jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and mass grave sites in ukraine

Acknowledgements
Most of the work on this report and the survey that it reports on was done by the Commission’s
Research Director, Samuel D. Gruber. His efforts were supplemented by Executive Director
Jeffrey L. Farrow, Program Manager Katrina A. Krzysztofiak, and Administrative Officer
Patricia Hoglund, all under the direction of Chairman Warren L. Miller.
Many members of the Commission have taken a deep interest in this project and in related issues
concerning the state of Jewish sites in Ukraine. Rabbis Zvi Kestenbaum and Chaskel Besser and
Irving Stolberg deserve special mention. Thanks go to the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv,
including former Ambassador Steven Karl Pifer, and the Ukraine Desk at the U.S. State
Department, especially former Officer Nicholas Greanias.
The World Monuments Fund (WMF), which co-sponsored the survey during its first two years
of field work provided support that should also be acknowledged. Special thanks go to WMF
President Bonnie Burnham and to Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder, Chairman of WMF’s Jewish
Heritage Council (now Jewish Heritage Program). This report could not have succeeded without
critical support at several stages from Ambassador Lauder and from the foundation that bears his
name. The Richard and Rachel Goldman Fund also provided much appreciated project support
during the first phase of field work.
To prepare this survey, visits to Jewish sites throughout the country took place over a period of
almost five years, beginning in 1995. The work was conducted by the Jewish Preservation
Committee of Ukraine (JPCU) led by Jed Sunden, Yulia Shvartz Zevelev, Dmitry Surovtsev, and
Yuliy Lifshits, who all moved the project forward at different times. Eleonora Evgenievna
Sokilova served as JPCU Survey Coordinator for Kyiv and the regions of Chernihiv, Poltava,
and Vinnytsia.
More than a dozen individuals throughout Ukraine worked as members of the JPCU survey team
to locate hundreds of cemeteries and mass grave sites, many unvisited for years. This dedicated
group of field researchers includes Sergei Aberman, Iosif Gelston, Yuri Hodorkovsky, Moisey
Davidovich Kirzhner, Michael Kirzhner, Leonid Kogan, Vladimir Moiseevich Oks, Mark
Shevelev, Vladimir Trofimovich Tsyauk, and Aleksandr Zevelev.
The results of this survey could not be presented in this form without the assistance of John
Meltzer and Eric Anderson of the Jewish Heritage Research Center in Syracuse, who have spent
many hours analyzing and inputting data. Eric Anderson especially is responsible for collating
much of the material into table form and for helping to edit and collate the final report. His
assistance was essential. Rahel Elmer Reger helped prepare the final transcript for publication.
In Kyiv, the survey could not have been carried out without the participation of Yaakov Dov
Bleich, Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine. Thanks also to Rabbis Shlomo Breuer of
Berdychiv, Shlomo Wilhelm of Zhytomyr, and Mordechai Bold of Lviv who also provided
information.
i