Cleanup Works at the Jewish Cemetery in Krzepice
November 2, 2011 – The second grade students of the School Complex in Krzepice, participants of the ‘To Bring Memory Back’ educational program led by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, carried out cleanup works at the Jewish cemetery in Krzepice. Thanks to all involved!
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Memorial Plaque Installed at the Jewish Cemetery in Szczebrzeszyn
November 2, 2011 – The Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland has installed a memorial plaque, commemorating Jews of Szczebrzeszyn, on the local Jewish cemetery.
The Jewish cemetery in Szczebrzeszyn had been established in the 16th century and was used until the World War II. Over 2,000 matzevot has survived there. In August 2011 the first stage of works, carried out on the cemetery by the Foundation, has come to an end. The wall facing Cmentarna St. is now completed and fitted with a large and small gate.
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Cleanup Works At the Jewish Cemeteries in Dukla
November 3, 2011 – The Society for the Protection of the Heritage of Jews of Dukla Region – Shtetl Dukla, acting in cooperation with the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, carried cleanup works on the Jewish cemeteries in Dukla. The action was possible thanks to the help of the Community Office in Dukla.
There are two Jewish cemeteries in Dukla – the old one, established in the 18th century, and the new one, dating back to the 19th century. Both were devastated by Nazi Germans during the World War II.
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Fencing the Jewish Cemetery in Myslenice
November 24, 2011 – Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland is building a wall at the Jewish cemetery in Myslenice. First phase of the project will be completed in November 2011.
The Jewish cemetery in Myslenice was established in 1874. There are 8 matzevot left and a lapidarium which was built using pieces of destroyed tombstones.
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70th Anniversary of Holocaust Atrocity in Rumbula, Latvia
November 27, 2011 – 200 people from the country’s now small but vibrant Jewish community convened at Rumbula for a memorial service. Families, descendants, and a few eyewitnesses are remembering the 70th anniversary of a monstrous mass shooting of the Holocaust.
On November 30 and December 8, 1941, Nazi S.S. Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) aided by Latvian collaborators murdered 25,000 Jews at Rumbula Forest, outside Riga. Mostly women and children were shot in mass graves, avoiding separate burial in a method called “sardine packing” by its SS inventor. The first documentary to focus on the massacre, Rumbula’s Echo, is racing against time to capture recollections of Latvian survivors and eyewitnesses now in their 80s and 90s who have settled across four continents. In commemoration of this 70th anniversary, the documentary’s website, www.RumbulasEcho.org, features a 93-second clip of three Holocaust survivors describing the forced march to Rumbula.
Old Jewish Cemetery to be Redeveloped as a Park in The Netherlands
December 1, 2011 – The former Jewish cemetery in Alphen aan den Rijn served the small local Jewish community since 1802. After the deportation of Jews during World War II, the cemetery fell into disuse and was decommissioned in 1963. The remains were then buried in a cemetery in Katwijk.
Since 2002 the municipality began discussing redesigning the site, but the plans had to be modified many times until they met with the Jewish laws pertaining to a former burial ground.
A Jewish cemetery always remains sacred land and must remain intact. “We agreed not to dig into the ground of the cemetery and not disturb the soil. It is as sacred as a synagogue” a municipal spokesman explained.
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Jewish Cemetery In Kosovo Capital Desecrated
December 1, 2011 – Police in Priština, Kosovo are investigating who sprayed swastikas on dozens of tombstones in a Jewish cemetery recently restored by American and Kosovan students. The police had sealed off the cemetery in the capital, Kosovo, and are looking for clues. Police said the abandoned graveyard in a Pristina suburb had been targeted by vandals in the past two days, with Nazi graffiti sprayed on the graves saying “Jud Raus” (Jews out) in German.
The Jewish cemetery was restored earlier this year with the help of students from the U.S.
President Atifete Jahjaga and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci condemned the act. Thaci described the desecration as “a cowardly act.”
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Tatarstan’s Jewish Community To Meet With Republic’s President
December 2, 2011 – Jewish leaders in Tatarstan met with the Russian republic’s president, Rustam Minnikhanov, to discuss their community’s problems.
Tatarstan’s Jewish National and Cultural Autonomy chairman Mikhail Skoblionok told RFE/RL on December 1 that one of the issues discussed was the possibility of allocating state land for a Jewish cemetery. Former Tatar President Mintimer Shaimiyev had promised to do so but nothing was done.
There are some 10,000 Jews living in Tatarstan.
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Reburial of 170 Remains of Ancient Jewish Cemetery in Lucena, Spain
December 18, 2011 – Following negotiations by the Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe (CPJCE) with the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain (FCJE), in collaboration with local Government Authorities, the remains of over 170 Graves of Kedoshim, who were unfortunately exhumed during works on the nearby site in Lucena, were reburied today December 18, 2011 in Lucena.
The finding of the only Jewish headstone in a funerary structure of Andalusia shows that this site was an eleventh-century Jewish cemetery.
The reburial was carried out by members of the Chevra Kadisha of Madrid, in co-operation with Admas Kodesh and a team of experts from the London based CPJCE, with full Halachic guidance of the Rabbinical Board of the CPJCE, headed by Rabbi Elyakim Schlesinger of London. The ceremony and special prayers were led by Chief Rabbi of Madrid Rabbi Moshe Ben Dahan, Rabbi Meir Zwiebel of Admas Kodesh and Rabbi Moshe Hershaft of the CPJCE.
Read the original article in Spanish.
Serbian Jewish Community Protests Cemetery Vandalism
December 29, 2011 – The Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia has protested the “catastrophic” conditions of the historic Jewish cemetery in the city of Nis and urged authorities to act against vandalism there. Long abandoned and partially built over and destroyed, the cemetery, which dates back to the 17th century and is listed as a national cultural monument, was cleaned up in 2004.
In a statement issued Wednesday, however, the federation said that on a recent inspection visitors again found “destroyed and broken monuments, scattered bones, human waste and garbage.” The federation appealed to the mayor of Nis, the Ministry of Culture, the Nis Institute for Monuments Protection and other authorities to “once and for all put an end to this vandalism.”
The statement said that the cemetery was at the mercy of private entrepreneurs who have destroyed one-third of the site by building factories, restaurants and warehouses, while another third of the area is inhabited by Roma families who have built a makeshift village over the graves.
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Freeze on Jewish cemetery in Wallertheim, Germany
December 31, 2011 – Matthias K’s dream of owning a home has become a nightmare. He paid nearly €100,000 for the over 700-square meter plot of land he purchased in Mozart Street. However, last summer, it became known to the public, that the property he purchased had served the local Jewish community as a cemetery until 1840 and therefore must not be built upon. A freeze was adopted by the municipal authority.
Meanwhile, mediating talks with representatives of local authorities are being conducted with the goal to ensure the preservation of the old Jewish cemetery. “These talks are still ongoing,” spokesman Eric Schaefer informed. A joint meeting with the current property owners and municipal officials is planned for the beginning of the new year “to deliver a solution to the problem.” The topic of compensation has come on the table.
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Cemetery Walls In Kaßberg, Chemnitz Daubed With Graffiti
January 9, 2012 – Police discovered graffiti daubed on the walls of the Jewish cemetery in Kaßberg. . According to the police yesterday, an unknown perpertrator has sprayed coloured paint on the cemetery walls on Straße Am Laubengang Street. At 22.45 a police patrol car crew noticed the two-meters long, nondescript lettering in orange and green on the wall. Apparently, the perpetrators had fled shortly before, because the paint was still fresh. One empty can of paint was abandoned at the crime scene.
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Controversial Plans to Build on Former Jewish Cemetery, Sheffield, United Kingdom
January 10, 2012 – Controversial plans have been put forward by a farmer to build a mausoleum at a former Jewish cemetery on the Sheffield fringe of the Peak District. The mausoleum would be created at a disused cemetery in woodland next to Crawshaw Lodge, where there are four disused mausoleums, two of which are ruinous. National park planners said the cemetery became disused after the mausoleums were desecrated in the early 1980s and remains were removed to a cemetery in Sheffield.
A report to the national park’s planning committee states the burial ground is listed as an ‘at risk ancient monument’ by Jewish Heritage and that a listings application is currently being processed by English Heritage.
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New Publication on Jewish Gravestones from the Middle Ages
January 10, 2012 – A spectacular discovery came to light in January 1987 in Wuerzburg: During the demolition of a house, a total of 1455 pieces of medieval Jewish grave stones were found. Now, exactly 25 years after their discovery, a unique testimony of the Jewish history of the Middle Ages, the three-volume scholarly publication “The grave stones at the Jewish cemetery in Würzburg from the period before the Black Death (1147-1346)” was presented.
In the study of the Jewish grave stones, Professor Karl Heinz Muller of the Catholic Theological Faculty played a crucial role. At first the stones were recorded, cleaned and documented in photographs and finally digitized. In this task alone a total of 175 students participated. Rabbi Simcha Bamberger from Manchester helped with the first substantive review of the Hebrew inscriptions.
This monumental three-volume work is “the greatest legacy of a medieval Jewish cemetery in the world,” said the editor. It comprises 2500 pages and 1800 images. The book launch took place on 10 January 2012 in Würzburg
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Jewish Cemetery in Naaldwijk, The Netherlands in Need of Renovation
January 10, 2012 – The Oud-Westland Association has in a letter dated January 9 appealed to the Westland municipality concerning the state of the Jewish cemetery at the Opstalweg in Naaldwijk. The Association reminds the municipality that in July 2009 the cemetery was selected as a municipal monument, but that still no memorial plaque has been affixed. In addition, the association urges for a much needed renovation plan for the cemetery to be made.
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Jewish Graves Desecrated In Weimar Roth, Germany
January 11, 2012 – Unknown perpetrators have desecrated twenty tombs in the ancient Jewish cemetery near the hamlet of Weimar Roth. Twenty gravestones were sprayed with purple crosses, one of which shows a swastika, and a further four gravestones were toppled. The exact time of the offense is not certain.
and threw a few.
The police are investigating whether there is a connection with several similar incidents in the Giessen area before and after Christmas.
Roth’s mayor Michael Pepper has said that he is shocked by the incidentand expressed his hope that the perpetrators would be quickly apprehended. In light of this shameful desecration, the residents of the town of Roth attended a vigil in front of a cemetery.
Read the original article in German.
Expert Unearths Evidence of Mass Graves at Treblinka Death Camp
January 16, 2012 – A forensic archaeologist has unearthed fresh evidence to prove the existence of mass graves at the Nazi death camp Treblinka. Some 800,000 Jews were killed at the site, in north east Poland, during the Second World War but a lack of physical evidence at the site has been exploited by Holocaust deniers.
British forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls has now undertaken the first co-ordinated scientific attempt to locate the graves, according to an interview in the Radio Times. As Jewish religious law forbids disturbing burial sites, she and her team from the University of Birmingham have used “ground-penetrating radar”.
The ground-penetrating radar has discovered pits containing the burnt remains of thousands of bodies as well as the foundations of buildings, two of which are likely to have been gas chambers.
“All the history books state that Treblinka was destroyed by the Nazis but the survey has demonstrated that simply isn’t the case.” Sturdy Colls said. “I’ve identified a number of buried pits using geophysical techniques. These are considerable in size, and very deep, one in particular is 26 by 17 metres.” she added.
Her work at the site, where the Nazis tried to destroy all traces of industrial-scale killing, is being followed in forthcoming Radio 4 documentary The Hidden Graves Of The Holocaust.
The forensic archaeologist, who has now presented her findings to the authorities responsible for the memorial at Treblinka, said: “I really hope this is the first stage in a long-term programme to seek out those hidden graves of the Holocaust.”
