Round-up: Jewish cemetery spring and summer clean-ups

Summer is here, and even under the scorching skies of Europe’s record-breaking heat wave, the Jewish cemetery volunteer clean-up season is in full swing.

There are too many initiatives and projects to note individually, so here’s a round-up of just some of the clean-up operations that either have taken place so far this year — or will take place as the season progresses.

(We also include some of the dedications of cemeteries that have been restored over the past few years, but we have not included largescale government or state-sponsored initiatives.)

A number of the initiatives we list are taking place with the participation of — or organized by — organizations such as the Matzevah Foundation and Action Reconciliation Service for Peace.

Many other project have been and are taking place — if you don’t see your project on this list, let us know!

Mazel tov — and thanks! —  to all the organizers and volunteers who take part in these important initiatives aimed at preserving and protecting valuable — and sadly, so often neglected — Jewish heritage.

There’s still time to sign up for some of these actions!

Belarus

Belynichy and the village of Krucha,  May-June — volunteers from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine catalogues the Jewish cemeteries

Beshenkovichi, May 1-11 – July 22-25, July 27-30, August 1-2— the fifth season of volunteer efforts to restore the Jewish cemetery in Beshenkovichi, in the Vitebsk region. Volunteer work began here in 2015. According to organizers, the priority tasks of this  session was the completion of cleaning the remaining territory of the cemetery from felled trees, windbreaks and bushes, as well as raising fallen stones, mapping the cemetery, and numbering and cataloguing stones.  See updated information  on the project’s Facebook page

Derechin, May 22 — After a years-long restoration effort spearheaded by a family of descendants, the long-neglected Jewish cemetery in Derechin, Belarus (also spelled Dereczyn) was rededicated and a commemorative plaque was mounted.

Mogilev, throughout the summer and continuing in August — thanks to fundraising from the Mogilev Jewish community and a crowdfunding campaign, volunteers restored a number of gravestones and repaired a 19th century road in the cemetery; their lobbying efforts succeeded in having the cemetery named a “Historical memorial burial site,” the first in Belarus.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tuzla,  April 28 — Young people from the Youth Network of the local Muslim community, led by local Imams,  organized a clean-up of the Jewish cemetery in Tuzla, Bosnia Herzegovina.

Tuzla, August 10-24 — A summer camp co-organized by the German NGO Action Reconciliation Service for Peace will see Bosnian and German student-age participants doing maintenance work in the Jewish cemetery, including weeding, removing foliage, cleaning gravestones, and clearing paths, as part of a project called Drifting Pasts and Contesting Memories.

Czech Republic

Holesov, July 16-July 28 — annual volunteer clean up of the Jewish cemetery, ahead of and during the Holesov Jewish cultural festival.

Hungary

Budapest, July 18-August 1 — As part of a broader program organized by Action Reconciliation and the local Jewish Cultural Association, young people are carrying out light gardening and maintenance to preserve and restore the sprawling Kozma utca Jewish cemetery complex and its tombstones.

Lithuania

Vištytis, July 29-August 10 — The Summer Camp in Vištytis aims to preserve the town’s Jewish heritage and prepare information and material for the inventory process of the local Jewish cemetery.  The inventory process will cover cleaning and tidying the cemetery from debris and excess of vegetation; digitisation and identifying coordinates of graves; identifying and copying legible inscriptions. The initiative is organized by the NGO Maceva- Litvak cemetery catalogue and Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, with the cooperation of the NGO Goodwill Foundation.

Netherlands

Deventer, July 1-14 — Organized by Action Reconiliation Service for Peace and the Etty Hillesum Center in Deventer. The international group helped make the inscriptions on the gravestones in the Jewish cemetery visible again through light cleaning and garden work.

Poland

Bialystok, August 4-18 — 4th year of work at Bagnowka Cemetery. Thus far volunteers have reset more than 1,000 headstones. The team this year includes more than 40 people — Americans, Poles, Germans, Israelis and others. The work is being carried out in conjuction with Action Reconciliation Service for Peace and the Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej Polska-Israel, Białystok. See more.

Częstochowa, June 10 – 14  — Organized by the Matzevah Foundation and World Society of Częstochowa Jews and Their Descendants, a second year of cleaning and clearing the large Jewish cemetery, including clearing heavy brush that has grown thick around many gravestones.

Krośniewice, June 24-28  — The Matzevah Foundation  joined a group of descendants from Krośniewice to continue the work begun last year, cleaning heavy vegetation that has overgronw the cemetery.

Krzepice, June 17-20 –– For the sixth year, the Matzevah Foundation joined local high school students and other local residents to work clearing the Jewish cemetery in Krzepice, which has wrought iron grave markers.

Oświęcim, August 9-18  — An annual joint project to clean and carryout general maintenance of the Jewish cemetery, by the Matzevah Foundation and the Auschwitz Jewish Center, with local scouts and other volunteers.

Przerośl, August 19-23 — The Matzevah Foundation partners for a third year with a group of descendants from the area along with friends to work for in this cemetery, which is thick with overgrowth. 

Tarnow, June 26 — The historic Jewish cemetery in Tarnów, southern Poland, was ceremoniously rededicated and reopened after a two-year, fullscale renovation that saw the restoration and indexing of gravestones, repair and rebuilding of its wall, and the opening of a permanent exhibition in the former pre-burial hall.

Wroclaw, May 5-18 — Volunteers aged 40 and up worked on clearing rampant vegetation and reerecting gravestones in the new Jewish cemetery on ul. Lotnicza, which has been used as a burial site continually by the Jewish community of Breslau/ Wroclaw, in the latest of regular summer camps that have been carried out in recent years. 

Ukraine

Chernivtsi, September 17-29 — The 10th anniversary of this Action Reconciliation “summer camp” for people aged 40 and over, initiated in 2009. A main part is volunteer clean-up in the vast Jewish cemetery, which with 50,000 graves. Participants will pull up weeds and undergrowth, clear overgrown paths between the graves and discover forgotten inscriptions on the gravestones. See details on the Action Reconciation web site

Rohatyn, August 6-8 — There have been several volunteer clean-up actions at the Jewish cemeteries in Rohatyn, organized by Rohatyn Jewish Heritage. The next is August 6-8.