Riverlands Jewish Archive works to catalog Jewish history of region [Video]

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – The Jewish Virtual Library reports in 2023 Jewish people made up less 0.4% percent of Kentucky’s population.

Timothy Quevillon, a Jewish Heritage Fund Visiting Professor at Western Kentucky University saw how isolating this can be firsthand and found a solution in the Riverlands Jewish Archive.

Quevillon said he got the idea for the Riverlands Jewish Archive while lecturing at a temple in Paducah, Kentucky. After seeing the temple’s records, with some dating back to the 19th century, Quevillon worried about what would happen to the artifacts after the temple closed.

“We want to have a way for everyone to have access. Families, communities, scholars, people interested in Jewish life, and create a vibrant online, digital space for history to be told and to flourish.”

Thus, the archive was born, gathering artifacts from communities spanning southern Indiana, Southern Illinois, eastern Missouri and Western Kentucky.

“So like Bowling Green, we will have features from our lives, we will …