Czernowitz Jewish Cemetery Restoration Organization

כִּי-יָדַעְתִּי, מָוֶת תְּשִׁיבֵנִי; וּבֵית מוֹעֵד לְכָל-חָי
For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living
Psalms Job 30:23

Summer 2023 Campaign

Dear friends and CJCRO members,

I am writing to you to update you about the recent work started at the Czernowitz Jewish cemetery. After a complicated 2022 impacted very much by the Ukraine war, during which we have performed some work funded with our reserves, we are now restarting our activities. The war is still going on, but Czernowitz is not directly affected due to its rather western location in Ukraine. The most noticeable change in Czernowitz is the big influx of internal refugees coming from the Donbas region. With the help of our local team led by Rabbi Glisnshtain, we have recruited a new team of workers and in the middle of May 2023 have started the vegetation control work. In the first phase the team has been using herbicides to reduce the bulk of the overgrowth. This phase is supposed to continue until the middle of July 2023. After that point the work will be centered around eliminating the dead vegetation, as well as actually cutting bushes in the peripheral areas where there still is some more serious overgrowth. By and large the overall aspect of the cemetery is much better than at the beginning of previous summer seasons, mostly as a result of our sustained work in the past few years.

We are now at a point where we need to replenish our reserves to continue the work for the rest of this season. Thank you very much for your generous contributions, as always. Please use the Donate section of our website. I will continue to keep you informed about our progress toward the end of the summer.

Thank you very much.

Sasha Wolloch

View of the cemetery at the beginning of May 2023 before this season’s work has started.

Videos showing the aspect of the cemetery after herbicide application.

Summer 2021 Campaign

We are pleased to announce the results of the successful 2021 campaign, which would have been impossible without your generous contributions. This summer the work started late because of the very rainy weather in May and beginning of June. Nevertheless, now at the end of September we have achieved our goals. First, we would like to thank the Czernowitz Police and Fire Departments, who have offered their voluntary help and have sent a couple of teams who worked for several days in the cemetery.

This season, with the help of the municipal cemetery administration, we have started the installation of number plates in each of the four corners of the cemetery plots. This will improve the ease of identification of family graves for cemetery visitors.

Throughout the summer, we had two separate teams doing vegetation control work at the cemetery. We have completed work in more than 70% of the total surface of the cemetery.

We are in particular pleased that this year we could remove the very heavy vegetation in the last 2-3 hectares of the back of the cemetery.

We believe that after all this work, the general aspect at the end of September 2021 is satisfactory. We thank again all our members for their contributions which made all this work possible.

New video about the history of the Czernowitz Jewish community and the cemetery that is now the last remnant of the city’s vibrant Jewish past.

Created by Panorao.com. Compliments of a CJCRO corporate sponsor.  March 2021.

 

A Message From The President

May 15th, 2020

Dear CJCRO members and friends,

We are proud to announce today the inauguration of the Czernowitz Jewish Cemetery Restoration Organization website.

The result of the long term work of a few dedicated members  this website will enable us to make our cause better known to a larger number of people and institutions .

We hope that ultimately this will provide better results for those who want to visit the cemetery or for  those who want to receive more information about their family and ancestors.

We also are reaching out to all of you to solicit your support for sustaining the work which has to continuously take place at the cemetery to maintain it in a decent and accessible shape.

We are looking beyond this immediate moment when the world is still in the grips of the unprecedented Covid-19 crisis. In a few weeks the work at the cemetery will resume and we hope that with your generous help we will still have a successful 2020 clean-up campaign.

I would like to thank here in particular Mimi Taylor, our founder and first President, for everything that she has done for the creation, survival and success of CJCRO from the first day and till this date. I also would like to thank Isaac Karpel for the dedicated work and the countless hours spent on creating this website. A special thank you to Rav Menachem Mendel Glisnshtain and to Yakov Schwartzman for making sure that the work in Czernowitz gets done, year after year.

Last but most important I would like to thank all our generous donors without whom CJCRO could not function.

Thank you and we will be in touch again soon.

All the best,

Sasha Wolloch

President CJCRO

OUR WORK

It is a monumental task. Insidious, unrelenting growth of vegetation requires constant attention. The Czernowitz Jewish Cemetery Restoration Organization is devoted to and involved in the restoration and maintenance of the Jewish cemetery in Czernowitz. Our work is totally funded by donations of people who support our work and efforts to maintain the memory of our ancestors with the respect and dignity they deserve. The members of the board do not receive any compensation for their work and dedication in this effort. We have already made great progress in the restoration of this cemetery. Much remains to be done. The nature of the local vegetation requires constant attention and maintenance as any cemetery does. We are committed to restoring this cemetery to a decent  state,  maintaining it with the respect and reverence it deserves and making it possible for visitors to access the tombs of their ancestors and family. You may read much more about us and our work in this endeavor.

The Beginning

Read More

CONDITION OF CEMETERY BEFORE OUR WORK COMMENCED

Video of the cemetery taken prior to CJCRO’s existence. The cemetery was literally engulfed by a jungle of vegetation. It will help appreciate the volume of work performed to date.
There is so much other work which has been performed, and so much of it must be done continuously. Same as your lawn, same as any local cemetery where our loved ones rest.
Check “Our Work” page to see what we have accomplished.

SOME RESULTS OF YOUR MUCH APPRECIATED GENEROSITY

The continuous work involved in restoration and maintenance of the cemetery.

There is much more to see in OUR PROGRESS page.

This is a restored area of the cemetery. Vegetation is returning year after year and must be constantly cleared.

CZERNOWITZ.EHPES.COM WEBSITE


The purpose of the this site is to provide a collection point for materials (stories, histories, photographs, lists, maps, links, etc.) that are of interest to list members and other researchers concerned with genealogy and the history of the Jewish community in the Czernowitz – Sadagora area.
Anyone interested in information of ancestors native to this area should reach out to this discussion group. The knowledge base and detail is remarkable.
It costs nothing to join (so the price is right!) and amounts to a support and discussion group where we seek each other’s help and share our knowledge. We are in fact something more akin to an internet community of friends.

VISIT SITE

THE CULTURE (AND RELIGION) THAT BUILT OUR PAST

The cultural center of Eastern Europe:  “The Little Vienna” and “Jerusalem on the Prut”

 

 

Ukranian Jewish Encounter

The historian Iryna Yavorska talks about “Jerusalem on the Prut River” after the war, Soviet propaganda, and the Yiddish language in Chernivtsi.

ESJF – European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative

 

The ESJF project has begun the process of physically protecting Jewish burial sites in Europe, most particularly in places where Jewish communities were wiped out in the Holocaust. The video above displays the massive restoration project of the pre-burial house at the Chernivtsi Jewish Cemetery.

The European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative (ESJF) has been awarded a grant by the EU for a major project to map and survey at least 1,500 Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe.

The Undiscovered Charm of Chernivtsi The cultural center of Eastern Europe.

Czernowitz/Chernivtsi was a major cultural center of Europe and a melting pot of several major cultures. It was so much more than just charming. This short video is a window from medieval times to present day. It was a major Jewish center.

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