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Rabbi Abraham Ginsberg z”l; Executive Director of the CPJCE

Rabbi Abraham Ginsberg z”l Photo: CPJCE

(JHE) — We are deeply saddened to learn of the recent death of Rabbi Abraham Ginsberg, the Executive Director of the London-based Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe (CPJCE). The CPJCE announced this month that he had died from a brief but severe undisclosed illness. He was 53.

Rabbi Ginsberg worked to preserve, protect, and maintain Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust mass graves in a number of European countries, according to Halacha. He underscored that “through direct communication with local, regional and national authorities, we can achieve an understanding of our concerns and reach satisfactory solutions ensuring that the requirements of Jewish law and tradition are met.”
 
He was “always full of energy, ready to help on any topic and helping on any topic,” Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich recalled.  “I knew that when Rabbi Ginsberg was involved, whatever it was would get done.”
 
In recent years, Rabbi Ginsberg worked closely with the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, conducting rabbinical surveys, providing advice, and cooperating with local and national authorities. 

“Rabbi Ginsberg’s contribution to the preservation of Jewish cemeteries in Europe was immense,” Philip Carmel, the ESJF’s CEO  said.  

He personally visited hundreds of sites over the years, in all conditions and in all seasons. And in his advocacy for their protection, often at the highest diplomatic and political levels, he never failed to accomplish his mission through friendly cooperation and total commitment. We deeply mourn his passing.

General view of the Belzec memorial

In the early 2000s, Rabbi Ginsberg was involved in the creation of a powerful memorial at the site of the Nazi death camp at Belzec, in southeast Poland, which was dedicated in 2004.

“Rabbi Ginsberg and his colleagues provided the critical halachic oversight for the project, which insured that the mass graves of over 500,000 Nazi victims were fully protected,” Rabbi Andrew Baker, Director of International Jewish Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, who on the team that oversaw creation and implementation of the memorial, told JHE.
 

 Later, he came to Vilnius where the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe won the trust and appreciation of government authorities and community leaders and since 2009 has been key to protecting the graves of Jews in Vilnius, Kaunas, and elsewhere in Lithuania. He was a man of scholarship, dedication, and the utmost integrity. We will miss him.

Rabbi Ginsberg took part in two international conferences co-organized by JHE: the 2013 conference in Krakow on Managing Jewish Immovable Heritage, and the 2015 conference in Vilnius on Jewish Cemeteries.

He was born in 1968 in London, and lived and studied in London at the Mesifta Talmudical College, where he received his degree in Talmudical Studies. After his marriage to Lea Bollag of Zurich in January 1990, he continued advanced studies in Israel where he received his diploma and was ordained as Rabbi and lecturer. Following his return to London in 1998, he was appointed as Executive Director to the CPJCE, where he established close co-operation with various local and national Government leaders and was active in the passing of a resolution by the Council of Europe  on Jewish cemeteries that recognized the CPJCE as an official body to consult regarding issues concerning Jewish cemeteries in Europe.

May his memory be for a blessing!

 
 
 
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