Google puts Spanish-Jewish heritage on the map

JTA — A new interactive website powered by Google Maps has put Spanish Jewish heritage online.

Officially launched this week in Madrid, Caminos di Sefarad, or Routes of Sepharad, is a cooperative project between Google and Red de Juderías de España, the Network of Jewish Neighborhoods, a non-profit association founded in 1995.

It uses Google Maps and Street View technology to enable visitors to explore online the main Jewish landmarks in 24 towns and cities across Spain.

“Clicking on a landmark reveals historical information about each site and enables a 360-degree view of the different locations,” William Echikson, the head of Google’s external relations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, wrote in a blog post. “An intuitive search panel presents Jewish heritage sites by category, type, geographic zone and date.”

In total, he wrote, 523 sites, 910 dates and 1,667 pictures are displayed.

Google also powers the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, an online collection of more than 5,000 scroll fragments, which also was launched this week.