Jewish Cemeteries – General Online Resources

How many Jewish cemeteries are there in Europe?

The Lo-Tishkach database includes more than 11,000 Jewish cemeteries and mass graves in Europe; it is searchable through key words, location, and country. Not all of these sites have been fully documented, but there are cross-border and local initiatives to do so.

We list cross-border, regional or Europe-wide projects here, along with some major national sites.

Further resources and information on Jewish cemeteries in individual countries will be found in the specific country pages of this web site.

GENERAL ASSOCIATIONS & REPORTS

The Association for Gravestone Studies

General resource on cemeteries, preservation issues, etc. Not specifically Jewish.

Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe

Site on cemeteries in general; with European cemetery route.

Council of Europe, Report on Jewish Cemeteries

May 10, 2012 report summarizing the situation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe, ahead of the ratification of an resolution calling for their care and maintenance.

Jewish Tombstones article by Marcin Wodzinski, in YIVO Encyclopedia

A brief primer on the history of Jewish cemeteries and grave markers in eastern Europe, as well as on epitaphs and iconography.

Jüdische Friedhöfe und Bestattungskultur in Europa/Jewish Cemeteries and Burial Culture in Europe.

Published by ICOMOS in 2011, articles on a wide range of issues regarding Jewish cemeteries, drawn from papers presented at a conference April 3-6, 2011. The entire more than 200-page book is available for download as a PDF file.

DOCUMENTATION

EPIDAT — The Database of Jewish Epigraphy

Epidat provides the inventory, documentation, editions and presentation of epigraphical collections. Currently online available are 176 digital editions with 31384 epitaphs (61432 image files).

International Jewish Cemetery Project

A Non-Profit Volunteer Cooperative Initiative of IAJGS: International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and JewishGen, Inc’s JOWBR to Identify Jewish Burial Sites and Interments Throughout in the World

JewishEpitaphs.org

A web site established by the scholar Heidi M. Szpek an online resource for disseminating information about the content and value of the Jewish epitaph and its associated tombstone and cemetery.

JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR)

The JOWBR aims to catalog data about Jewish cemeteries and burial records worldwide, from the earliest records to the present. It is a searchable database of names and associated information, including photographs of gravestones. As of December 2013, JOWBR contains more than two million burial records from 4,200 cemeteries in 83 countries.

Lo-Tishkach  –  European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative

Founded in 2006 as a joint project of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Among its aims is to compile a comprehensive publicly-accessible database of all Jewish burial grounds in Europe — to date more than 11,000 cemeteries and mass graves. The Lo Tishkach project is also producing a compendium of the different national and international laws and practices affecting these sites.

PEACE – Portal of Epigraphy, Archaeology, Conservation and Education on Jewish Funerary Culture

A portal comprising three major partners: Utrecht University, including the FIJI project (Funerary Inscriptions of Jews from Italy); the Steinheim Institute Epidat project; and the Brown University project Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine.  It merges the three epigraphic databases (FIJI, Epidat, and Brown’s IIP) of its partners so that they can be searched through one common platform utilizing various filters.

Recording Cultural Genocide and Killing Sites in Jewish Cemeteries

A three-year research project, begun in 2016 and funded by theInternational Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. It uses state-of-the-art recording methods to locate and document Holocaust mass graves.

(Candle)sticks on Stone: Representing the Woman in Jewish Tombstone Art

Photographs, articles, and other information on Jewish cemeteries, mainly in northern Romania, western Ukraine and Poland, focusing on the decorative gravestone iconography depicting women. A web project by Jewish Heritage Europe Coordinator Ruth Ellen Gruber.

PRESERVATION AND PROTECTION

Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe

Religious organization engaged in  rescuing, restoring, and preserving abandoned Jewish cemeteries and grave sites; a recognized Halachic expert authority on Jewish cemeteries and mass graves.

Dartmouth University: Project Preservation

Every year, Dartmouth University (NH) Hillel takes a group of students from different ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds to eastern Europe to restore the cemetery of a once vibrant Jewish community. So far, such projects have  been undertaken in Pristina (Kosovo), Sanok (Poland), Yurburg (Lithuania), Druzhkapol (Ukraine), Lunna (Belarus), Indura (Belarus) and Sopotskin (Belarus)

European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative

Set up as a German-based non-profit organization in early 2015, it has  the core objective of protecting and preserving Jewish cemetery sites across the European continent through delineation of cemetery boundaries and the construction of cemetery walls and locking gates. So far, dozens of cemetery sites have been fenced, mainly in Ukraine and elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

Heritage Foundation for Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries (HFPJC) – Avoyseinu

616 Bedford Avenue Suite 2B
Brooklyn, NY 11249
Tel: 718 640 1470

Fax: 718 228 8368
Email: hfpjc@thejnet.com

Religious organization engaged in  rescuing, restoring, and preserving abandoned Jewish cemeteries in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Western Ukraine, and some parts of Poland.