Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Chareidi World

3 Nissan 5767 - March 22, 2007 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

OBSERVATIONS

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

POPULAR EDITORIALS

HOMEPAGE

 

Produced and housed by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEWS
Construction Halted at Ancient Cemetery in Uman

By S. Fried

Ukrainian authorities notified Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres that the development work for a high-rise building on the grounds of the ancient Jewish cemetery in Uman, the burial place of Rebbe Nachman of Breslav, would cease immediately.

The decision followed expressions of concern from Jewish community heads in the Ukraine, Israel and the US.

Several months ago HaRav Yaakov Bleich, the rov of the Ukraine, warned that a building was slated for construction at the site and called for combined efforts to thwart the plan to raze the cemetery.

Jews have been buried at that cemetery for thousands of years, including 30,000 Jews buried in a mass grave in 5528 (1768) following a massive pogrom during the Chmielnicki revolt. Thirty thousand Jews from the surrounding area gathered in a fortification in Uman in the hopes it would protect them, but the attackers carried out a massacre.

By the time R' Nachman of Breslav arrived in Uman, Jews were being buried in the new cemetery instead, but he asked to be buried in the old one, saying, "You don't know what tremendous kedushoh this cemetery has, for it is very dear and holy."

After the Communist Revolution, the beis knesses in Uman was destroyed and various buildings were constructed on the cemetery grounds, including single-family homes built on top of gravesites. Nevertheless the boundaries of the cemetery were known to Breslav chassidim thanks to aerial photos taken by Elimelech Shochat of Lvov. The area now in question was part of the cemetery that remained relatively intact between Rechov Poshkina 38 and 44. The area was bought by a trading house called Megometr long ago when the authorities put the land up for sale.

A few weeks ago people living adjacent to the cemetery noticed that workers were carrying out land surveys and they were told that a high-rise building was slated for construction. The local residents, who objected to the construction project for their own reasons, notified Breslav chassidim, who called on Jewish community activists around the world to help try to prevent the destruction of the cemetery.

Now Ukrainian authorities say the real estate project has been cancelled.

 

All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.