Kosovo: Can New Treaty Stop Continued Deterioration of "New" Jewish Cemetery of Pristina?

Pristina, Kosovo. "New" Jewish Cemetery. Photos: Ivan Ceresnjes (2012)

Kosovo:  Can New Treaty Stop Continued Deterioration of "New" Jewish Cemetery of Pristina?
by Samuel D. Gruber 

(ISJM)  The fate of long-neglected Jewish sites in the newly independent small and poor country of Kosovo has recently received some attention.  On December 14, 2011, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton  and Kosovo’s President Atifete Jahjaga signed the Agreement on the Protection and Preservation of Certain Cultural Properties between the U.S. and Kosovo in Washington, D.C. The agreement, one of many originated over the past two decades by the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, sets commitments and procedures for each side to protect cultural heritage sites, especially of religious and ethnic minorities.  In the past two decades the Commission has given special attention to the documentation and protection of Jewish and Holocaust-related sites mostly through sponsoring site surveys and encouraging U.S. donors to support conservation, restoration and commemoration projects.

According to Secretary Clinton "this is a really important agreement that we are signing today, because the United States has a special interest in helping to preserve cultural heritage sites in countries around the world, because the vast majority of Americans are immigrants and descendents of immigrants. So the work of this commission is of great importance to us."  You can read all of Secretary Clinton's remarks here.

Pristina, Kosovo. "New" Jewish Cemetery. Examples of deteriorated gravestones. Photos: Ivan Ceresnjes, (2012).

Ivan Ceresnjes, former head of the Bosnia Jewish Community and now a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has been visiting Kosovo regularly for the past decade and reporting on the continued deterioration of the Jewish sites.  Ceresnjes, who has organized surveys of Jewish sites of Bosnia and Serbia for the U.S. Commission is particularly concerned about the fate of the "New" Jewish cemetery in the capital city Pristina.  He feels this would an ideal project for international protection and conservation in the wake of the new treaty.

This month (January 2012) he made his fifth visit since 2002  to  Pristina's  "New" Jewish cemetery on Dragodan, next to Serbian Orthodox cemetery.  From Kosovo, Ceresnjes emailed the International Survey of Jewish Monuments (ISJM) these pictures:



He wrote: "Last time, a year ago ... I tried to see what is going on with the New Cemetery since I have seen from afar the huge infrastructural works being held around it but it was impossible to approach due to flooding of the area of both cemeteries (Jewish and Serbian) with sewage.  [Now] in light of recent signing of the agreement between government of USA and present government of Kosovo I am just informing all of you about the sad reality on the ground - the quick and merciless destruction and disappearance of the heritage of one of the smallest and maybe the most endangered minority in Kosovo - the Jewish one."

Pristina, Kosovo. "New" Jewish Cemetery. Photo: Ivan Ceresnjes (2012)

In addition to the continuing process of destruction by neglect at the "New cemetery and other sites, their was been vandalism against Jewish sites, too.   Just last month, in December, 2011shortly before the cultural heritage treaty was signed in Washington, the Old Jewish Cemetery in Pristina, which had been cleaned last June by a group of students from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and their peers from the American University in Kosovo was vandalized and swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans were spray painted on old gravestones.

In 2008, Ceresnjes wrote at length about the difficulty of protecting Jewish hertiage sites - and memory of Jewish history - in the former Yugoslavia. (The Destruction of the Memory of Jewish Presence in Eastern Europe: A Case Study: Former Yugoslavia, 2008):  Of Kosovo he wrote: "there were about 500 Jews before the Second World War, of whom 250 were handed over to the Germans by Kosovar Albanians. There were also a few examples where Kosovars killed Jews, and there was also a Kosovar SS unit. About twenty righteous gentiles helped the other 250 Jews escape to Albania where the Jews were protected.  After the war, in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, a huge memorial was erected for all victims of Nazism including the partisans and the Jews. When the Serbian-Albanian fighting broke out in Kosovo in 1999, almost all names were removed, also including most of the Albanians who were considered communists. Kosovo is such a tightly knit society that everyone knows who was or wasn't a communist." 

Bulgaria: Survey of Jewish Sites Published

Bulgaria: Survey of Jewish Sites Published

The United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad has published a survey of Jewish Historic Monuments and Sites in Bulgaria, including information on the location, history and condition of synagogues and cemeteries.  Some of this material has been posted on the website Jewish Heritage Europe and has circulated in other formats, but its has never been assembled in easy access and illustrated report form.  The Commission report is posted in two parts.
Jewish Historic Monuments and Sites in Bulgaria, Part 1
Jewish Historic Monuments and Sites in Bulgaria, Part 2

 Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Restored Synagogue. Photo: Samuel Gruber (2004)

Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Restored Synagogue. Photo: Samuel Gruber (2004)

Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Restored Synagogue. U.S. Commission members Levy and Bandler at re-dedication. Photo: Samuel Gruber (2004)

The survey includes information from several sources, including my own visits, to synagogues and former synagogues in  Burgas (Bourgas), Dupnitsa (Dupnica), Gotze Delchev (formerly Nevrokop), Haskovo, Pazardjik, Plovdiv, Ruse (Ruosse), Samokov, Sofia, Varna, Vidin, Yambol (Iambol).  The synagogues of Sofia and Plovdiv have been restored in recent years and continue as religious and cultural centers.  Many former synagogue,s however, such as those in Vidin, Varna and Samakov survive as only as ruins.

Varna, Bulgaria. Sephardi Synagogue in ruins.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2004). 

Vidin, Bulgaria. Sephardi Synagogue in ruins.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2002).

The most substantial part of the report includes mostly unknown and unpublished results and photographs from site visits by teams organized by the Jewish Community of Bulgaria to cemeteries in Burgas (Bourgas), Chirpan (Shirpan), Dupnitsa (Dupnica), Gotze Delchev (formerly Nevrokop) , Haskovo, Karnobat, Kazanlak, Kyustendil, Lom, Pazardjik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Ruse (Rousse), Samokov, Shumen (Kolarovgrad, 1950 – 1966), Silistra, Sliven, Sofia, Varna, Vidin, and Yambol (Iambol).

While some of these cemeteries are well maintained, most have suffered significant damage from vandalism and neglect. For further information about any of these sites researchers should contact the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria - Shalom (info@shalom.bg).

Pleven, Bulgaria. The Jewish Cemetery is one of the largest and most in need of repair. Photo: Courtesy of US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad

Vidin, Bulgaria. The large Jewish Cemetery has been systematically vandalized, with most graves opened and plundered (purportedly by people looking for gold).  Jewish Cemetery. Photo: Courtesy of Us Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad

Despite the relatively small size of the survey and the report, it was a long time in the making.  It began in 2002 when the Commission signed a cultural heritage agreement with the government of Bulgaria. I was then Research Director of the Commission and we began to organize a series of countrywide surveys to identify cultural and historic sites of religious and ethnic minorities whose heritage insufficiently recognized by culture authorities, or entirely ignored.   Over several years teams identified and visited Muslim, Christian, Roma and Jewish sites throughout Bulgaria.  In 2010 the Commission released a report on Muslim Sites, based on the extensive research of Stephen Lewis.  A report on  Protestant Christian sites in Bulgaria is forthcoming. 

Many people worked on the survey of Jewish sites.  In 2003, historical research was prepared as a section of an overview of various ethnic and religious minority historic and artistic sites in Bulgaria
by Professors Mark Stefanovich and Evelina Kelbetcheva of the American University in Bulgaria.  A second part of the survey took place in 2005 and 2006 and included site visits, descriptions, and extensive photography of Jewish cemeteries. The Organization of the Jews in Bulgaria, “Shalom,” carried out this stage of the work. Becca Lazarova arranged for the survey on behalf of “Shalom.”  On several visits to Bulgaria in 2003 and 2004 I  made site visits to the synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, and Vidin.  Becca Lazarova in Sofia and  Boris Yakov in Varna were gracious hosts.

While some time has passed since the initial draft of this report and its first circulation in 2007, the situation reported has not, to my knowledge, changed in any significant way.  Several important former synagogue remains ruined and without purpose, and cemeteries throughout the country are ruined intentionally by treasure hunters, and naturally by neglect.  Despite their best intentions, the small Jewish community in Bulgaria has limited people and money to address these problems.

Suriname: Restoration at Jodensavanne Celebrates a Milestone

Jodensavanne, Suriname. Local residents have been trained in restoration techniques. Photo collage courtesy of the Jodensavanne Foundation (2011).

Suriname: Restoration at Jodensavanne Celebrates a Milestone

(ISJM) Harrold A. Sijlbing - Chairman of the Jodensavanne Foundation writes to International Survey of Jewish Monuments that the "Foundation has realized an important goal in preserving the national Jewish heritage in Suriname" in the completion of restoration of four historic grave monuments in the Jewish cemetery and the remnants of the 1685 Beracha VeSalom synagogue.

Jodensavanne, Suriname. The process of restoring graves in the cemetery. Photo collage courtesy of the Jodensavanne Foundation (2011).

According to Sijbing, "the project was carried out by REMAS, a Surinamese construction company specialized in historic restoration, under KDV’s leading architect Phiillip Dikland and funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands as part of the “shared heritage” program." Jodensavanne is located on the Suriname River, about thirty kilometers from Paramaribo (also the site of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries). The settlement, one of the oldest Jewish settlements in the Western Hemisphere, was surrounded by Sephardi Jewish owned sugar plantations. After its abandonment, it was overrun by jungle vegetation.

According to the Foundation's website, "the local indigenous community of mixed Arowak and Carib background, living in the village of Redi Doti, is co-manager of the monumental sites that are located in their ancestral territories. They fully contribute to the protection of the monuments and manage the buffer zones." A ceremony marking the completion of this phase of work took place this past September 13 (2011). In attendance were the Foundation board, the Redi Doti village council, representatives of the Ministry of ATM, the Dutch Embassy and construction workers.

Jodensavanne, Suriname. Above: Redi Doti village chief Lesley Artist speaks at the restoration celebration. Below: Mr. Petri of the Dutch embassy hands out certificates of appreciation. Photo courtesy of the Jodensavanne Foundation (2011).

The use of historically correct mortars and materials was an important aspect of the project in order to secure the original design integrity. A special element of the completion ceremony was the certification of four young villagers of the neighboring indigenous settlement of Redi Doti, who were trained by historic masonry specialist Henry Lo Kioen Shioe of SAO.

The Foundation has plans for a number of projects in the near future including the publication of a Jodensavanne Guide Book and the improvement in the training of local guides. The central subject in this action plan is to finalize the World Heritage Site nomination to be submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee by end of the year.

Jodensavanne, Suriname. The conserved synagogue ruins. Photo courtesy of the Jodensavanne Foundation (2011).

Beginning the 1995s, American architect Rachel Frankel began studying the remains of Jodensavanne leading to the continuing development of conservation, interpretation and presentation programs for the site. In the late 1990s the entire complex was placed on the World Monuments Fund Watch List, and gradually local organizations have rallied to the preservation and presentation of the site. Largely as a result of Frankel's work and the WMF listing, the Stichting Jodensavanne, Jodensavanne Foundation (JSF), which had been founded in 1971 was re-activated in 1998 and was granted the legal rights by the Government of Suriname to manage the monumental property.

The vision of the Jodensavanne Foundation is to:

• protect and preserve the universally unique remains of Jodensavanne and Cassipora, including the Beraha VeShalom synagogue, the Cassipora Cemetery, the Jodensavanne Cemetery and the so-called African (or Creole) Cemetery;

• conserve the environmental and historic serenity of the sites;

• stimulate and implement research and documentation of the archeological sites and remains, including the former town plan and adjacent historical spots;

• enhance strong partnerships with local, national and international communities and organizations to facilitate sustainable management of the sites;

• build awareness and understanding; encourage appreciation, education and promotion, and facilitate access to the cultural heritage, in order to be a unique and enjoyable experience to all.

For more on the site and recent research see my previous post: Publication: "Monumental" Book about Suriname Jewish Cemeteries., and the Jodensavanne Foundation website.

Holland: Effort to Improve Amsterdam's Zeeburg Cemetery

Holland: Effort to Improve Amsterdam's Zeeburg Cemetery
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Thousands of foreign tourists visit some of Amsterdam's famous Jewish sites every year, notably the great Esnoga, or Portuguese synagogue (1675). Tens of thousands of Dutch attend the exhibits and events at the Joods Historich Museum, located in a group of historic Ashkenazi synagogues, including the Great Synagogue (1671). Art historians are familiar with the old Jewish cemetery of Ouderkirk with its many elaborately carved and inscribed gravestones.  But few people - within Holland or abroad - are aware of the great Zeeburg cemetery, reputed to be Europe's largest Jewish cemetery, containing between 100,000 and 200,000 graves, and now neglected and in ruin. (click here for photos).

According to Jan Stoutenbeek and Paul Vigeveno (Jewish Amsterdam, 2003) the Zeeburg Cemetery was opened in 1714 and because it was in walking distance to Amsterdam it became the resting place of the city's poor Jews who could not afford the contribution to the Jewish Community allowing burial at the Muiderberg Cemetery.

By the 20th century, Zeeburg was filled, and a new cemetery at Diemen was consecrated. Zeeburg fell out of use, and the after the the relatives and descendants of the buried there were mostly killed in the Holocaust, and the cemetery was left to fall into disrepair, most recently serving used for paintball games by local teenagers.

On Sunday, October 30, 2011, Amsterdam’s Stichting Eerherstel Joodse Begraafplaats Zeeburg (Rehabilitation Foundation for Jewish Cemetery Zeeburg) began a collaborative program for Moroccan and Jewish youth to clean the large and neglected Zeeburg Jewish cemetery. On six Sundays, as many as 100 young people will collaborate to improve the condition of the cemetery and in the process to learn more about the history of Jews of Amsterdam.

The program to engage young people in the protection of the cemetery was initiated by Frans Stuy and Jaap Meijers who in contacted the Foundation for Rehabilitation Zeeburg. Jaap Meijers said "The cemetery is completely overgrown, it's a jungle. There is a huge wall built around it and making it impossible for regular visitors to visit. We are now looking for the original gate, which is still somewhere, and with the the help of young people, to make it presentable again. Of course we also hope that it will initiate awareness. "

For more information on the cemetery and plans for its restoration go to the Foundation webpage.

Poland: Radoszyce Jewish Cemetery Has New Fence and Gate

Radoszyce, Poland. New Wall and gate at Jewish cemetery. Photos courtesy of The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland

Poland: Radoszyce Jewish Cemetery Has New Fence and Gate

(ISJM) The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland reports that in 2010-2011 it has built a wall and gate surrounding the Jewish cemetery in Radoszyce, and the access road to the cemetery was renovated. The works were carried out in cooperation with the local Forest Authority (Nadlesnictwo Ruda Maleniecka). Funds were raised by the descendants of Radoszyce Jews from Israel and the USA.

The Jewish cemetery in Radoszyce was established in the 18th century. The grave of Rabbi Issachar Ber Baron, Tzaddik of Radoszyce and disciple of the Seer from Lublin, is located on the cemetery grounds. His ohel is annually visited by his disciples.

Latvia: New Plaque at Riga's Old Jewish Cemetery

Riga, Latvia. New plaque at Old Jewish Cemetery. Photo courtesy of U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (2011)

Riga, Latvia. dedication of new plaque at Old Jewish Cemetery. Choir performing in Yiddish before ceremony. Photo courtesy of U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (2011)

Riga, Latvia. President of the Jewish Communities of Latvia, Arkady Suharenko and Lee Seeman unveiling new plaque at Old Jewish Cemetery. Photo courtesy of U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (2011)

Riga, Latvia. Old Jewish Cemetery. This how the site looked when I visited with Commission members Lee Seeman and Gary Lavine in 2003. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2003).

Latvia: New Plaque at Riga's Old Jewish Cemetery
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) On June 30, 201 the Jewish Communities of Latvia organized a series of events commemorating the 450th anniversary of the Jewish community in Latvia and to the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust. As part of those events, a new explanatory plaque sponsored by the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad was installed at Riga's Old Jewish Cemetery. Commission member Lee Seeman organized the project and raised the funds.

U.AS. Commission Member Lee Seeman and U.S. Ambassador to Latvia, Judith Garber

I am especially pleased to see Lee's continuing commitment to this project and so many others in the region. We visited the site together in 2003 with Meijers Melers, the preeminent expert on Latvian Jewish sites, and saw the relatively new large boulder on site, with a prominent Jewish Star, but there was no text or other information telling what the site was and what had happened to it. Without an informed guide, we would have been entirely in the dark. Lee Seeman persevered and saw to it that future visitors would not be so perplexed.

In all its projects the U.S. Commission has never felt it enough to charge people to "Never Forget." The Commission insists in all its projects that accurate information is provided to the visitor or viewer to better teach them what to remember. Its previous work in Riga, on the Rumbula massacre and mass grave site monument is a good example.

Riga, Latvia. Old Jewish Cemetery. Impressive memorial stone placed on site in 1990s, but with explanatory text. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2003).

The plaque is in Latvian and English. I do not yet have photos to post, but here is the English text:

2011
The old Jewish Cemetery
This is Riga's first Jewish cemetery. It was opened in 1725 and burials continued here until the late 1930s. after German forces occupied Riga in 1941, the prayer house and the mortuary were burned down. the cemetery became a mass burial site for over 1000 Jews killed in the streets and houses of the Riga Ghetto. Following World War Two, many of the cemetery's tombstones were removed and used as building material. Others deteriorated. The wall surrounding the cemetery collapsed, and the site left uncared for fell into disrepair. In the 1960s, the site was razed and renamed "The Park of the Communist Brigades." In 1992, the park was renamed "The Old Jewish Cemetery”

Poland: Szczebrzeszyn Jewish Cemetery Restoration Project

Szczebrzeszyn, Poland. Jewish cemetery, new wall in construction. Photos courtesy of The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (2011)

Poland: Szczebrzeszyn Jewish Cemetery Restoration Project

The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland has begun the first stage of the Szczebrzeszyn Jewish cemetery restoration project. The town is just a short drive west from Zamosc. Part of a large stone wall facing the Cmentarna St. is being erected.


The Jewish cemetery in Szczebrzeszyn was established established in the 16th century and was used until the World War II. today, over 2,000 matzevot (gravestone) survive, making it one of the best preserved Jewish cemeteries within the boundaries of modern Poland.

The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland is implementing the 1st stage of the Szczebrzeszyn Jewish cemetery restoration project. Within its framework a part of the fence facing the Cmentarna St. is being erected. The Jewish cemetery in Szczebrzeszyn was established in the 16th century and used until the World War II. Over 2,000 matzevot (gravestones) are thought to survive there, making it one of the better preserved Jewish cemeteries within the boundaries of modern Poland - but everything is relative. Most stones are toppled, and only about 400 were clearly visible before work began, the others are covered with vegetation or have fallen and been covered with years of accumulated debris. Before the restoration began the area was filled with trash. To see pictures before the restoration click here.

Walling or fencing Jewish cemeteries is usually a necessary step to ensure their long term protection and preservation. Buildings wall, however, especially around large cemeteries, is a difficult and expensive endeavor.

See more pictures of the wall construction here.

Szczebrzeszyn, Poland. The synagogue has been used as a local cultural center. Photo: Wikipedia Commons.

Belarus: Students Help Clean Jewish Cemeteries

Ivenetz, Belarus. Remains of Jewish Cemetery in 2003. Photo provided by Jewish Heritage Research Group in Belarus

Belarus: Students Help Clean Jewish Cemeteries
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) I am a little late posting a link Judith Matloff's December article about the desperate need for care for abandoned Jewish cemeteries in Belarus from The Forward, but the situation has hardly changed in two months. I've written about the dire situation in Belarus before especially regarding former synagogues. The situation with cemeteries is also serious, though is some ways more under control. The great damage to most Jewish cemeteries in Belarus was done in the past, and (most of) those cemeteries that were mostly likely to be destroyed during the Soviet period have been already been built over and bulldozed. But throughout the country there remain scores of rural cemeteries whose main enemy at the moment is time and weather, both of which have been taking their toll for years.

Due in part to their location and in part due to the still slow economy in autocratic Belarus, these places are neglected, but not are not under siege. In some ways the authoritarian system in Belarus adds some level of protection - if no resources. There is less individual entrepreneurship or land speculation, or local governmental initiative in Belarus that could threaten these places than was the case elsewhere in Central Europe, and is still true in Ukraine.

Politically, this is a good time to encourage intervention to clean, fence and otherwise protect the remaining Jewish cemeteries. But economically it is a bad time to find money for the in Belarus - and the precisely because of politics most potential foreign philanthropists and investors are understandably reluctant to send money. The result is that with some encouragement from small underfunded American and European organizations, the the initial enthusiasm of American Hillel students, the small Jewish community in Belarus has begun to work on their own to protect the Jewish heritage. They have the willingness, and increasingly the hands of young people to carry out some of the needed work. But they still lack needed funds for essential skilled work and supplies.

Read Judith's piece. Like most stories about recovering Jewish heritage in Eastern Europe it is poignant, with a ray of hope - the hope here is not that this is just a group of American college kids visiting for a few weeks to cut cemetery weeds (though there is nothing wrong with this) - but that it is home-grown effort. If there are individuals, organizations or congregations who would like to contribute to Jewish efforts in Belarus to save remnants of the past - as a way of building community identity today - contact me. I'll put you in touch with people in Minsk and elsewhere doing good work for little money.

With Student Help, Belarus Rescues Its Shtetl Graves

By Judith Matloff

Published November 24, 2010, issue of December 03, 2010.

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/133423/#ixzz1EgkHGROb

Gomel, Belarus — Somewhere beneath the birch trees lies the Jewish cemetery of Senno. The graves have been there for 350 years, but the markers are so sunken into the earth that they look like random stones. Moss covers the Hebrew letters, and few people know about the site, which is hidden from the road by the foliage. The only visitors are mosquitoes.

The scene repeats itself across the timeless, pristine landscape of Belarus. At least 70 shtetl graveyards lie forgotten, overgrown by pasture land and forests. No one has recited Kaddish at these spots since the Nazi invasion of Belarus in 1941. German troops killed nine out of 10 Jews in the country, and shtetl cemeteries deteriorated because of the absence of returnees after the war. The subsequent ban on worship by the Soviets discouraged interments in these sacred burial grounds.

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/133423/#ixzz1Egjxr2Qr

Poland: New Memorial with Old Gravestones Erected at Radom Jewish Cemetery

Radom, Poland. New Memorial at Jewish Cemetery. Photos courtesy of FODZ.

Poland: New Memorial with Old Gravestones Erected at Radom Jewish Cemetery

(ISJM) The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland has announced the upcoming dedication of a new memorial monument at the Jewish cemetery at the central Polish town of Radom. The monument, erected on the cemetery is a raised lapidarium incorporating many of the gravestones scattered on the site and found in other locations. The ceremonial unveiling is planned for November 8, 2010.

The memorial is being built within the framework of the "Tikkun - Repair" project, created by the Polish and Israeli Prison Service with the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland as a partner.

The monument continues a tradition of "gathering of stones" begun with the erection of cemetery memorials by survivors immediately after the Shoah, and then continued in the 1980s and 1990s at places such as Kazimierz Dolny and Wyszków.

USA: Forgotten Jewish Cemeteries

This blogger revealing forgotten gravestone fragments (ca. 1910) hidden by woods in Syracuse University.

USA: Forgotten Jewish Cemeteries
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Sue Fishkoff of JTA has written an important reminder of the continuing state of neglect and decay of so many Jewish cemeteries in the United States. This is not a new problem, its been recognized for at least twenty years, but the solutions have been slow to develop. A few states like Massachusetts and Texas have innovative, cooperative and successful programs but their example still needs to be adopted nationwide.Some solutions are relatively easy and involve more will and time than big bucks. Much can be done to maintain small cemeteries on an occasional basis by volunteers from congregations and civic groups. Big old cemeteries, however need lots of money, and until living Jews are willing to tax themselves to help care for the dead, this problem will not go away. Some sort of cooperative fee or tax contributed by congregations, cemeteries and funeral homes would go a long way toward funding needed work. Unlike Poland and Ukraine, for example, where the needs far outstrip the resources of the existing Jews, this is not the case in the United States. Here there is no good excuse, just a different list of priorities.

Here is Sue's article. On a positive note she documents several cases where creative and energetic individuals are doing their part - with some success:

Shouldering the burden of forgotten cemeteries
By Sue Fishkoff
September 20, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) --

The old Jewish cemetery in Eufaula, Ala., hasn’t been used in years.

“The monuments are just crumbling,” said Sara Hamm.

She and her family are the last Jews living in this once-booming cotton and railway town on the banks of the Chattahoochee River.

The Jewish cemetery’s first burial dates from 1845, when German Jews began arriving as merchants and dry goods salesmen. They bought a synagogue in 1873, but sold it in the early 1900s when their numbers dwindled to several dozen. The cemetery, with its 84 burial plots, fell into disrepair.

In the mid-1980s Hamm’s grandmother Jennie Rudderman began restoring it, righting headstones and clearing away brush. After she died in 1999, Hamm took over as volunteer caretaker. But the job is wearing her down.

“It’s been left to its own accord now, like everything else in small-town America,” she said.

Similar stories repeat across the land, from the rust belt of western Pennsylvania to the Bible Belt in the South. As factories closed down and populations shifted westward, once-thriving Jewish communities declined and synagogues shut their doors. The only thing left behind, in many cases, were the cemeteries -- with no one, or almost no one, to take care of them.

“The Jewish community knows there is a problem of abandoned cemeteries, but they feel it’s someone else’s problem, or the problem of the descendants of those buried there,” said Gary Katz, president of the 4-year-old Community Association for Jewish At-Risk Cemeteries, or CAJAC, which spearheads efforts to clean and maintain distressed cemeteries in New York City. “But throughout Jewish history, cemeteries have been a communal responsibility.”

The Jewish Cemetery Project of the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies lists 1,375 Jewish cemeteries in the United States and 72 in Canada, but project coordinator Ellen Renck says more may exist.

Read the entire article here.

Philanthropy: Rothschild Foundation (Europe) Accepting Proposals for Jewish Heritage

Philanthropy: Rothschild Foundation (Europe) Accepting Proposals for Jewish Heritage Grants

The Rothschild Found (Europe) has for much of the past decade been the quiet support of Jewish heritage projects in Europe. Foundation grants have been critical in all many of ways, but especially as catalyst money for new initiatives in Jewish heritage and in Jewish academic studies. Rothschild was a major supporter of conferences in Prague (2004) and Bratislava (2009) in which I was involved, and it has supported scores of projects to help museums, archives and historic sites - especially those managed by struggling Jewish communities.

Now the Foundation has reorganized - moving from London back to its origins at the Rothschild estate in Waddesdon. There has been staff turnover in the move, but the primary mission has not changed. The heritage mission has, in fact, been strengthened. The foundation is now more public and for the first time has launched a website with a public call for applications. It is a two-part process and those seeking grants now need to get in a first inquiry by September 13th.

Go to the website for eligibility requirements and information on applying for project support.

This tgext comes form the website:

Rothschild Foundation
http://www.rothschildfoundation.eu/

The Rothschild family has a long tradition of philanthropy, starting with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) and his five sons. From the very beginning their philanthropy was concerned with ensuring equal opportunities for disadvantaged groups across Europe. Other areas of support have included health care, housing and education. The Rothschild Foundation (Europe) continues this philanthropic tradition under the Chairmanship of Lord Rothschild and during the last ten years, we have supported a range of educational, cultural, heritage and community-based initiatives in over 40 European countries. From September 2010, we will be focusing our activities in academic Jewish studies and Jewish heritage

Honouring, celebrating and learning about the history and culture of Jews throughout Europe can be done in so many ways. Our Jewish Heritage programme focuses on the archives, museums and historic buildings reflecting Jewish life in order to help create and sustain an active interest in the Jewish heritage of Europe. Specialist support for archives and museums is offered and communities are encouraged to apply for research and educational projects that use Jewish heritage as a means of engaging a broad spectrum of people in discovering more about Jewish life.

Poland: Recovery of Matzevot from Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki and Protection of Cemetery Site

Nowy Dwor, Poland. Recovery of Jewish gravestones that had been used as the foundation for a sidewalk by the river. Photos courtesy of http://www.nowydworjewishmemorial.com

Poland: Recovery of Matzevot from Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki and Protection of Cemetery Site

(ISJM) A new effort is underway to protect and preserve the Jewish cemetery of the central Polish town of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki. You can read more and see photos here. The cemetery had been desecrated and destroyed after the evacuation of the Jews from the Nowy Dwór Ghetto to the concentration camps, had been all but abandoned. The graves had been opened and plundered of their concrete caskets and headstones (Matzevot); bones were scattered, leaving little to no evidence of what happened to the generations of souls that had been laid to rest there. In the 1980s squatters had begun to build houses on the edge of the property that they claimed, “Belonged to no one.” People excavated the hillside of the property for sand and gravel.

The goal of the Nowy-Dwór-Maz-Jewish-Cemetery-Restoration-and-Memorial is "to preserve and protect the cemetery as a physical attestation to what happened. One just has to look at it to understand the significance. We have a proposal to secure the property with a proper fence, similar to that used in local public parks. The length of the fence is 670 meters with a cost in excess of $40,000. Our wish is to make the newly discovered headstones part of a memorial and interpretive area at the entrance to the cemetery to tell the story of what once was. We would also like to install a “Scroll of Remembrance” listing as many names as can be found: Names of people who were buried there before the Holocaust and names of people who died in the camps that were not able to live their lives out in peace. This is just a concept at the moment, as we need to develop a program that would be most appropriate and respectful."

Beginning last year soil from the construction site of the new Jewish Museum in Warsaw has been brought to cover the many now-exposed bones which are scattered throughout the cemetery. Plans are to fence the site and then to build a memorial incorporating matzevot that have been recovered form sidewalk paving elsewhere in thew town.

The local municipality has been very cooperative in the developing the project, but the cost of the fencing is estimated at $40,000 which must be paid with outside funds. So far, a little more than $10,000 has been raised. To make (USA) tax-exempt contribution consult the website.

For addition information contact:

Ze’ev Shaked (USA):
210-698-0313
zshaked@sbcglobal.net

David Wluka (USA):
781-784-4400
david@wlukarealestate.com

Yosef Kieliszek (Israel)
(972) 3-503-2461
Keliszak@zahav.net.il

Poland asks prisoners to care for Jewish cemeteries

Poland asks prisoners to care for Jewish cemeteries

(ISJM) Here is a link to a BBC video report about prisoners in Poland providing labor to help maintain Jewish cemeteries.

This may sound a little odd, but remember that in America prisoners routinely are used for roadwork and other public works projects. It is a very old tradition. The bitter irony of course is that in many cases Nazi prisoners - often Jews themselves - were used to destroy Jewish cemeteries by uprooting gravestones during the years of the Holocaust. It should also be noted that many other groups in Poland - including youth groups, scout groups, and church groups carry out cleaning work at Jewish cemeteries.

Wednesday, 9 June 2010

Polish prisoners are helping to clean up some of the country's neglected Jewish cemeteries. Before World War II the graveyards were taken care of by Europe's largest Jewish commmunity. But 90% of Poland's Jews were murdered by the Nazis, and the population now numbers only several thousand.
Adam Easton reports from Warsaw.

(click on link below for video report)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10271705.stm

Poland: Abandoned Jewish Cemetery of Przemysl Returned to Jewish Ownership

Poland: Abandoned Jewish Cemetery of Przemysl Returned to Jewish Ownership

(ISJM) Last month (Feb 23) Michael Freund reported in the Jerusalem Post that the long abandoned and neglected "Old" Jewish cemetery of Przemsyl,has been restituted to the ownership of the foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ). The site on is still marked by an impressive stone entrance gate. Only a few gravestones from the cemetery have survived (photos) gravestones on the site which dates to the 16th century, it is believed that the burials remain intact, and the Foundation (FODZ) plans to clean the site and protect it. The carved gravestones were removed by the German occupiers of the town during the Second World War. To date, none have been located, but ti is possible that many were reused nearby for pavements and building material and some may be still be found. A second of "New" cemetery still survives in the town. This has hundreds of surviving stones, including post-1945 burials.

In June 2009, Freund participated in the dedication of a memorial plaque on the former Przemysl New Synagogue (1910), known as the Scheinbach synagogue and now used as a public library. At that time he challenged city officials to return the former cemetery.

Przemsyl, which was once a central Polish town, but is now located near the border of Ukraine, was once at town with a thriving pre-Holocaust Jewish population (estimated at 30% of the total). As the cemetery of a major town it also served, according the FODZ researchers nearby communities of Jaroslav, Pruchnik, Kanczuga and Dynow.

the following information comes from the websites of the Cemetery project of the International Jewish Genealogical Society.

OLD CEMETERY: The Jewish homes were founded outside the walls of the city on the road to Nehrybki between the current ul Wandy and ul Rakoczy. This old cemetery was documented first in 1568 in the privilege issued by King Sigismund Augustus and again in 1571 regarding damage. Since in 1638 King Władysław IV gave the Jews the privilege allowing them to use "the synagogue cemetery: and indicating that the cemetery also served the surrounding cities including Jarosławia, Pruchnik, Kańczugi, and Dynów. Five years later the cemetery area was enlarged. Land also was purchased in 1765. An 18th century fence shows in archival records. During WWII, this cemetery was destroyed, its stone gravestones used for making roads and streets including the barracks on ul Mickiewicz. Without care cemetery slipped into oblivion. Before WWII, archival photographs in the Muzeum Narodowego Ziemi Przemyskiej show that the cemetery had a large group of graves from the 16th century, the oldest being that of a woman named Gitel bat Gershon, who died on September 23, 1574 (8 tiszri 5335). In the mid-19th century, the cemetery occupied two hectares and was almost completely filled. The Jewish Community in Przemysl needed a new cemetery.

Sniatyn, Ukraine. (top) Garbage piled in front of Jewish cemetery prior to cleaning and (bottom) cemetery after cleaning: Photo: courtesy Sofia Dyak (July, 2009)

Sniatyn, Ukraine. Local courtyard paved with Jewish matzevot. Photo: courtesy Sofia Dyak (2009)

Ukraine: Sniatyn Jewish Cemetery Cleaned and Subject of Local Exhibition
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Last summer the Center for Urban History in East Central Europe in Lviv organized a student project called "Sniatyn- Archeology of Memory: Discovering and Reviving the Historical Heritage of Galician Town." The project was created within the framework of the program "Memoria", initiated by the foundation "Memory, Responsibility and Future" together with the Stefan Batory Foundation. The southern Galician town of Sniatyn was chosen for the project as an example of a border city. It is located near Bukovina (now Ukraine, Moldova and Romania), an area of rich multi-cultural history, where Ottoman, Austiran and Polish-Ukrainian cultures intermingled. According to researchers from the Center, “statistics from the first half of the 20th century suggest that close to two fifths of the population was formed by Ukrainians (Ruthenians), more than a third were Jews, and one fifth was made up of Poles. Other than these three main groups, there was also a small number of Germans, Armenians and Czechs.” Bukovina was also home to an especially fine tradition of Jewish cemetery art, which can still be seen at many extant sites, but is also remembered in photographs of now-lost carved matzevot (gravestones).

Thanks to project coordinator Sofia Dyak, I am posting photographs from the camp – which was organized as a two-week as a history and conservation seminar, illustrating some of the work done. (It I now snowing out my window, so I savor these summer photos – and hope that the organizers will sponsor similar events and opportunities in 2010).

Sniatyn, Ukraine. Jewish cemetery, cleaned matzevah, presumably - because of the pitcher - of a Levite.
Photo: courtesy of Sofia Dyak (2009)

According to Dyak, “the goal of the project was to return the attention of the inhabitants of Sniatyn to the multi-national and multi-religious heritage of their city with the help of the two week program of a volunteer camp made up of youth from Ukraine, Poland and Germany” Most of the 19 participants were students from the Institute of Architecture in Lviv. The group studied and worked on conservation projects on the adjacent Jewish and Christian cemeteries and learned more about the heritage of the region, but also the contemporary life of Sniatyn. The Christian cemetery is still in use, but since the destruction of the local Jewish community in the Holocaust, the Jewish cemetery was abandoned and neglected; many gravestones had been robbed, and those still in situ were endangered by spreading tree root and excess vegetation.

Students cleaned the cemeteries and also discovered Jewish gravestones paving a courtyard. During and after the Second World War Jewish gravestones were frequently used for paving (see for examples, the polychrome matzevot recently discovered in Radom, Poland. Other examples are known from Kazimierz Dolny, where they were retrieved and erected into a monument, and from Kremenets, Ukraine).

Sniatyn, Ukraine. Conservation of matzevah at Jewish cemetery. Photo: courtesy Sofia Dyak (2009)

The project also arranged for translation of about 80 inscriptions from the Jewish cemetery. This inscriptions, as well as study of symbolic imagery used on the stones was of great interest to the students, and was also used as tool to engage wider local interest in the history and care of the site.

Sniatyn, Ukraine. Exhibition on main square, culminating project. Photo: courtesy Sofia Dyak (2009)

The two-session culminated in the presentation of an outdoor exhibition on the main city square displaying the results of volunteers’ work to engage and inform the local inhabitants. Dr. Khrystyna Boyko (National University "Lviv Polytechnic") was the academic leader of the project.

For more information click here.