Liberal Judaism has won a grant of nearly £60,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to record the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jews in Britain since the Second World War.

It plans to create an archive of audio-visual interviews, a resource pack for schools and a touring exhibiton on the experiences of LGBT Jews.

“We were approached by some community activists who were worried about the history being lost because the generation from the 1950s is dying out,” explained Liberal Judaism operations director Shelley Shocolinsky-Dwyer. The project is titled “Pioneers and Milestones” and the aim is to complete it by 2014. It will be a run by a manager who will be recruited over the next few months.

Liberal chief executive Rabbi Danny Rich said the movement “values the diversity not only of its own 35 communities across the country, but also of the UK Jewish community as a whole. This project is the perfect way for us to celebrate that.”