Digitization and documentation of surviving fragments of wall paintings and buildings of active and former synagogues in the historical region of Bukovina.

A vast and diverse Jewish heritage is concentrated on the territory of modern Ukraine. Today, amidst the bloody, prolonged, and destructive war with the Russian aggressor, these monuments are under the threat of disappearance. A special place among them is occupied by synagogue buildings with surviving fragments of wall paintings, which are a source of valuable information about the spiritual, religious, cultural, and social life of the Jewish community before the Holocaust. To date, no more than ten such structures (former and active synagogues) with remnants of paintings have survived in Ukraine. They are of great importance for science and culture not only in Ukraine but throughout Europe, where such objects have become extremely rare due to their targeted destruction during the Holocaust.

Due to the lack of capable Jewish communities, proper attention from the new owners or users of these buildings, as well as state administration bodies in the field of cultural heritage protection, the majority of such structures in Ukraine are in a neglected state and are undergoing a rapid process of destruction. At the same time, any conservation measures, let alone restoration, are impossible in wartime conditions.

Currently, the only way to prevent the irreversible loss of existing examples of synagogue painting is to preserve scientifically verified visual information obtained using modern digital technologies, in particular 3D laser scanning. Such technologies have long been widely used in Western Europe, and since the beginning of Russian aggression in Ukraine—for documenting the most valuable architectural monuments. The digital data obtained in this way can be used not only to study the phenomenon of synagogue wall painting by modern and future historians and art critics, but also, under favorable conditions, for restoration and museumification. In the fall of 2023, an international scientific working group, the "Working Group Jewish Architectural Heritage in Ukraine," was formed. It includes experts in the fields of art history, restoration science, digital cultural history, and Jewish studies, including the applicants. The ideal model formulated within this approach is a modular system that combines the goals of documentation, research, preservation, and communication with the wider public.

It is advisable to start the documentation process using 3D laser scanning with three monuments preserved in the territory of the historical region of Bukovina. This process is scientifically tested, and the working group on Jewish cultural heritage includes experienced specialists from the Mainz University of Applied Sciences, who take into account modern quality standards for the relevant digital workflows in both practical and theoretical aspects. In the future, these initial objects can serve as examples for applying the acquired experience to other Jewish heritage sites in Ukraine.

The three monuments selected for the initial stage are the active Beit Tfila Binyamin synagogue, the former Great Synagogue Groysse Shul (both in Chernivtsi), and the former New Great Synagogue in Novoselytsia (Chernivtsi region). The Beit Tfila Binyamin synagogue (built in 1923) and the New Great Synagogue in Novoselytsia (built in 1919) have almost completely preserved ensembles of wall paintings that testify to a single iconographic tradition of the region. In the former Groysse Shul synagogue (built in 1854), paintings in the small prayer hall were preserved and uncovered (in 2012), while in the large hall, a significant part of the wall painting is hidden under later layers of plaster and soot after a fire and requires uncovering.

Scanning these synagogues will allow for the documentation of these monuments, the digital reconstruction of their original appearance, and tracing the development of the tradition of synagogue wall painting from at least the mid-19th century to the period of the Holocaust. This will also serve as a good example of applying a complex methodology of digital documentation to other similar Jewish heritage objects in Ukraine that are under threat of destruction due to the war.

Documentation of the remnants of endangered synagogue wall paintings in former and active synagogues in the Ukrainian part of the historical region of Bukovina using 3D laser scanning, followed by computer processing and placement of the obtained digital data on a specialized web resource.