The Municipality of Kaunas has signed a cooperation agreement with Maceva, an NGO devoted to documenting and maintaining Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania, regarding the care, maintenance and restoration of the city’s Old Jewish Cemetery in Zaliakalnis.
Opened in 1861 and closed in 1952, the cemetery is on the Lithuanian Heritage Registry and is a state-protected site, but it has been long neglected and also subject to vandalism.
“We are glad that the city is starting to cooperate in tending to Jewish cemeteries,” Maceva founder Sergey Kanovich said in a news release. “I am convinced that this step will be appreciated not only by Lithuanians, but also, especially, the Jewish diaspora around the world.”
According to Kanovich, Kaunas authorities plan to tend to the cemetery in several stages and have allocated €8,000 during the current budget year as part of the first stage of work.
He said Maceva will assist the Kaunas municipality to determine an exact count and the mapping of the estimated 5,000 headstones in the cemetery, the largest Jewish cemetery in Lithuania. Later, they foresee the construction of a database and the translation of the epitaphs on the matzevot.
“This cemetery contains many graves of the most famous Lithuanian Jewish thinkers, politicians, cultural figures and religious leaders,” Kanovich said. “It is expected that many noteworthy historical figures will be discovered amongst these graves.”
Click to read an article about the agreement, with pictures o the cemetery, in the Lithuania Tribune
1 comment on “Kaunas city to help preserve Jewish cemetery”
willing to help with translating from Hebrew. Native Hebrew speaker.