Jewish communal records and archives no longer needed for current operations will be given to the Jewish National Archives in Jerusalem, it was decided at the annual conference of the Bavarian State Association of Jewish Communities.
The decision follows an appeal by Dr. Alex Bein, deputy director of the Zionist Central Archives, who reminded the delegates that they could best perpetuate the memory of Bavarian Jewry by making the documents available to future Jewish historians in Israel.
Most of the source material was destroyed during the Nazi period, but records dating back many centuries have been preserved from more than 70 communities that are now defunct or but a shadow of their former selves. All such records and archives will first be centralized and catalogued in Munich, where the necessary selection is to be made.
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