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.

Poland: Good and Bad Teens. Chrzanow Cemetery Vandals Apprehended, Other Teens Care for Cemetery in Dabrowa Tarnowska

Poland: Good and Bad Teens. Chrzanow Cemetery Vandals Apprehended, Other Teens Care for Cemetery in Dabrowa Tarnowska
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) According to the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, police have identified three teenagers as those who vandalized the Jewish cemetery in Chrzanow in March 2009. Three local Middle School students damaged about 60 matzevot (gravestones). The cost of repairs cost is estimated in dozens of thousands of zlotys. The vandals are now facing charges in family court.

Meanwhile, other Middle School students in Dabrowa Tarnowska have taken the local Jewish cemetery under their care. Within the framework of the Foundation sponsored 'To Bring Memory Back' program, they regularly visit the cemetery, gather litter and clean up the matzevot.

Getting residents of all ages in small towns throughout Poland (and other countries) is a key element in ensuring the long term protection and care of Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust sites. Only when people understand the history and appreciate the values - form a moral, social, political and economic view - will sites be relatively safe. Them ore people of different ages and walks of life who participate in this process, the better. When local residents - Jewish and especially non-Jewish - take a proprietary interest in a site (perhaps through have spent time cleaning it), they are more likely to look out after its safety. School groups, youth groups, Churches groups, and civic organizations can all play a part in this process. International organizations can encourage this work by partnering, sponsoring or providing "sister/brother" links for encourage international cultural exchange.

Readers interest in supporting such endeavors can contact me directly at samuelgruber@gmail.com, and I will direct them to active efforts.

Jamaica: Hunt’s Bay and Orange Street Cemeteries – March 2009

CVE Volunteers at work documenting Jamaica cemeteries, March 2009

Jamaica: Hunt’s Bay and Orange Street Cemeteries – March 2009
By Shai Fierst and Sam Petuchowski

For several years ISJM has been co-sponsor of a project to document the cemeteries of Jamaica. Last month a small team of volunteers spent time on the island revisiting the Jewish cemetery at Hunt's Bay, and beginning work documenting the cemetery on Orange Street in Kingston. Team members Shai Fierst and Sam Petuchowski contributed the following report for the newsletter of CVE (Caribbean Volunteer Expeditions), one of ISJM's partners in the project.

Jamaica’s Jewish community is one of the oldest and storied communities in the Americas with impressive contributions to art, literature, politics, and more in the non-Jewish and Jewish spheres in and outside of Jamaica. A request by Ainsley Henriques’ of the Jamaican Jewish community for inventorying of Jamaica’s Jewish cemeteries was a catalyst for a partnership between CVE (Caribbean Volunteer Expeditions) and the community that began a decade ago and continued in March 2009 with Rachel Frankel leading a team to continue inventorying the Hunt’s Bay Cemetery and begin inventorying the Jewish Cemetery on Orange Street in Kingston. The International Survey of Jewish Monuments (ISJM) is a co-sponsor of this project. The goal of the work beyond collecting data is to post the information on the World Wide Web thereby making Jamaica’s historic and difficult to access sites available to a worldwide public.

The Hunt’s Bay Cemetery is Jamaica’s oldest cemetery and was the burying ground for the Jews of Port Royal who lived across the harbor where the high water table of the peninsula prevented burial. Hunt’s Bay Cemetery is located to the west of Kingston having been established before the founding of Kingston. Hunt’s Bay’s earliest grave stone dates to 1672 and its latest dates to the mid 19th century. 360 grave markers remain at Hunt’s Bay. Many markers have been destroyed or looted for construction over time.

The Jewish Cemetery on Orange Street, located near the beautiful and century-old Shaarei Shalom Synagogue, contains stones from the early 19th century and is still in use. The cemetery is located in the newer, northern end of Kingston. Previous to the Orange Street Cemetery, Kingston's Sephardim buried their dead in the no longer extant Old Kingston Jewish Cemetery in the older, southern part of Kingston's downtown. 18th century grave stones from the Old Kingston Jewish Cemetery were transposed to the Orange Street cemetery when the former was closed likely due to new sanitation laws of the growing city. The grave stones are found along the north and east cemetery walls, often partially covered under earth excavated by burials.

The Hunt's Bay Cemetery contains bluestone, limestone and marble grave markers with epitaphs largely in Portuguese and Hebrew. The horizontal markers rest upon brick bases varying in height. The older section of the Orange Street Cemetery contains horizontal grave markers mostly of marble elevated almost three feet above ground on red brick bases, with epitaphs written, for the vast majority, in English, with less and less Portuguese and Hebrew.

The inventory work discovered that many of the grave markers in the Orange Street Cemetery are not in their authentic locations likely due to destruction by looters and then further destruction by well-intentioned restoration. Natural disasters, such as an earthquake in 1907, likely also impacted the cemetery. The Jewish community employs persons to care for the grounds, but there is still an incredible amount of work that needs to be done in order to maintain the site. There is also much work that needs to be continued with regard to inventorying, as the March 2009 work achieved documentation of only a small portion of the cemetery.

Building relationships with Jamaican Jews such as Michael Cohen and Michael Nunes added to the experience of the CVE volunteers and hopefully our Jamaican Jewish counterparts will continue to work with CVE groups in the future. The work week also included a visit from the Archaeological Society of Jamaica along with Professor James Robertson from the University of The West Indies.

Retrieving Stolen Matzevot: Plan Announced to Retrieve Scattered Gravestone Fragments from Inowroclaw (Poland) Jewish Cemetery

Retrieving Stolen Matzevot: Plan Announced to Retrieve Scattered Gravestone Fragments from Inowroclaw (Poland) Jewish Cemetery

(ISJM) In recent years there has been an apparent increase in the number of efforts to identify and recover Jewish gravestones (matzevot) that were previously removed from cemeteries for use as building materials. In the former Soviet Union, stones were removed as early as the 1920s and sometimes used to construct the base of monuments to Lenin, or for other commemorative structures. More stones were removed during the Holocaust and used by Germans for paving roads (Radom, Poland) and courtyards (Kazimierz Dolny, Poland; Kremenets, Ukraine). Others were apparently taken by private individuals and used for farm buildings and others types of construction.

Toppled Communist monument built using Jewish gravestone fragment, recovered from the town dump in Samorin, Slovakia (photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2009)

The reasons for recent recoveries are mixed. From the Jewish perspective, there is more awareness and interest in the fate of these stones, and better local and national Jewish organization to respond when they are discovered, and to demand their return. On the public side, there is now a greater awareness among local governments and national monument authorities about the significance of these stones, and also a greater willingness to cooperate with Jewish groups when stones are uncovered. Most important, greater investment and activity in renewing infrastructure - particularly the repair and replacement of old roads - has led to a increase in the discovery of these stolen gravestones. Fro the most part, local authorities have been willing to contribute to the cost of the removal, repair and replacement of these stones when they are found in the course of municipal work or other government sponsored works. Unfortunately, private property owners have been less cooperative when gravestones have been identified in their buildings or on their properties. Though the situations vary, private owners are very likely to negotiate - essentially hold stones for ransom - demanding outright payment for the stones, or requesting payment for "removal and replacement" costs (such as the repaving of a courtyard or the rebuilding of a stairway). When these costs have been modest, many Jewish groups have paid these costs - finding payment cheaper and easier than a protracted and possibly litigated dispute.

It is time, however, for more consistent and transparent policies to be put in force to assist in the identification, recovery and care of these stolen stones. ISJM will soon put forth proposals and guidelines addressing this topic. As a sign of progress in this area, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland announced that on April 7, 2009:

a meeting took place in Inowroclaw (kujawsko-pomorskie province) between the representatives of the Foundation… local authorities and the regional Monument Conservator. The parties discussed the matter of the matzevot used in the past to reinforce the pavements in Inowroclaw. A commission was created to inventarize the locations of the tombstones, then to remove and secure them. In near future they will be transported back to the 'new' Jewish cemetery in the town (located between the communal and Catholic cemeteries). They probably will become part of the lapidarium.

Poland: Remarkable Discovery of Polychrome Matzevot (gravestones) in Radom

Poland: Remarkable Discovery of Polychrome Matzevot (gravestones) in Radom

During recent construction work in Radom, approximately one hundred matzevot. (gravestones) were discovered. Most of these are richly painted. It is not surprising to find Jewish gravestones in this way – since so many were removed during the Second World War and used for paving and other construction work (see recent report on Kremenets, Ukraine). But never before has such a large number of painted stones been found - where the color is so vividly preserved.

The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland moved to protect the historic gravestones. In cooperation with the local branch of the Monument Conservation Office and the construction workers, the Foundation assures that the matzevot will be properly documented and conserved at the Jewish cemetery in Radom.

These finds give impetus to a reevaluation of Jewish religious, popular and folk art in Eastern Europe. Because so much art was destroyed in the Holocaust, and because most of what was documented is known only in black and white images, we have inherited a skewed view of Jewish aesthetics. The veil of memory, inevitably somber and dark because of the tragedy of the Holocaust, has dimmed much of the exuberant color of pre-Holocaust Jewish life. Something of the vitality can be felt in the art of immigrants, as recently reported in reference to the exhibition “Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses.”

Two photo galleries of the Radom finds have been posted. The first shows general pictures of the discovery, the excavation and removal of the gravestones: http://www.polin.org.pl/cities/363/galeria/16844/

The second shows details of the carved and vividly colored gravestones: http://www.polin.org.pl/cities/363/galeria/16869/

Increasingly, more and more Jewish cemeteries are being cleared and explored; more painted gravestones are being discovered. Until now, however, these have been few in number and usually isolated. Even when colors are preserved, decades of exposure to the elements has faded their brilliance. The tragic irony is well known among conservators that gravestones that have been hidden, and especially buried, are often the ones where relief carving and painting is best preserved.

For some images of polychrome matzevot in situ, see recently posted photos from Romanian Jewish cemeteries by Ruth Ellen Gruber (especially Radauti, Botosani and Gura Humorului):
http://web.mac.com/ruthellengruber/iWeb/general%20site/North%20Romania%20photos.html

Polychrome matzevot in Jewish cemetery of Radauti, Romania (photo: Ruth Ellen Gruber)

Ukraine: Kremenets cemetery restoration project identifies hundreds of gravestones as parking lot pavements

Ukraine: Kremenets cemetery restoration project identifies hundreds of gravestones as parking lot pavements

Researchers for the Kremenets (Ukraine) Jewish Cemetery Restoration Project have identified several areas in the town where Jewish gravestones from the large cemetery are being used as parking lot paving, first installed during the Second World War by the occupying Germans, and in place ever since. Two areas adjacent to the former Gestapo headquarters have been identified. In addition, it is thought that a large area around the Lyceum – used by the Germans as a military hospital – also has buried matzevot. A project has been developed to move these stones, which probably date from the 18th and 19th century and number in the hundreds, back to the cemetery and to photograph and transcribe their inscriptions as part of a larger project to document, protect and preserve the historic site. The group seeks funds for retrieving the stones and creating a memorial (still to be decided).

The Kremenets Cemetery project was begun in 2004. The project began with photos of the 3,200 individual matzevot that were visible, and continued with removal of excess vegetation from the 25,000 square meter site. Detailed maps identifying site constitutions, types of vegetation and the location and condition of all gravestones and other notable features were then prepared by a team led by L'viv-based Professor V.P. Kucheryavyi developed the plan. Their report and other results of Phase I of the Project are online at http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Kremenets/web-pages/kjcp.html. The plan provides an exemplary effort of site documentation which should be required before similar cemeteries before any repair or conservation work is undertaken. The examination of the site in phase I more than doubled the number of known gravestones at Kremenets. It also documented the effects of wartime vandalism of the cemetery and the subsequent half century of neglect.

Reports detailing the full results of Phase I and other aspects of the projects are on the website of the KJCPC:
(http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Kremenets/web-pages/kjcp.html).

Phase II of the Kremenets Jewish Cemetery Project is designed to begin with some stone conservation and gravestone re-erection on the site. This will be done within the confines of a stone conservation training program which will involve local workers and create a ongoing and economically useful conservation program. The hope of local officials is that these skills can then be transported to other needy sites in Western Ukraine. The training course in Kremenets will be followed by a pilot project in the old part of the cemetery. If done properly, this work will set a new, and much needed standard for Jewish and non-Jewish cemetery restoration work in Ukraine. The primary partners in this effort are the Kremenets-Pochayiv State Historical-Architectural Preserve, the municipality of Kremenets, and the nascent Jewish community in Kremenets. Some grants have been received, but additional funds are needed before Phase II can begin.

Questions can be directed to Dr. Ron Doctor, director of the project
at rondoctor@earthlink.net