Why I Restore the Jewish Cemeteries of Poland

by Norman L. Weinberg, PJCRP, Executive Coordinator

Sarasota-Manatee Jewish News, March 2005

Why would anyone want to reclaim and restore long-abandoned cemeteries located in remote former shtetls where there are no Jews? Why care about the dead when the needs of the living are so great? Why restore cemeteries in a country in which so many Jews perished and which was so deeply antisemitic? These and many more questions are asked of me since first taking on restoration of my ancestral cemetery of Ozarow, and later leading efforts to restore all of Poland's Jewish cemeteries. The following provides some answers and is also an account of the formation and purposes of the Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project.

Before World War II, there were 3 1/2 million Jews in Poland, about 10% of the population. Jews had lived in Poland for a thousand years, a place where religious life and culture flourished. That came to an abrupt end, when 3 million of Poland's Jews were systematically murdered. Most of the survivors returning to their homes left Poland following violent antisemitic acts by Poles. Today the number of Jews in Poland is only around 10,000 to 20,000, many too old and poor to look after the few remnants of Jewish heritage.

There are 1200-1400 Jewish cemeteries in Poland, almost all in a devastated state: only about 400 have any matzevot (headstones) and walls and gates are gone. During the Holocaust, the Germans used the matzevot for paving and for fortifications and they encouraged the Poles to use them as building materials and for lining pig pens. After the War, under the Soviets, the cemeteries fared little better, becoming farms, parks, sports stadiums, roadways, building sites and garbage dumps.

How did I get involved? It started with researching my family genealogy in the former Polish shtetl of Ozarow. I connected with Rabbi Tanchum Becker, the "Ozarower Rebbe", a descendant of a famous rabbinic dynasty. It was his dream to restore the Ozarow cemetery. Photographs showed the cemetery was in terrible condition with only about 60 monuments left out of many hundreds, walls destroyed and the grounds overgrown with the debris of 60 years of neglect. Rabbi Becker asked me to help and I agreed to head up the effort to raise funds needed. Through the miracle of the internet, a dedicated group of Jewish descendants soon formed the Ozarow Cemetery Restoration Project (OCRP).

Key to success of the project was the team of Project Coordinators made up of dedicated Jewish descendants and Poles, all unpaid volunteers. Early on, we made important contacts with the mayor and priest of Ozarow. A beautiful website was created by Polish friends (see www.ozarow.org). The OCRP quickly raised funding from generous Ozarowers in many countries and we began the project in June of 2001.

Much to our surprise, on cleaning the cemetery, we discovered many matzevot under the debris. Among them was one in perfect condition, that of the grandfather of Moishe Gold, our Canadian Project Coordinator. Moishe was named after this grandfather. The mayor informed us of many more monuments that had been taken by the Germans near the close of the War to a farm on the banks of the Vistula, as fortifications against the Soviets. We returned them to the Ozarow cemetery and total grew to about 200!

More than 500 townspeople greeted our tour bus on Oct. 15th as we arrived for the dedication ceremony, including town dignitaries and citizens, embassy officials and news media. The mayor and priest greeted us and the President of Poland and the Israeli Ambassador sent letters of congratulations. Prayers were said by the priest and by Rabbi Becker at the site of the mass grave, where townspeople had placed bouquets of flowers. My wife Hannah and I were so touched by the town's outpouring of friendship and respect and by the proclamation of the high school headmaster that students would henceforth care for the cemetery, that we established the Annual Weinberg Scholarship Award. Awards are given to students writing winning essays on the Jews of Ozarow, the Holocaust and related topics.

We presented the first award to a 17 year old Polish girl who said that prior to writing her essay she knew very little of the Jews who lived in her town, Jews that numbered more than 70% of the population before the War. She had interviewed elders to gather information. Of the day of deportation she wrote:

...October 15, 1942... Germans came into Ozarow with a Ukrainian squad, known as "Własowcy"... All the Jews were gathered in the town square. Mr. Kwieciński remembers this cruel event in detail: "from the early morning screaming and shots were heard everywhere. Jews stood with their families, with small children, holding bags, baskets and suitcases, taking with them everything the most precious and necessary for the road... They stood in the square, an unknown future awaiting them. Those, who did not want to leave their houses, the ill and the old were murdered. Gestapo commanded that action, but the dirty work was done by the Własowcy... Finally, the Jews were forced to move off... Even small children carried bags." In the crowd, Mr. Kwieciński noticed Fryd with his wife, Symche (the barber) with his little daughter, Edzia; Szlama with two daughters. Screams of the children and wails of the adults made us cry... Later, bodies of murdered children and adults were taken to the Jewish cemetery, next to our windows. Then began an enormous silence...

Based on the success of the Ozarow "model", Rabbi Michael Schudrich (recently appointed Chief Rabbi of Poland) urged me to continue restoring the Jewish cemeteries of Poland. I agreed and Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project (PJCRP) was born (see www.pjcrp.org) in June 2002. Its objectives are restoring and preserving all the devastated Jewish cemeteries of Poland; documenting each project; and, educating youth, both Jews and Poles about the Holocaust, respect for one's heritage and reconciliation. The PJCRP has the support of the US and Polish Governments, the US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, the Rabbinic Commission on Cemeteries, the AJC, the National Polish American-Jewish American Council, the Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw), the Foundation for Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (Warsaw), JewishGen as well as many more Jewish and non-Jewish organizations.

Jewish cemetery restoration in Poland is about remembering and honoring the dead and those murdered during the Holocaust. It is doing what the murdered cannot do: caring for their sacred sites. We must do this for them. It is among the greatest of mitzvot, because they cannot thank us. And it is an obligation.

But Jewish cemetery restoration is also very much about life and the living, educating youth-both Poles and Jews, reconciliation, and creating peace in the world. We learned that acts of "tikun olam" (repairing the world) perpetuate. As more and more Jews become aware of the plight of the cemeteries, the cemeteries will be restored. Today the PJCRP has about 30 active projects in various stages. And the Polish people and the Polish government at many levels are participating. Poles respect that Jewish descendants have returned to honor their dead and the murdered. They have opened their hearts and their purse strings to help.

The acclaimed documentary film, "Return to Ozarow-Mending a Broken Link" had its debut at the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival last year. It is available free of charge to synagogues, Jewish schools and foundations. To learn what you can do to help in this international effort, you are invited to contact Dr. Norman Weinberg, nweinberg@pjcrp.org.