Khristinivka, Ukraine – August 2010. The Jewish cemetery at Kristinivka in Cherkasy region of central Ukraine is to receive special protection from the local town council following representations by the local Jewish community and the Lo Tishkach Foundation.
Following surveys of all burial grounds in the Cherkasy region throughout the last few months, students from the Centre for Jewish Education in Ukraine working as part of a Lo Tishkach education project visited the site and found the cemetery had been victim to numerous acts of vandalism in recent months.
The situation had become so bad that the local Jewish community had even considered transfering the cemetery and its contents to nearby Uman which is regularly visited by Jewish groups making pilgrimages to the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, one of the principal leaders of the Hasidic movement.
The local council, which owns the site, had previously refrained from protecting the burial ground. However, following representations by the community and Lo Tishkach, the council will now take care of the site.
“This is exactly the kind of result we are hoping to see from our surveys in Ukraine,” said Lo Tishkach Executive Director, Philip Carmel. “Many of these sites no longer have active Jewish communities. By surveying the site and bringing it into a wider public focus, we can now become the watchers over this heritage. The council has now recognised its responsibilities and we applaud for that.”
