After four years of preparation, planning and on-site work, the site of the destroyed Old Jewish Cemetery in Tallinn has been reopened as a memorial area and park, with information panels, marked grave sites, and restored the arched gate, walls, paths, and chapel.
City officials and Jewish community representatives took part in the dedication October 12, but officials said the Hamas atrocities and war in Israel cast a shadow on what should have been a happy event.
“We were ready for a happy day when we remember several years of construction work and welcome, with a smile on our face, the rebirth of a historically important place in our urban space, ” Monika Haukanõmm, a local official in Kesklinn (central Tallinn), said on the city’s web site. “Last weekend wiped that smile off my face. However, we come to the park [at the site of] the old Jewish cemetery to tell our Jewish friends that we are with them.”
The Old Cemetery, on Magasini street in the Veerenni district, functioned from probably the late 18th century until the city’s New Cemetery at Rahumäe was opened in 1909. (According to the Estonian Jewish Museum, it was officially closed in 1910 but the last burial took place in 1930.)
The cemetery was surrounded by a limestone wall and had some impressive mausolea, a funeral hall and a second chapel, as well as an elaborate gate.
It was destroyed by Soviet authorities in the 1960s and a car park, garages, and repair shops were built on the site in 1967.
The two-stage redevelopment project cost €1.6 million, according to the city, and began in 2019 with archaeological probes carried out by an archaeology NGO commissioned by the City Planning Department’s Heritage Department, in cooperation with the Jewish community, which also took part in general discussions about the future of the site.
On-site work began in November 2021.
“The work was divided into two phases, in the first of which a representative square and gate portal were built on the site, the limestone walls were restored, landscaping was installed, and outdoor furniture and lighting were installed,” the city said on its web site.
In the second stage, a flower bed was built in the back part of the former cemetery, in the so-called funeral area, the foundations and stairs of the large and small chapel were restored, and the sidewalks adjacent to the square were built. In addition, 11 effective outdoor lights with a design resembling an oak tree were installed.
“Today we are opening the old Jewish cemetery,” Jewish community spokesperson Alla Jakobson said on the city web site. “A place that connects the present with the past and, most importantly, with the future. We thank the city of Tallinn for supporting this very important project for us.”
Read the announcement on the city’s web site
Read our posts from December 2020 and from March 2020