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.
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.