On September 4 and 5, 2018, EHRI, in collaboration with the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe (RFHE), ran a two-day workshop on Jewish Heritage Records and Digital Humanities at King’s College London (KCL). The event attracted Jewish Studies researchers and heritage professionals from across Europe and the United States to discuss and share strategies and techniques for how best to use data from Jewish records and resources.

Day One of the workshop began with talks from Reto Speck, Robin Nobel, and Gabor Kadar on EHRI, RFHE, and the Yerusha Project. This was followed by a set of introductory sessions on databases, archival management, data analysis, and spatial data by a team of presenters that included Tim Cole of the University of Bristol, Alberto Giordano of the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation, and Tobias Blanke and Mike Bryant of KCL.

A key theme of collaboration was obvious throughout the workshop, and this was demonstrated through the way the workshop participants shared data, formulated new ideas on digital humanities, and made links between their projects and others that shared common themes.

During the workshop, all participants were able to present their projects via “flash presentations,” which consisted of five minutes to present their current project and issues they were experiencing around the utilisation of data, digital humanities, and/or archival conservation techniques. The presentations provided an important opportunity for participants to learn about each other’s research and how they might link it to their own.

The first day of the workshop closed at the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide with Tim Cole and Alberto Giordano’s well attended and fascinating keynote lecture on “Space and Place in Holocaust Research: What We Have Learned and Future Research,” chaired by Marilyn Deegan of KCL. The lecture was followed by questions and answers and a wine reception.

The second day of the workshop consisted of several small group sessions on spatial data, data analysis, and archival management, an introduction to the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) by Andrea Schatz of KCL and discussions on how participants planned to apply to their projects what they had learned at the workshop. Participants responded how they found the networking opportunities helpful and through the activities of the workshop were considering new approaches to their projects and datasets. The attendees were also grateful that a variety of digital humanities topics had been covered in the workshop as this gave them a number of areas to think about.

The workshop ended with great optimism, with new networks created and new approaches to digital methods considered. As one participant said, “the wisdom is in the data; dig it out with digital humanities,” and the workshop was a good environment in which to consider this idea. The workshop organisers are looking forward to seeing how the projects discussed at the event continue to grow over the coming months and would like to thank again everyone who was involved for making this such a stimulating and thought-provoking event.