewish school building where a prominent engineer Milan Rechnitz lived with his wife Elza, the 1st Osijek educated painter; Jewish Free Masons’ Lodge building at the angle of Radić and Republika Streets; Vilim Winter’s (a prominent Osijek lawyer) house in Neumann Street, Kohn House in Kapucinska Street, where the first Osijek textile manufacturing facility was; the location of Nikola Szege’s photo atelier, famous Osijek photographer.

In Osijek the partners agreed on that the tangible cultural heritage tour has the educational and touristic potential as well. And therefore the draft local Jewish heritage inventory of Osijek was tested and amended.

Among the partners not just Osijek organised a workshop worth to mention as a good example, but Regensburg. On their workshop they visualised the inventory including categories and elements on wallpapers which were sticked to a pin board. A big city map as support for the participants to discuss and localize Jewish elements in the city was also printed out. They used a method called “Storytelling”: the participants had the task to get together in pairs, select one target group and answer questions by telling a story, e.g. They visit Regensburg, what have they seen? How was their day? This was they created in mind a one day or two-day visit in Regensburg.

Regarding the touristic routes some of the partners are now focusing on the younger generation and families as well. They thinking about trails for cyclists, families with children and also having in mind the accessible tourism. For example, in Regensburg and Szeged the main target groups are mainstream tourist, world heritage tourists, families with children, bicyclists and people with special needs.

The partnership also expressed the challenges they are facing with. Among these the motivation of the stakeholders and the time were the most common aspects, but in Regensburg the following issues also came up:

Regarding the inventory, we faced following challenges:

• Anti-Semitic elements and “artefacts” How to include these elements into the inventory? This is something that cannot be exclude, it is a topic which stands above all categories.
• Sometimes it is not quite clear whether the elements are tangible or intangible e.g. written documents in archives or libraries.
• How to include Remembrance culture?
• Artefacts which are not accessible for public and not yet fully cataloged from archaeologists. This is especially a topic for tourism and the central question in this respect is how to use them in the future to make them more present.

Inventory Workshops also dealt with later activities in the project. Timisoara and Szeged mentioned cultural events to be organised: Jewish festival that would highlight and make visible to the general population of the city the rich cultural heritage of the local Jewish community. In the stakeholders opinion the cultural and educational institutions (universities and museums) can help them highlight the most important aspects of the project, by involving students and pupils in the various activities planned, by hosting lectures and exhibitions about Jewish cultural heritage.