7 April 2009
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A vast project which will see the surveying of hundreds of Jewish burial sites across Ukraine is to start next month as teams of local students and youth begin visiting cemeteries and mass grave sites across the country. Working together with local partners, this project will see young Ukrainians visiting hundreds of Jewish burial sites in five Ukrainian regions. |
Beginning in early May, student and youth groups from the Centre for Jewish Education in Ukraine, Odessa Jewish University, Hillel Kharkov, the Jewish Student Center (Kiev) and the Ukrainian Union of Jewish Students will gather vital information on Jewish life, history and culture, and will photograph and survey cemetery and mass graves in Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, Khmelnitsky and Zakarpattia Oblasts.
Data collected from these surveys will be presented in a series of publications providing an up-to-date record on the situation of Jewish burial grounds in Ukraine and will be publicly accessible on the Lo Tishkach Database
Co-ordinated by the Lo Tishkach Foundation and supported by the Genesis Philanthropy Group, the first year of this three-year educational project seeks to practically engage young Ukrainians with their culture and history, encourage reflection on the values that are important for responsible citizenship and mutual respect, collect valuable information for the Foundation’s database and develop values of volunteerism and civic responsibility.
The Jewish population of Ukraine stood at around 2 million before World War II, around 1.4 million of whom were killed during the Holocaust. The current Jewish population is estimated at between 100,000 and 300,000 people. Ukraine is thought to have up to 2,000 Jewish cemeteries and World War II Jewish mass graves.
