The scanty data in the collection of the Museum of the City of Skopje indicating the presence of the Sephafdi in the ethnic milieu of the town throughout history imposed the idea of undertaking intense researches of the culture of the Sephardi Jews in the town of Skopje, as well as their life with other ethnic groups in the multi-ethnic picture of the town. Yet, at the very beginning, diverse kinds of data compiled in a huge number of institutions in different countries posed the problem of carrying out long-lasting and expensive research activities, thus inducing the idea for establishing within the Museum of the City of Skopje a site for compiling, selection and presentation of data concerning the life of Macedonian Sephardi. The host of material that needed to be elaborated, diversity of sub themes and the challenge of contemporary approach to data processing required organizing the entire research undertaking in several phases, each of them conceived as a separate project. The first phase (supported by EU Phare) encompasses the segment of initial activities, including:
The following phases include:
Going back for centuries in reconstruction of the life in Macedonia would be impossible without corresponding reconstruction of the life-style of the Jewish community. However, the scanty and frequently inaccessible data, as well as the absence of their systematization, have hindered creating an overall picture of life of Jews in Macedonia. In that sense, creating a database that was about to enable prompt and thorough information for visitors was the starting point of researches. The project lasted for five months. During that time, an info database was created with defined information tree of basic themes for browsing in Macedonian language.
Basic themes have arisen as outcome of researches of the corresponding material carried out in a number of institutions in Macedonia.
Explorations were focused on systematization of bibliographic data used in libraries, as well as archive material from the Archives of Bitola, Stip and Skopje, museum collections, documents and photos from collections of family archives... The compiled material was sellected according to themas and processed electronically. The entire material was also put on a web site on Internet with a possibility for free access to data.
Alongside with compiling data, attempts have been made for establishing communications for data exchange with institutions from Israel dealing with the same subject. Initial cooperation has been accomplished with the Museum of the Diaspora, in Tel Aviv, Jad Vishem in Jerusalem and the Museum of Israel.
Presentation of the documents and data from the info base should hopefully enable visitors to create their own vision in reconstruction of the multiethnic atmosphere in the Macedonian tows in different period throughout history.