Vandalized Again, Historic Jewish Cemetery in Mariupol Is Near Destruction

2018/6/21 0:48:06

A volunteer pitches in to reset toppled headstones in the historic Jewish cemetery in Mariupol, Ukraine.

 


By Menachem Posner June 14 2018

 

The Mariupol Jewish community has been an integral part of life in the Ukrainian city for nearly 200 years. Yet if vandals have their way, the last traces of an important part of the city’s Jewish past may soon disappear.

The large Jewish cemetery in Mariupol, located on the bank of the Kalmius River, is the final resting place of hundreds of the city’s Jews, including victims of a 1905 pogrom. The pogrom took place from Oct. 20 to Oct. 22. On those very same dates in 1941, the Nazis shot 16,000 Jewish people outside of Mariupol.

According to the city’s rabbi, Chabad emissary Rabbi Mendel Cohen, the cemetery has not been used in decades (the community has a section in a different cemetery for use) and is officially closed to the public.

Cohen says years of neglect and vandalism have brought things to a point that the cemetery will soon cease to remain recognizable as a Jewish holy ground.

 

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https://www.chabad.org/news/article_cd ... n&utm_content=content

 

 

 

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