The Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi is a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

in the city of Chernivtsi, in

Chernivtsi oblast Chernivtsi Oblast ( uk, Черніве́цька о́бласть, Chernivetska oblast), also referred to as Chernivechchyna ( uk, Чернівеччина) is an oblast (province) in Western Ukraine, consisting of the northern parts of the regio ...

, in western

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

History

The Jewish cemetery on Zelena street. was established by decision of the municipality in the year 1866. The original plan of engineer Relli was to design the cemetery as a garden-park complex."Cemeteries of Chernivtsi on Zelena Street", Chernivtsi 2002, authors Shupenya V., Prestupenko Y., booklet, original language is Ukrainian. "Чернівецькі некрополі по вулиці Зеленій", Чернівці, 2002. Автори Шупеня В., Преступенко Ю. The planning was completed by a designer by the name of Gaimbe. The original plot of land, allocated by the municipality for the cemetery, was significantly smaller than what the Jewish community thought was necessary and the Jewish community collected funds to buy more land to expand the cemetery to its current size. Currently the size of the cemetery is about 14.2

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

and consists of 137 rectangles, which together form one continuous closed complex. About 50 000 Chernivtsi citizens are interred in the cemetery, among them; the first Jewish

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

of the city, Eduard Reiss (1905–1907);

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

poet and author Eliezer Steinbarg, chief

Rabbis A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

of the community, deputy of

Austrian parliament The Austrian Parliament (german: Österreichisches Parlament) is the bicameral federal legislature of the Austrian Republic. It consists of two chambers – the National Council and the Federal Council. In specific cases, both houses convene ...

and

Landtag A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non ...

of Bukovina, the prominent public activist and leader of the Jewish community Benno Straucher, the head of the Chernivtsi chamber of lawyers and renowned politician Max Fokschaner; as well as

philanthropists Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

Anna and Markus Kislinger; politician and deputy of Austrian parliament David Tittinger,

honorary citizen Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honour usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

of Chernivtsi Markus Kampelmacher, politicians and public activists Josef Steiner and Saul Leib Steinmetz, physicians Dr Siegmund Neuberger, Dr. Josef Ohrenstein, as well as many other people, who made significant contributions to the political, economic, cultural and public life of Chernivtsi. While some of the

tombstones A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, ...

and monuments are in traditional style, others vary greatly, indicating the growing wealth and high level of education of the population, as well as the social, cultural, artistic, religious and political tastes and ideals of the Jewish community of Chernivtsi. The monuments and tomb stones at the cemetery are in a remarkable diversity of forms, styles and shapes. There are

stelae A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

sarcophagi A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

mausoleums A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consi ...

and

obelisks An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...

made of marble, granite,

gabbro Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ch ...

, sandstone, cement and other materials. Such famous

sculptors Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

were working at the cemetery as B. Reder, L. Kukurudza, Moskaliuk brothers, K. Kundl and others. Ornaments on the monuments represent traditional

Jewish symbolism The Hebrew word for 'symbol' is , which, in early Judaism, denoted not only a sign, but also a visible religious token of the relation between God and human. __TOC__ Common iconography Shabbat Shabbat, the day of rest, is described in the T ...

. as well as elements of Ukrainian and Jewish

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tr ...

. The inscriptions are in Hebrew, German and Russian, and contain names, dates of birth and death, sometimes the profession or position of the person, or a poem or other

epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

. The monuments of the Soviet period often have a photo of the deceased etched in the stone. The ceremonial building at the entrance to the cemetery, was erected in 1905 according to the design of the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Fünkel and financed by the Jewish community. The building consisted of 4 rooms: a ceremonial hall,

mortuary A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cu ...

, ritual shop and office. The cemetery has four

mass graves A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of executi ...

: Jewish soldiers of Austrian army from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

(1914–1918), Turkish soldiers, Romanian citizens who died in 1941–1942, and Jewish civilians, victims of

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

in 1941. Since 1995, by the decision of the Chernivtsi city council, the cemetery is part of the historical-cultural preserve “Cemeteries at Zelena Street".” At present, the Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi is one of the largest preserved Jewish cemeteries in Central and Eastern Europe. It is also a monument, and reminder of, the formerly large Jewish community of the city and its role in the politics, economy and culture of the city. In 2008 the Chernivtsi cleanup project was established by Christian Herrmann. Herrmann works with members of the former Jewish community of Chernivtsi to organize volunteers who help clean and maintain the cemetery.Historic Cemeteries in Ruin
Tablet. 27 January 2017An organization to restore and maintain the cemetery was established in 2009 by Miriam ( Mimi) Taylor a granddaughter of Shaul Leib Steinmetz and Shasha Wolloch, son of a Czernowtzer. The organization is called CJCRO. https://cjcro.org

References

External links

Czernowitz/Bukovina Jewish research
*
Jewish cemeteries, synagogues and mass graves in Ukraine

The Jewish Encyclopedia in Russian on the web
–

Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia The ''Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia'' (''SJE''; russian: Краткая еврейская энциклопедия, Kratkaya Yevreyskaya Entsiklopedia) was published in 11 volumes in Jerusalem from 1976 to 2005 in Russian by the Society for Resear ...

of history – preserve Jewish cemetery in Chernivtsi" volunteer project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jewish Cemetery In Chernivtsi Buildings and structures in Chernivtsi Chernivtsi Local Historic sites in Ukraine Historic sites in Chernivtsi Tourist attractions in Chernivtsi 1866 establishments in the Russian Empire

History

References

Further reading

External links