Conservation work on matzevot in the historic Jewish cemetery in Alba Iulia will continue this year thanks to a grant from the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, made through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP).
The $62,000 grant, whose period runs from September 2022 to March 2024, was made to the National Union Museum of Alba Iulia, which runs an annual volunteer conservation and restoration camp at the cemetery.
It will support two sessions of the camp this year involving specialists from various fields, students, volunteers, and high school students, as well as other specified objectives, including a conference aimed at the importance of historical research of cemeteries and the preservation of monuments; publishing an anniversary volume summarizing the activity taken since 2014 to present; and organizing a final exhibition.
The camp focus includes restoration and preservation of individual gravestones as well as general cleaning of the site, plus lectures and study sessions. Conservation work (cleaning and treatment of monuments) is overseen by the project manager, the stone restorer Sidonia P. Olea.
Established in the 18th century and still used by the town’s tiny Jewish community, the cemetery is believed to be the oldest Jewish cemetery in Transylvania and one of the oldest in Romania. Extending over about 21,500 square meters, it includes 2,038 graves and 1,960 stones, with inscriptions in Hebrew, Yiddish, Hungarian, German and Romanian. Erosion and neglect have take a toll.
You can CLICK HERE now to sign up to volunteer for two sessions planned for this summer — June 26 to July 7, or July 31 to August 11.
Act fast, as numbers are limited, and the Museum has noted that by the end of January half of the subsidized places had been filled.
For further, details, contact Sidonia Olea by phone at +40 (0)749 977 047.