YEREVAN. – The Armenian Jewish community initiates creation of museumin the site of an ancient Jewish cemetery in Vayots Dzor province, the head of community Rimma Varzhapetyan told Armenian News - NEWS.am.

An ancient Jewish cemetery, dated 13th -14th centuries, was discovered in 1997. Excavations were carried out at graves with the participation of Armenian and Israeli specialists.

According to Rimma Varzhapetyan, the project and drawings of the museum have already been prepared.

“We very much hope that this will be an interesting destination for world tourism. We are seeking sponsors for the project and we hope that it will be interesting not only for Jews but for the Armenians as well,” said the head of the community.

The museum plans to present Jewish attributes and the items found during excavations in Yeghegis.

“I have recently visited Cape Town. There is a large Jewish community in South Africa.  There are at least 40 thousand Jews, beautiful schools and kindergartens, nursing homes, hospitals, community centers, and an amazing museum in Cape Town” said Rimma adding, “ Students from all over South Africa and neighboring countries come to the Holocaust lesson. I dream that such lessons, lessons of tolerance, Holocaust lessons took place in our Jewish museum, where I would like to have a corner dedicated to Genocide.”

The museum should also become a scientific and educational center.

“Unfortunately, we do not have a Jewish center. We rent this room and try to bring here the Jewish spirit. We expect to host scientific conferences and symposia in our museum,” said Rimma.

 “We have collected materials, and I hope that the results of painstaking work will be revealed to the visitors of the museum.”