People often want to know how they can volunteer to help clean up a Jewish cemetery. Several volunteer opportunities for this coming summer have already been announced:
Białystok
The Białystok Cemetery Restoration Fund (BCRF) welcomes volunteers for its 2025 annual Summer working session, which will take place from August 3, 2025 to August 15, 2025. The BCRF has been working for a number of years to clean up, restore, and document the Bagnowka Jewish cemetery in Białystok.
Travel should occur for arrival in Bialystok by August 2, 2025. After wrapping up on the 15th, organizers hope volunteers can stay for the Ghetto Commemoration event on August 16th.
If you want to volunteer, you can find details by contacting BCRF Chair, Josh Degen at [email protected]
We have posted frequently about the Bagnowka Jewish cemetery project, including essays and annual reports: Click here to see posts
The Matzevah Foundation projects
The Maztevah Foundation will be working in four Jewish cemeteries in Poland this summer — and there are opportunities to volunteer in two of the projects.
Żychlin July 14-18, 2025
It will be TMF’s second year working in Żychlin. It will continue to clear this cemetery of its tall grass and brush which began last summer. Taking part will be a group of descendants, friends, and students led by Professor Mayrisa Galbraith of the University of Alabama who is also the president of The Association of Descendants of Jewish Central Poland.
Grójec July 28-31, 2025
Grójec, is just outside of Warsaw. TMF will be partnering with a local Baptist church and other volunteers to clean this small cemetery.
Please visit this link for full details on the volunteer process with TMF. The deadline for all applications is May 31, 2025 at midnight U.S. Eastern Standard Time
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The Matzevah Foundation’s other two cemetery projects — not open to volunteers — are:
The Jewish cemetery in Rzeszów, April 22-25, 2025, where TMF will partner with Sally Mizroch, In Memory of Jewish Rzeszów, Stowarzyszenie Rajsze, and Cmentarz żydowski w Rzeszowie to conduct a cleaning of this cemetery.
The Jewish cemetery in Zambrów, July 2-9, 2025 — the location of TMF’s first cemetery project as an organization in 2012. It will be partnering with JewishGen and Friends of Jewish Heritage in Poland for the Greenspan L’Dor V’Dor Legacy Program. A group of university students will be traveling throughout Poland learning about the Jewish heritage of the country. A portion of their journey will be spent in Zambrow to clean this cemetery.