The Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi is a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

in the city of

Chernivtsi Chernivtsi (, ; , ;, , see also #Names, other names) is a city in southwestern Ukraine on the upper course of the Prut River. Formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina, which is now divided between Romania and Ukraine, Chernivt ...

, in

Chernivtsi oblast Chernivtsi Oblast (), also referred to as Chernivechchyna (), is an oblast (province) in western Ukraine, consisting of the northern parts of the historical regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia. It has an international border with Romania and Moldo ...

, in western

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

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), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. 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 corporation, 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 responsibilitie ...

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

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

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 () is the bicameral federal legislature of Austria. It consists of two chambers – the National Council and the Federal Council. In specific cases, both houses convene as the Federal Assembly. The legislature meets i ...

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 ...

of Bukovina, the prominent public activist and leader of the Jewish community

Benno Straucher Benno or Beno Straucher (Yiddish: בענאָ שטרױכער; August 11, 1854 – November 5, 1940) was a Bukovina-born Austro-Hungarian lawyer, politician and Jewish community representative, who spent the final part of his career in Romania. A J ...

, 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 (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

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 honor usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

of Chernivtsi Markus Kampelmacher, politicians and public activists Josef Steiner and Saul Leib Steinmetz,

physicians A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...

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 gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The us ...

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 ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

sarcophagi A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek σάρξ ' meaning "flesh", and φ� ...

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

and

obelisks An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' rotisserie, spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called Obelisk (hieroglyph), ...

made of marble, granite,

gabbro Gabbro ( ) is a phaneritic (coarse-grained and magnesium- and iron-rich), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling 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 language, 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 des ...

. 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 art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

. 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 cus ...

, 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 exec ...

: Jewish

soldiers A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word ...

of Austrian army from

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

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

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

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 2017 An 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
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Jewish cemeteries, synagogues and mass graves in Ukraine

The Jewish Encyclopedia in Russian on the web
–

Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia The ''Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia'' (''SJE''; ) was published in 11 volumes in Jerusalem from 1976 to 2005 in Russian by the Society for Research on Jewish Communities with the support of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The ''SJE'' is the only ...

of history – preserve Jewish cemetery in Chernivtsi" volunteer project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jewish Cemetery In Chernivtsi Buildings and structures in 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