Local Historian: Belarusian Authorities Do Not Respect Jewish Heritage

• 9.07.2019, 12:32

Jewish cemeteries across Belarus remain abandoned.

To date, about 300 Jewish cemeteries have survived in Belarus. To be more precise, it is not quite correct to say that they have survived, as they are mostly abandoned and covered with wild grass. Sometimes it is possible to find the way to them only by Internet maps. For example, a cemetery in Tseliakhany, Brest region. It was noticed by the reader nn.by Pavel Kahniuk.

"When I travel around Belarus, I am primarily interested in old cemeteries and burials. So I was deeply impressed by the state of the Jewish cemetery in Tseliakhany of Ivatsevichy district," - Kahniuk writes.

He says that it was hard to find this cemetery. It is abandoned, overgrown with grass and shrubs, the tombstones are broken and scattered. There are plastic bottles and traces of a fire in the cemetery. "If to compare it with well-groomed Catholic, German, general cemeteries, I as a tourist was struck by such a desolate state of the Jewish cemetery. It is not clear why the local authorities do not look after this place," - Pavel is indignant.

The chairman of the village executive committee: "If you want order, come and clean it up".

Pavel Kahniuk forwarded this question to the Tseliakhany Village Council.

Chairman of the Tseliakhany Village Executive Committee Trafim Dziamianchyk explained that the plot of land on which the graves are located is not marked as a cemetery, is not on the balance either in the village executive committee or in the municipal housing and communal services. For this reason, no one here looks after the order.

At the same time, Trafim says that every year the cemetery is cleaned up by students of the local school, and household waste is regularly picked up there.

"In 2016, a Jewish community from Pinsk visited Tseliakhany. We offered them to participate financially in the improvement of the cemetery, but they refused, and for several years, neither from the community nor from among the relatives of those buried there, no one takes part in caring about the cemetery," - Trafim Dziamianchyk says.

"In response to my request, I was told that if I am not an indifferent citizen, I can come and help clean up the place," - Pavel Kahniuk said.

"The cemetery can be protected"

Mahiliou is probably the only city in Belarus where, thanks to the efforts of activists, the oldest part of the Jewish cemetery has been given the status of historical and cultural value. This was told by an activist of the Mahiliou Jewish community, Ida Shandarovich.

"It took almost a year to give the oldest part of the Jewish cemetery in Mahiliou the status of historical and cultural value. Together with the employees of the city museums and the Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, we have prepared documents for our Executive Committee, in which we prove the cultural and historical significance of the cemetery," - Ida Shandarovich says.

The special difficulty with the status of historical value of cemeteries in Belarus is to confirm that these areas are cemeteries.

"The Jewish cemeteries are often viewed as a part of the town, a forest, a field, but not a cemetery. And the difficulties start at the stage of giving this area the status of a cemetery. Land acquisition and other administrative procedures are needed here," - Ida Shandarovich says.

Volunteers work at the Jewish cemetery in Mahiliou.

"This is already the second cemetery in Mahiliou region with the status of historical and cultural value. This is the first time that the Mahiliou prosecutor's office has initiated such a status," - Ida adds.

She explains that, although cemetery care work requires time and effort and money, everything can be solved if there are people who are eager to do so. Besides, Jewish cemeteries can become a real tourist attraction.

"The main thing, however, is desire," - Ida Shenderovich summed up.

Editor of the Shalom portal: Belarus is a country with destroyed memory

Aliaksandr Furs, local historian, editor-in-chief of the Shalom portal, expressed his opinion on why Jewish cemeteries in Belarus remain in a neglected state.

"One cannot say that all Jewish cemeteries remain abandoned in Belarus. In rural areas, indeed, there are a lot of cemeteries in poor condition. They are overgrown with trees, bushes, and often nothing looks like a cemetery there. Meanwhile, the cemeteries in the territories of cities and towns can be relatively well-groomed. They mow the grass there and there is a fence. For example, in Rakau and Chachersk," - Furs said.

The Jewish community in Belarus almost disappeared after the Second World War, the Holocaust and cold attitude during the Soviet period. Those who survived the war, started to move to Israel already in the 70s. In many towns and cities, in Tseliakhany, for example, there is no one left to care for cemeteries - there is no descendants of the buried.

"And the Belarusian state does not take the Jewish heritage - part of which are Jewish burial places - as its own. The society does not realize that the Jewish heritage in Belarus is a part of Belarus itself, which should not be abandoned," - Aliaksandr Furs says.

"Unfortunately, Belarus is a country with destroyed memory, - Aliaksandr Furs adds. - The bad state of burials concerns not only the Jewish cemeteries, but also all the others. People don't remember their roots and sometimes can name at least five generations of their ancestors. Not to mention knowing where they are buried. There is no tradition of retelling knowledge about one's family to the next generations.

Aliaksandr Furs says that, unfortunately, there is no developed and centralized approach to saving Jewish cemeteries, even in the Jewish organizations themselves.

"There are a number of cemetery improvement projects, but they cover only a few cities. For example, there is the Jewish Student Cultural Center "Hillel", which this year deals with the Jewish cemetery in Lida, and there is the Beshenkovichi Shtetl Memorial Restoration, a volunteer society that deals with the cemetery in Beshankovichy. But the initiator is a girl from St. Petersburg, Anna Klimovich.

There is a wonderful initiative of the Jewish community of Mahiliou to restore the Jewish cemetery. This is the only example in Belarus of how Jewish burials can be given the status of historical and cultural value.

There is the Moscow center "Sefer" - one of the few that are professionally engaged in the study of Jewish tombs. One way or another, cemeteries are taken care of in places where there are people who care about them. But, unfortunately, these efforts are not enough to cover even a quarter of the Jewish cemeteries in Belarus," - Aliaksandr Furs said.

What will he recommend?

"Cut out the grass, uproot the bushes and so on. If the local authorities meet you halfway - you can get them to take part in the work too. Make contact with Jewish organizations, they can help, - Furs says. - But, again, there is no organization in Belarus, not even a Jewish one, which would take care of Jewish graves".

As long as the cemetery is not on anyone's balance, no one has the funds to take care of it and no one is responsible for its condition.