At Sukkot, a time of reflection and renewal, we wanted to share with our readers this beautiful ancient image from the Jewish catacombs in Venosa, Italy — believed to date from the 6th century C.E. The picture was taken by … continue reading →
A number of cemetery clean-ups and other initiatives and developments have taken place in Poland in recent weeks — and also some vandalism. We have reported on some of them, but here are notes about others. Virtual Shtetl has also … continue reading →
A wild fire swept through part of the extensive Jewish cemetery in Iaşi, Romania this week, but the blaze did not damage grave monuments and firefighters were able to halt the spread by beating out the flames. Lucia Apostol of the Federation of … continue reading →
A crowd-sourcing campaign has been launched to create a lapidarium at the destroyed Jewish cemetery in Wronki, Poland, where hundreds of matzevot and fragments have been rescued from improper use and collected on the cemetery site. Most of the … continue reading →
The United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad has honored U.S. Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) for having sponsored a new law, the “Protect Cemeteries Act,” that makes the desecration of cemeteries a violation of religious freedom. Meng … continue reading →
