VANISHING JEWISH SOCIETIES

At the outbreak of World War II, there were close to ten million Jews in Europe. Following the Holocaust, that number fell sharply to roughly for million. Today the numbers are below two million and declining rapidly.

For me, the decision to document the vanishing Jewish culture of Eastern Europe had urgency written all over it – especially as religious observance was being swallowed up by a tidal wave of growing secularism .

I remember meeting five elderly men in a synagogue in Europe who told me that when they die, their religion would die with them. That thought continues to haunt me today even as this exhibit travels across the globe.