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Cemetery in Slavuta, Ukraine

A photo catalog of the burials of this cemetery is available at the LINK 

Slavuta is a city in the Khmelnytsky region of Ukraine. Jews have lived here since the 18th century. In the 1920s, they accounted for more than 40% of the local townspeople.

There are two Jewish cemeteries in Slavuta. The old one is located along Revolutsyi Street. It is not separated by a wall or a fence. The cemetery is partially destroyed. About 75% of the gravestones are in poor condition, overturned or broken. Part of the cemetery was set aside for a park. The area is overgrown with plants. According to various sources, up to 100 graves of varying preservation remained on it.

The new cemetery is located at 56 Oktyabrskaya Street. It was founded at the beginning of the 20th century. Tzaddiks from the Hasidic Shapiro dynasty and the rabbi of the city of the Soviet period Yitzhak Gdal Liberzon (1904-1982) are buried in the cemetery.

The boundaries of the cemetery have not changed since 1939. In the late 2010s, volunteers cleaned up the cemetery. It is cataloged. The electronic register contains 1,100 graves where chronological and anthroponymical data are completely or partially missing, and 1,095 graves where information about the deceased is readable.

The earliest graves date back to the 1920s. These are the burials of Straerman Brukha Volfovna (1921), Kupershmidt Tsalevna (1923), Radeshevetsky E.M. (1925) and Burd Shulem Iosifovich (1929).

Late burials are dated 2019. These are the graves of Kupershmidt Naum Senevich (1949-2019) and Chizhik Leonid Fedorovich (1947-2019).

There are several collective graves in the cemetery. The inscription on the gravestone of one reads: “The remains of eight Jewish citizens of Slavuta, who were innocently killed in the summer of 1941, were reburied here in 2000. Everlasting memory".

The names of the victims are indicated on the tombstone of the second collective burial. The inscription reads: “Derfel Golda Yankel Leibovna. Kalmen Iosip. Fel Kotel Sheinda. Family Derfel Pinya, Minda, their children Vova, Abrasha, Bronya. The Katz family. Gershen Enta. Tragically killed in 1941.The memory of you will live forever in our hearts. Grieving Relatives”.

On the third, there is an inscription: "To the tragically perished victims of fascism 1941-1945." The following are the names of the inhabitants of Slavuta:

  • Kogan Bentsion Tsudikovich, Ilya Tsudikovich, Menikha Tsudikovna, Malka Abramovna.
  • Malinsky Tsalik Iosifovich, Iosif Shepovich, Malinskaya Bronya Iosifovna and Toiba Tsudikovna.
  • Litvak Riva.

The grave of Malinsky Abram Iosifovich (1914-1991) is located on the territory of this burial.

The cemetery presents both traditional matzevahs, ohels, sarcophagi, as well as stelae and gravestones. The inscriptions on the gravestones are made in Hebrew, Russian and Ukrainian.