We are happy to highlight the installation of new signage at the Jewish cemeteries in Rohatyn, in western Ukraine — after three years of planning and preparation and despite the ongoing war sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine over a year ago.
Providing clear, accurate, and informative signage at Jewish heritage sites is an important element in fostering both preservation and awareness, and the new panels at both the Old and New Jewish cemeteries in Rohatyn look like excellent examples, featuring multilingual texts, maps, photos, and QR codes linking to further information.
The signage is a component of the overall Jewish heritage project of the Rohatyn Jewish Heritage NGO (RJH), and RJH’s Jay Osborn describes them thus:
The new signs are 1.5 meters wide by 1.0 meter high, mounted on a steel frame at eye level, and installed just outside each cemetery. The texts about the site and community history are in three languages: Ukrainian (primary), English, and Hebrew.
Eye-catching interwar photographs of Rohatyn Jewish families and social groups are prominent, with captions to describe the scenes and acknowledge the image donors.
Also included on each sign is a simple map and key which labels the variety of Jewish physical heritage sites around Rohatyn, along with other important heritage sites of the multicultural city.
At the base of the signs are text and logos of the key sponsors of this project, plus QR codes linked to the Rohatyn Jewish Heritage (RJH) website for much greater information about the cemeteries and about Rohatyn’s lost Jewish community.
Jay’s detailed post on the RJH web site underscores the collaborative effort it took to plan, create, and install the signs — by local people; the Rohatyn city administration and local museum; Rohatyn descendants; genealogy researchers; volunteers, and more, in particular the ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative.
“ESJF surveyed the Rohatyn cemeteries in 2019, and agreed to provide sign design, construction, and installation support so that the Rohatyn signs would visually harmonize with the existing ESJF format, a helpful networking of sites including many in western Ukraine,” Jay writes.
The signs will now be monitored in coming years to assess their durability, “and learn from this first signage project to inform sign designs for other heritage sites.”
Click here to read Jay Osborn’s detailed description of the signage project, with photos