jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and mass grave sites in ukraine

Such a peaceful, beautiful place! The monument [lay] adorned with floral wreaths, albeit
artificial. Not realizing that the mass graves lay several hundred yards beyond, I recited Kaddish
here, and for the first time, confronted with the enormity of it all, broke down…
I learnt that this is [a] poor congregation, overloaded with physically and mentally
disadvantaged congregants – those whom Israel would not accept for immigration…
Again I sensed that here too, despite the [killings], the Nazis had finally been defeated,
and a small vibrant community, worthy of our support from the West, was not only surviving but
growing and blooming. How sad it had been, seeing the ruins of the once great Synagogues of
Brody and Ostroh, like ruins of ancient Rome in modern-day North Africa, culturally extinct.
Even if they could be restored to some semblance of their former glory, where were the
communities to sustain them? And at what a cost, just to preserve them as museums. How much
more fulfilling…to support a living, thriving, growing Jewish community…And the message of
the history of Ostroh, and probably a similar history of a thousand or more other Jewish
communities throughout Eastern Europe, was plain to me. The success of G-d [is] one small
series of steps forward…
I can only conclude by encouraging any Jew with roots in Europe to undertake their own
personal pilgrimage, both to contribute towards the establishment of testimony, but also to make
the tangible personal connection with their own personal history… 67
V.2 Pilgrimage Sites
Among the cemeteries which have received the most international attention, and, thus, often the
most recognition from Ukrainian authorities, are those that are the destination of Jewish religious
pilgrims – usually Hasidic Jews living in Israel, the United States, Belgium, the United
Kingdom, Canada, and elsewhere. These sites, almost without exception, are the burial places of
famous Tsaddikim, most often founders of Hasidic dynasties that continue today. It is now quite
common for large groups of Hasidic Jews and others to come to Ukraine for what are often very
short visits to important sites. For example, in May 1998 the Grand Rabbi Moses Rabinovich,
Chief Rabbi of Munkacs, traveled from Brooklyn to Muhkachevo (formerly Munkacs) with an
entourage of over 200 people, many of them Holocaust survivors. The group entered Ukraine
from Slovakia and stayed less than 24 hours.
Foremost among these places is Medzhybizh (Khmelnytska oblast), where the Ba’al Shem Tov
spent his most creative years and died in 1760. During the Nazi occupation, an artillery battalion
stood at the cemetery. Only a few dozen graves survived, including that of the Ba’al Shem Tov
and some of his family. Today, the Ba’al Shem Tov’s grave is protected within a small white
brick ohel (figure 10). There is only one Jewish family in the town today, but a new synagogue
to serve pilgrims was erected next to the cemetery with funds donated by a French Hasidic
family. 68
Other popular Hasidic pilgrimage sites are the cemeteries at Uman, Annopil, Sadhora (figure 13),
Berdychiv, and Hadiach, 69 where pilgrims visit the tomb of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the Alter
Rebbe, founder of the Chabad Hasidic movement, who died in 1813. Shneur Zalman’s grave is
67 Excerpts from the Pilgrimage of the Son of Mark Finlay in the collection of the International Survey of Jewish
Monuments (Syracuse, NY).
68 Lev Krichevsky, “Tour of Ukraine Communities Finds Remnants of Jewish Life,” JTA (July 27, 1998).
69 Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdychiv (1740-1809) is buried here.
70