Rohatyn is a city in western Ukraine, with a population of 7,983, and a history dating back to at least 1184.
And I doubt I would ever have come across it, were it not for the Rohatyn Jewish Heritage Program which is “a volunteer-led program of heritage preservation and education, working to re-connect the history of Rohatyn’s now-lost Jewish community with the people and places of the modern town.
With the cooperation of current Rohatyn residents and volunteers from around the world, today the program focuses primarily on recovery of Jewish headstone fragments discovered in town and their return to the old Jewish cemetery”.*
During the last World War that Jewish community was all but wiped out, with almost all of the 3000 Jewish inhabitants murdered during the Holocaust.
“Today it is difficult to see evidence of the long history of Rohatyn’s Jewish community anywhere in town, but the surviving sites and physical heritage, together with records and family stories, can help to reanimate this significant part of life in Rohatyn”.
And that in part is what the program is all about, with active projects including both physical work in Rohatyn recovering Jewish headstone and ‘virtual’ work on the website and its educational resources. Future projects such as cemetery rehabilitation are currently in the planning and costing phases”
I could say more, but that would only be repeat their web site, so I will just leave you with the link to the site and urge you to visit Rohatyn Jewish Heritage Program.
Alternatively, there is a facebook site, Rohatyn Jewish Heritage
Location; Rohatyn, Ukraine
Pictures; view toward Rohatyn town centre from the old Jewish cemetery, 2011, brush clearing at Rohatyn’s Old Jewish Cemetery, 2018, a shared experience during headstone recovery work, 2012 © Jay Osborn courtesy of the Rohatyn Jewish Heritage,
*The Rohatyn Jewish Heritage, http://rohatynjewishheritage.org/en/
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| Rohatyn, from the Jewish cemetery, 2011 |
With the cooperation of current Rohatyn residents and volunteers from around the world, today the program focuses primarily on recovery of Jewish headstone fragments discovered in town and their return to the old Jewish cemetery”.*
During the last World War that Jewish community was all but wiped out, with almost all of the 3000 Jewish inhabitants murdered during the Holocaust.
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| Brush clearing, old Jewish cemetery, 2018 |
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| A shared experience, 2012 |
I could say more, but that would only be repeat their web site, so I will just leave you with the link to the site and urge you to visit Rohatyn Jewish Heritage Program.
Alternatively, there is a facebook site, Rohatyn Jewish Heritage
Location; Rohatyn, Ukraine
Pictures; view toward Rohatyn town centre from the old Jewish cemetery, 2011, brush clearing at Rohatyn’s Old Jewish Cemetery, 2018, a shared experience during headstone recovery work, 2012 © Jay Osborn courtesy of the Rohatyn Jewish Heritage,
*The Rohatyn Jewish Heritage, http://rohatynjewishheritage.org/en/
Thank you for the post about our work, entering into its 8th year. We have a number of projects in the planning for 2019, including rehabilitation of the wartime Jewish mass grave south of town center (site of the March 20, 1942 executions), as well as clean-ups at the cemeteries next summer. In the next week or so, the historic timeline of the Holocaust in Rohatyn will also be put online (a project we have been working on for over a year and half), and it will include a page on Righteous gentiles (non-Jews) who aided Jews during wartime. Additional memoirs are also going up, including never before translated into English. Later this month we will be in Rohatyn meeting with our new Peace Corps volunteer there; it will be our 20th visit to the city this year.
ReplyDeleteI invite readers of your blog to follow us on Facebook (link provided in the body of the blog).