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Jewish cemetery in Zdolbunov

Zdolbunov is the center of the eponymous district of the Rivne region of Ukraine. According to the data of 1921, 1.2 thousand Jews lived here, who accounted for 17.3% of the total number of citizens. The city had two synagogues and one Jewish cemetery.

The surviving cemetery is located at the intersection of Shchepkina and 8 Marta streets. Burials on it were carried out until the first half of the 20th century.

Since the end of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century, the cemetery was in a deplorable state. On the official website of the Zdolbunov City Council there is information from 2011 that the Jewish cemetery on 8 Marta Street is closed. Its area is 0.1 hectares. It is maintained in proper sanitary condition thanks to citizens who are serving sentences in the form of community service by a court decision.

In 2014, thanks to volunteers, the cemetery was put in order. In 2015, the cemetery was included in the program for the preservation of old Jewish cemeteries in Europe. It was surrounded by a fence and a gate. In November 2016, in the presence of representatives of Jewish organizations, it was consecrated.

The most recent one of the surviving burials belongs to Iosif Volfovich Lubensky (1888-1962). The earliest is dated 1911. The data on it was only partially preserved. No last name or date of birth. The inscription reads: "Aaron Zeev Yakovlevich."

More than two dozen graves are in a deplorable state. One has no name or dates, two have only names, and 11 have no burial dates. On the rest, you can read the names and patronymics.

There are about three dozen burials in more or less preserved state. On 12 of them, one can read the names and surnames, but no dates of birth or burial have survived.

Only on one, grave you can read all the data. This is the burial place of the aforementioned Iosif Lubensky (1888-1962). Another grave preserved only the name and surname - Elena Sokalskaya (1869-1931). On the rest, dates of birth have not been preserved.

Of the graves on which the dates of burial have been preserved, seven belong to the 1910s. The earliest of these belongs to Aaron Zeev Yakovlevich, buried in 1911, and the most recent is Gorin Reisel Abramovna, buried in 1919.

Nine graves date back to the 1920s. The earliest of them belongs to Zisel Khaimovna Tsvi, buried in 1921, and the later belongs to Zolotov Moshe Yakovlevich, buried in 1929.

Five graves date back to the 1930s. The earliest of them is Avrokha Yehuda Bentsionovich, dated 1930, and the latest dates back to 1938 and belongs to Fregil Baruch Leib Movshevich Yankelevich and Shneerman Issakhar Reuvenovich Levi.