Notes on recent (or ongoing) cemetery restoration and preservation projects around Europe
On his Vanished World blog, Christian Herrmann reports on the start August 9 of the SVIT work camp to clean up the vast Jewish cemetery in Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) Ukraine. Over the coming three weeks,14 young volunteers will clean the cemetery of shrubs and vines.
Virtual Shtetl cites an August 6 article from the Kurier Poranny newspaper noting that the clean up of the Jewish cemetery on Wschodnia St. in Bialystok, Poland, has already gotten under way.
As part of the project launched by Aktion Suhnezeichen Friedensdienste (ASF) and Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej Polska-Izrael, young people from Europe are visiting Białystok for the fourth time. This year, they will restore the Jewish cemetery on Wschodnia Street. The group comprises Belarusians, Russians and Germans, who form the majority of the group. They have planned to restore twenty neglected matzevos by removing moss and soil and putting them back in the original place. Each matzevah will have its own plaque in Polish and English. They will also be provided with translations of Hebrew inscriptions on the headstones.
Meanwhile, the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe (CPJCE) has released a report on the reburial on July 7 of the remains of more than 90 people in a medieval Jewish cemetery in Avila, Spain, that had been discovered during construction work.
The graves were discovered when the local authorities started work on the construction of pipelines in the area. After the unfortunate exhumation of the remains, the local archaeologist together with the Historical Institute carried out intense research and found out that this was part of the over 700-year-old pre-Expulsion Jewish cemetery.
Work was immediately stopped and the Jewish Community in Madrid was informed and together with the CPJCE negotiated with the authorities to rebury all the remains within the original cemetery in accordance with Halacha, and to seal off the area and have it officially recognized and marked as an ancient Jewish cemetery where no construction will be allowed in the future.
The reburial was carried out by members of the Chevra Kadisha of Madrid, in co-operation with a team of experts from the London based CPJCE, with full Halachic guidance of the Rabbinical Board of the CPJCE, headed by Rabbi Elyokim Schlesinger-Dean of Yeshiva Horomo.
The ceremony and special prayers were led by Chief Rabbi of Madrid Rabbi Moshe Ben Dahan and Rabbi Meir Zwiebel of Admas Kodesh (USA) and Rabbi Yeshaya Schlesinger of the Rabbinical Board of the CPJCE.