It’s summertime, the season of volunteer operations to clear and clean-up Jewish cemeteries….Many “clean-up camps” and other initiatives have been –and are — taking place. Some are strictly local efforts, while other attract volunteers from several countries. Some concentrate on clearing vegetation, while others tackle more ambitious restoration.
We don’t have space to highlight all of the initiatives, but here is a sample of what has been happening in late July and August alone — it may help to inspire our readers to get involved next year.
The German organization Action Reconciliation Service for Peace sponsors or co-sponsors a number of cemetery volunteer clean-up camps each summer in several countries. We highlight some of them below — and you can view this year’s full program here.
CHERNIVTSI, UKRAINE
Volunteer summer clean-up camps have been held each August for a number of years at the sprawling — and overgrown — Jewish cemetery in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. This year is no exception. The annual SVIT-Ukraine volunteer operation started August 14 and runs til Aug. 27 — and Action Reconciliation scheduled a similar operation for people over 40 from August 22-September 3. Volunteers came from Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Serbia, France, Ukraine, Japan, the U.S. and Israel.
You can see a photo documentation with pictures from several participants on Facebook here
BIAŁYSTOK, POLAND
A major volunteer operation to re-erect gravestones at the Bagnowka Jewish cemetery is taking place this month. You can see photo documentation on the Facebook page of Heidi Szpek-Idzikowski, a scholar who has researched and written extensively about the cemetery and who also posted the video below. The aim is to re-erect 500 stones in a week — and also erect 12 information panels about the cemetery and specific graves.
ŠVENČIONYS, LITHUANIA
An international summer camp took place August 8-20 to clean up and carry out documentation at the Jewish cemetery in Švenčionys, organized by the Maceva Litvak Jewish Cemetery Cataogue in partnership with Germany’s Action Reconciliation Servce fo Peace. Thirteen volunteers from Germany, Moldova, Belarus and Lithuania took part. The cemetery is one of the largest remaining Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania – with about 4,000 burials. Volunteers were visited by the Israeli ambassador to Lithuania, the Švenčionys mayor, and local Jewish leaders.
KAUNAS, LITHUANIA
A summer clean-up operation took place July 28 at the Žaliakalnis Old Jewish cemetery in Kaunas, Lithuania. One year ago, the Municipality of Kaunas signed a cooperation agreement with Maceva regarding the care, maintenance and restoration of the cemetery. Opened in 1861 and closed in 1952, the cemetery is on the Lithuanian Heritage Registry and is a state-protected site, but it has been long neglected and also subject to vandalism.
ZDUNSKA WOLA, POLAND
A clean-up operation took place at the Zdunska Wola Jewish cemetery on August 13 in preparation for the cemetery’s 7th Open Day, schedule for August 28. Click here to see photos of the work.
OŚWIĘCIM, POLAND
August 8-19 the U.S.-based Christian Matzevah Foundation partnered with Fundacja Zapomniane, the Auschwitz Jewish Center, and Action Reconciliation to continue clean-up of the cemetery and place matzevot in remaining bases (continued from 2015). In addition, it partnered with the archeologist Dr. Caroline Sturdy-Colls, who is carrying out a regional survey of Jewish cemeteries and mass killing sites in the Oświęcim area and the Oświęcim Jewish cemetery.
Throughout the summer, the Matzevah Foundation also was engaged in other cemetery clean-up projects in partnership with other organizations, among them:
Częstochowa: August 21-22, 2016 in cooperation with Alon Goldman of the Association of Częstochowa Jews in Israel along with Project Gidionim, to work with them and local volunteers to clean, clear and document the matzevot in the Jewish cemetery of Częstochowa. See the Ratuje Cmentarz Żydowski w Częstochowie Facebook page.
Radecznica: August 28-September 4, 2016 partnering with the Fundacja Zapomniane to clean and clear the area, protect the site and commemorate a mass grave located on the grounds in this village in eastern Poland.
SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA
Action Reconciliation Service for Peace organized a volunteer work camp August 14-28 to clean up the historic Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo.
1 comment on “Summertime: the season of Jewish cemetery clean-ups”
All are great Mitzvot to those in the diaspora who have roots in these towns that have deep Jewish histories. I am personally connected to Bialystok and want to point out the role of my hero, Lucy Lisowska. Lucy is the only openly Jewish person in Bialystok and the representative of the Jewish Community of Warsaw in Bialystok. She has organized Cemetery clean-up and restoration projects every summer for the last 10 years or more. I love Lucy!!