ESJF Country Report - Ukraine

Country Report:

Ukraine

ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

Contents Executive Summary The Jewish History of Ukraine The ESJF Survey Results in Ukraine Restitution and Legal Context Education events in the pilot project Conclusion

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Executive Summary

T

his report summarises the implementation of the pilot project ‘Pilot Project Protecting Jewish Cemeteries: A full mapping process with research and monitoring and individual costed proposals for protection’ in Ukraine, and offers a detailed analysis of its results. The pilot project ran for 18 months, between 11 December 2018 and 10 June 2020, co-funded by the European Commission and implemented by the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, with the aim of mapping and surveying ca. 1000 Jewish cemeteries in the country, raising awareness about their value and vulnerability among local stakeholders, and conducting educational events for local high school students and their teachers.

Ukraine has been the largest project country by far: out of the nearly 1,500 surveyed cemeteries, 1,005 are located in Ukraine. Prior to the surveys conducted by the ESJF, there had been no comprehensive database of Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine. As such, our work offers groundbreaking results, and adds much to our understanding of the location, condition, and ownership of Jewish burial sites in the country. Due to the lack of existing, comprehensive databases, the pilot project included visits to settlements with a once sizable Jewish population: surveyors visited 1,258 sites, found 1,005 cemeteries and were able to fully survey 993. The exclusion of the possibility of the existence of Jewish cemeteries in 253 locations is also a crucial project

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

result. With this, the pilot project fully surveyed the Cherkasy, Chernyhiv, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyy, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Volyn, and Zakarpattya regions.

Of the surveyed cemeteries, 647 (65%) have been preserved, and 346 (35%) are demolished. Of the surveyed sites, 356 are protected and 291 unprotected.

This means that among the surveyed countries, unprotected cemeteries in Ukraine are the most vulnerable and most numerous: Slovakia and Moldova, both of which have similar conditions when it comes to databases, have active, well-organised Jewish communities that can at least lobby for the visibility of threatened sites, even when they lack the funds and human resources required to protect them. In Ukraine, local or regional Jewish communities might exist, providing some measure of safety, but the overwhelming majority of these unprotected sites are in immediate danger of erosion or demolition.

Given the ESJF headquarters are located in Kyiv, the pilot project benefited from an extended network of peer organisations and public authorities. This being so, the challenges of meeting project targets differed from other project countries where the organisation had a relative lack of experience on the ground. Rather than establishing a network of engaged local authorities, teachers, activists, and media contacts, in Ukraine it was crucial to extend the existing network, bring the heritage-centred focus of the project to them, and to tighten the relationship to support further cooperation. In the course of the pilot project, the ESJF collaborated with the mayors of Bohuslav, Zbarazh, Buchach, and Glyhov, as well as the Regional State Administration in the Ternopil Region. This amounted to cleanups, maintenance work as well as discussions of physical protection measures. Collaborative work was carried out with the Babyn Yar Foundation and the NGO Rohatyn Jewish Heritage, among others.

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Executive Summary

Secondary school education events were carried out in Bohuslav, Vyshnivets, and Pyriatyn. A teacher training event was held in Mykolaiv in Southern Ukraine; this choice was informed by the recognition that Jewish initiatives tend to concentrate on Western Ukraine and Kyiv, and therefore choosing another region would be of benefit to educators less likely to have access to similar initiatives.

The pilot project included trial seminars for university students in the engineering and architecture departments in the Department of Geoinformatics, Kiev National University of Building and Architecture, and Lviv Polytechnic National University. These seminars were designed to show students the practical applications of photogrammetry and the latest drone technology in the interlinked fields of preservation and cultural heritage, aiming to foster a new generation of professional surveyors who can apply their skills in cutting edge heritage-related projects in Ukraine and beyond.

The success of these higher education events, and feedback from participants highlighted the lack of comparable training programmes. In the course of this feedback, we learned that the survey-related technical work is possibly the most unique feature of the pilot project, well worth expanding on. The publication of the ‘Surveying and Modeling Jewish Heritage Sites: an ESJF Guide’, our manual on photogrammetry and drone-based cemetery surveys, in both English and Ukrainian is a first step towards sharing this expertise beyond the scope of the project. Secondary school students and their teachers will similarly benefit from ‘Jewish Cemeteries in the Classroom - An ESJF Guide’, a handbook produced on the basis of the experiences gathered during the educational element of the pilot project. Thanks to the lack of curricular focus on Jewish history, heritage, and Ukrainian-Jewish coexistence, these educational events were especially crucial in working towards broader awareness and engagement with Jewish cemeteries in the country.

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

Future work in Ukraine needs to be implemented with these gaps in mind: with no foreseeable restitution, centralised political will, or cohesive Jewish community, the preservation of Jewish heritage falls on the shoulders of local and regional authorities, activists, and third sector organisations, as well as descendants and private donors. In spite of its difficulties, this situation has its assets too: bottom-up, participatory models have proven effective and are becoming increasingly popular. The pilot project was able to build on this momentum, and it will be crucial to preserve this in the future. Once the remaining third of the country is surveyed, and its data is made accessible, it will be possible to unify these bottom-up projects towards the goal of a network protection intervention.

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Executive Summary

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The Jewish History of Ukraine

B

etween the 7th and 5th centuries B.C., the region which is now the south of modern Ukraine was colonised by the ancient Greeks. Jewish communities have existed in the country since the 1st century B.C. at least, and there is even evidence of a Jewish presence around the North Black Sea region as far back as the 2nd century B.C. This is a region which fell at times under Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman influence.

The so-called “Steppe Corridor� runs through south-east Ukraine, and was once a common migration route for nomadic tribes. The region is also significant in terms of international trade, intersecting at points with both the Volga trade route between Scandinavia and the Arab caliphate, and the Silk Road. It was traditionally held that there was a strong Jewish influence on the Khazar Khaganate, which arose at the intersection of different trade routes, but modern scholars are skeptical of the notion that Judaism was ever practiced as a state religion in the region. Nevertheless, a number of sources do point to an active Jewish presence. In such discussions, we are generally referring to the Radhanites and Karaites. The eventual decline of the Khazars destabilised the region for a long time and reduced the volume of trade.

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

Another important centre of trade and political power in the region was Kiev, whose location made trade with Byzantium possible via waterways. From the 9th century, the commercial and military power of the Kievan Rus’ was increasing. There is some disagreement regarding the exact dating of sources for the early history of Jews in Kiev, but the Kievan letter from the Cairo Geniza marking the presence of Jews is thought to have been written in the first half of the 10th century. Jews of both Ashkenazic and Eastern origin were most likely present in Kiev. Between 1240 and 1242, the Mongol invasion reached as far as Hungarian and Polish territory and led to the sack of Kiev and many other cities, disrupting the written history of the region for a long time to follow.

The Golden Horde, a fragment of the Mongol Empire, settled on the territory of modern Ukraine, which was particularly reliant on trade along the Silk Road. Later, the Crimean Khanate emerged as a successor to the Golden Horde. As such, a Crimean Jewish community of Eastern origin was formed, with sources confirming the existence of a community of Crimean Karaites from the 13th century.

Starting in the 14th century, the Lithuanian princes successfully began to push back against the Mongols, and local princes and boyars began accepting vassality to the Grand Duke. Gediminas actively pursued a policy of attracting citizens to the region from German cities, in particular Jewish artisans. In 1569, under the union of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, a two-member elective monarchy, the Commonwealth, was formed, and most of the Ukrainian lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania fell under the Polish crown. The ongoing threat of raids formed a specific regional feudal structure, wherein princes played a central role. The need for reconciliation between the Orthodox and Catholic communities, as well as the growing popularity of certain Protestant movements among the aristocracy, created the conditions for relative religious tolerance, and led to the growth of the Jewish population.

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The Jewish History of Ukraine

In the Early Modern Period, Europe was undergoing a period of Reformation and religious conflict. In the years 1618-1648, the Thirty Years War took place between coalitions made up of Protestand and Catholic countries. This had major implications on both the territory of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Jewry. For decades, the warring parties had controlled the import of agricultural produce from the Commonwealth, which ensured consistently high prices and increased the power of magnates and gentry. This worsened living conditions for the peasants and slowed down the development of cities as economic and political centres. Moreover, warning Europe had a constant demand for mercenaries, which channeled social tensions, alleviating the issue of banditry and increasing stability in the region. Jews fleeing the religious wars found a quiet haven in the Commonwealth. Some integrated successfully into regional economic structures, which were at the time feudal clans headed by magnates - powerful landowners with their own troops. During this period, the prototypical image of the Jewish town began to take shape - a settlement under the rule of an aristocrat without full self-governance, which nonetheless fulfilled many of the economic functions of an ordinary city (these later became fully formed in the late 18th century).

In the middle of the 17th century, religious wars across Europe began to subside. Grain prices fell and professional soldiers returned to their homelands. WIthout a regional magnate structure for protecting the interests of the Cossacks and the Orthodox gentry, they looked to the king as their defender, hoping to participate in the planned eastern campaigns against Turkey and the Tsardom of Russia. Military forces gathered in the Zaporizhzhya Sich, presenting a list of political demands, both religious ( a call for the abolition of the church union and the restitution of the property of the Orthodox Church) and social (equal standing for the Cossacks and the gentry). Kozaki entered into a military alliance with the Crimean Khan, leading to clashes with detachments of

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

magnates, ending with victory for the rebels. With the king dying, the election of a new king was a lengthy process, and the Sejm rejected the demands of the rebels. As such, Bogdan Khmelnitsky entered Kiev, where Orthodox townspeople and clerics greeted him as a liberator. The period of peace in the Commonwealth ended, and the region entered into a sustained period of social and religious conflicts between major political players.

The Khmelnytsky period remains one of the most repressive periods in the Jewish collective memory, largely owing to the martyrdom book of Nathan Hanover, whose goals included seeking assistance for victims and gathering ransom for prisoners sold to Turkey. The modern Israeli historian Shaul Stampfer estimates the number of victims of these events at 18-20 thousand individuals. In the Russian and Ukrainian romantic imagination, Khmelnitsky is presented as a national hero, which serves as a further source of contention in the collective memory.

The last echoes of these religious wars took place at the end of the 18th century.

Although the Koliivschina was largely caused by the activities of Orthodox priests from the Russian Empire, it nonetheless served as a double rationale for invasion by the Russian army and the first division of the Commonwealth. On the one hand, political thinking at the time suggested that if a ruler could not curb unrest, their territory should be seized. On the other hand, the necessity of protecting the Orthodox population from the gentry, who tried to suppress the unrest, was declared. At the end of the 18th century, after three sections of the Commonwealth and the capture of the Crimean Khanate, most of the territories of modern Ukraine were divided between the Austrian and Russian empires. The era was characterised by lengthy periods of war broken up by brief intervals of peace, which are believed to have fuelled the emergence of new religious movements in the Jewish community, such as Hasidism.

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The Jewish History of Ukraine

For Jews in the Russian part of Ukraine, new restrictions came with the “Pale of Settlement”.

The basis of these restrictions was not solely due to the religious prejudices of the authorities, but also due to a change in the way the economy was perceived: the prevailing theory of the 18th and 19th centuries reversed the previously held belief that small trade, distilling, and credit all represented important facets of the economy. The Tsarist policy towards Jews was characterised by a duality of negative and positive discrimination, as the inclination to view Jews as “useful” shifted from Tsar to Tsar. Prohibitions, restrictions, poverty, and later a population explosion and anti-Jewish violence all contributed to the emigration of the Jewish population to other countries, primarily the Americas.

The territory of Ukraine was also the birthplace of secular Jewish culture and the modern Yiddish language (the so-called “Yiddishland”). It was also the home of Mendele MoyherSforim and Sholom Aleichem - two of the “founding fathers” of modern Jewry.

During the 1905 revolution, a wave of pogroms swept through the cities of the region. In a number of cases (e.g., Yekaterinoslav), Jewish self-defense leagues and revolutionary detachments were successful in rebuffing the pogroms. A significant event in Jewish history was the early twentieth century trial of Mendel Beilis, held in Kiev. The BlackHundred organisation used the killing of a teenager as justification to level a charge of blood libel against Beilis. The case led to an international political confrontation.

Right-wing politicians and officials put pressure on prosecutors and investigators to sentence Beilis in the form of dismissals and arrests. Police reports and calls for the investigation and arrest of other suspects were also ignored. Various authoritative individuals appeared at the trial in defence of Beilis, refuting the claims of blood libel against the Jews. Notable among these figures was the religious philosopher Alexander Glagolev, a priest and professor from the Kiev Theological Seminary. In spite of political pressure, the jury acquitted Beilis.

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

The Russian Empire entered World War I on the side of the Entente in 1914.

Preparations for the war were accompanied by repressions against political parties and public organizations (including religious ones), as well as deportations of civilians from areas of alleged military significance. Accusations against Jews of spying for Germany became more frequent. The defeat and retreat of the Tsarist army were accompanied by anti-Jewish violence, both on the part of the soldiers and roving bandits. As offensive operations leveled entire cities, the roads filled with refugees. The February revolution in the Russian Empire did not put an end to the war; however, the Provisional Government took a number of democratic steps, such as extending equal rights to citizens of all faiths, eliminating the Pale of Settlement.

In 1917, the Ukrainian national movement formed its own proto-parliament and government, dependent on the Provisional Government. After the October Revolution, the sovereignty of the Ukrainian People’s Republic was proclaimed, and — after the outbreak of hostilities by the Bolsheviks — its independence. A ministry for Jewish affairs was formed, the broadest autonomy for national minorities was proclaimed, and Yiddish was recognised as an official language.

Civil war soon broke out, putting an end to these positive developments. Having no regular army, the government relied on support from volunteers and the Germans, who restricted the new democratic transformations and dissolved parliament, establishing the power of the hetman. Upon the defeat of the Germans on the Western Front, the civil war was rekindled. The Bolsheviks went on the offensive to the east, and the Poles to the west, while the troops of the Entente, the white movement, and various anarchist detachments operated to the south. Support was split between the primacy of one great power or another, and the lack of a cohesive control mechanism allowed leaders to switch sides.

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The Jewish History of Ukraine

Anti-Jewish violence became a common occurrence. Even the tough policy of the Bolsheviks and Makhno towards rioters, that involved a number of executions, was not sufficient to curb the antisemitic unrest. To fight the Bolsheviks, the allies supplied Poland with weapons, which helped them defeat the troops of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic. The allies rejected the concept of an independent Ukraine, while the Bolsheviks worked towards the idea of a national republic. Despite the hardships of the time, Jewish cultural life continued to evolve. In Kiev, the Kultur league was founded in 1918 and continued to operate until 1924.

The interwar period was also controversial in terms of Jewish politics. In territories under Polish rule, on the one hand, Polish political anti-Semitism was intensifying, with frequent accusations against Jews of harbouring Soviet sympathies. On the other hand, national governments perceived the Jews as agents of the Polish. In Soviet territory, most Jews lost their political rights and property (as persons of “non-proletarian origin”), and repression was carried out against their religious and political organisations. In cultural terms, until the 1930s, Yiddish culture and education continued to develop, as autonomous regions formed. The curtailment of the policy of “indigenisation”, the rehabilitation of the imperial and national romantic heritage, and the use of political terror negated many of the previous initiatives of the Soviet government.

The non-aggression pact with Germany and the secret protocols of the partition of Europe opened the floodgates for World War II. A portion of the territory of interwar Romania (Southern Bessarabia and Bukovina) and Poland became part of the Ukrainian SSR. This process was accompanied by repressions against a number of political and public organisations, which affected the Jews of the region, particularly the rich, religious, or politically active. It was at this point that the boundaries of modern Ukraine were formed

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

(without Transcarpathia and including part of modern Poland), although the borders would only be finalised between 1945 and 1954.

The war of 1941 and the successive Axis victories in its first period led to the division of the territory of modern Ukraine between administrative units. Transcarpathia went to Hungary in the Vienna arbitration after the partition of Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939.

A significant part of western Ukraine (the Galicia district) became part of the General Governorate, formed in the territories of the German-occupied section of the Second Polish Republic and administered under the Reich. Most of the occupied regions which were not directly linked to the front became part of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

The territories of the Dniester-South Bug interfluve and Bukovina were either transferred to the direct control of Romania or ceded to the Transnistria Governorate. Some smaller northern territories were also transferred to the Reichskommissariat Ostland. This division determined the manner in which the Holocaust was carried out in each region.

Before its loss of sovereignty and occupation by Germany, Hungary pursued a relatively lenient policy toward Jews, as Transcarpathia had attracted many fleeing Jews. Politics in the Galicia region echoed German politics in Poland: a wave of initial executions and pogroms was followed by ghettoisation, concentration, labour exploitation, and deportation to death camps. Further downstream, in the Ukraine and Ostland Reich Commissariats , the so-called “Holocaust by bullets” took place, with mass executions of the population, carried out by the “Wehrmacht” and local police forces. In Romania, the Holocaust took a less organised, but equally cruel, form: deportations were often carried out via death marches, with a high mortality rate from starvation, disease, and exposure.

The absence of local authorities and social structures here led to a particularly malicious policy towards Jews and anyone who harboured them. However, the List of the

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The Jewish History of Ukraine

Righteous Among the Nations for Ukraine contains 2,634 names. The church played an important role in counteracting German policy toward Jews. In particular, these included: the Studite monks who managed to conceal several dozen Jewish children in monasteries and the Kiev priest Alexey Glagolev, son of one of Beilis’s defenders, who issued fake baptismal certificates to Jews en masse. Some Jews joined the communist and nationalist underground. After the war, the situation for Jews continued to deteriorate compared to the pre-war period.

The policy of state anti-Semitism and repressions after the Holocaust could no longer be met with sufficient resistance, leading to the forced closure of cultural institutions, schools, synagogues, and cemeteries. Security agencies also closely oversaw Zionists and what they considered to be a “clerical Jewish underground�. According to the 1959 census, 840,311 Jews lived in the Ukrainian SSR. This number decreased by about half by 1989, which was facilitated by mass emigration at the opening of the border.

After Ukraine gained independence, Jewish cultural and religious life began to revive despite frequent economic crises and the associated waves of emigration and repatriation. In 2014, the annexation of the Crimea by the Russian Federation took place, which served as a major catalyst for renewed military conflict in eastern Ukraine and led to the displacement of more than one and a half million individuals. At the expense of the Jewish community and the state budget, some of the Jewish refugees have been able to find housing and work in Anatevka, a revived Jewish settlement in the Kiev region.

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The ESJF Survey Results in Ukraine

D

uring the project, 1,003 cemeteries were surveyed in Ukraine. In 10 cases, there was no access to the cemetery sites (this is common in case of the proximity of military establishments or borders; in some cases the lack of access is due to excessive overgrowth). 993 cemeteries are categorised and included in the database of the pilot project.

The fully-surveyed regions of Ukraine include: Cherkasy, Chernyhiv, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyy, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Volyn, and Zakarpattya. The Vinnytsya and Zhytomyr regions were also partially surveyed. This represents about two-thirds of both the country’s territory and the estimated number of Ukrainian cemeteries.

In addition, as part of this work, 253 settlements with a significant Jewish population in the pre-WWII period were checked. The exclusion of the existence

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

Lists The position of Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine was determined by the fact that the state never took on responsibility for their upkeep. The absence of documentation and maintenance that characterised the USSR’s approach to Jewish material heritage was carried over to independent Ukraine after 1991. One result of this is that although Ukraine is the country with the largest number of Jewish cemeteries in Europe, there is no national nor even any generally accepted registry of Jewish cemeteries in the country.

The first attempt at the systematic documentation of Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine was made in the late 1980s by members of the underground Jewish movement. In 19901997, this work was continued by the St. Petersburg Institute of Jewish Studies (B. Khaimovich, I. Dvorkin, V. Dymshits, M. Nosonovsky, V. Lukin, etc.). During these expeditions, a significant number of cemeteries were documented in Podolia, Galicia, and Volyn, primarily of historical interest. Many valuable scholarly works have been published on the basis of materials gathered during this research, but to date, there is still an enormous amount of epigraphic data to be published. The materials are kept in the St Petersburg Institute of Jewish Studies archives and have been partially digitized by the Bezalel Narkiss Centre of Jewish Art, as well as by the National Library of Israel.

The first attempt at a complete survey of Jewish cemeteries throughout the territory of modern Ukraine was made in 1993-1994 by the US Commission for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage Abroad. On the basis of this material, with significant reductions and a number of inaccuracies, the US Commission 2005 catalog was published. The original questionnaires, which contain the most reliable information, have not been published.

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The ESJF Survey Results in Ukraine

In 2011-2015, within the framework of the Lo Tishkach project, the Kyiv, Cherkasy, Chernyhiv, and Odessa regions were surveyed. The Zakarpattya, Lviv, Chernivtsi, and Ivano-Frankivs’k regions were surveyed cooperatively by the Lo Tishkach project and the Vaad of Ukraine.

In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, information about Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine was added to international databases of Jewish cemeteries. The International Jewish Cemetery Project by the International Association of Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) contains information on around 700 Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine (mainly based on the US Commission questionnaires), which is supplemented by enthusiasts.

The JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) contains information on about 350 cemeteries.

In addition, there are academic organisations which conduct the full epigraphic cataloguing of specific cemeteries (the Jewish Galicia and Bukovina Project, Sefer Center, National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Kyiv)).

There are also resources dedicated to Jewish cemeteries in specific areas and regions.

For example, when working in Zakarpattya, materials from the Transcarpatia Jewishgen Special Interest Group by the researcher Marshall Katz were used.

Overall, developing survey lists and intenaries necessitated the juggling of a wide variety of sources in order to ensure that every single target region was surveyed comprehensively, and that no location with a possible Jewish cemetery was missed.

This background research work has been one of the most labour-intensive elements of the surveys conducted in the framework of the pilot project.

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

Methodology In the absence of an existing register, the preparation of the survey lists necessitated additional research. This was comprised of three main stages: ●

he compiling of all known Jewish cemeteries from all existing lists and T materials of various expeditions.

●

he search for Jewish cemeteries marked on large-scale Polish, Russian, T Austrian, and German pre-war topographic maps from the 1780s-1940s, as well as work with cadastral maps.

●

he on-site investigation of settlements in which there was a significant T (upwards of 100 people) peak Jewish population.

On the basis of this, lists were compiled, which included: 1) Known Jewish cemeteries and cemeteries clearly marked on maps or mentioned in other documents.

2) Settlements where a cemetery could have existed, as there was a Jewish population, to check on location by interviewing locals.

As a result, about 400 cemeteries were surveyed which were not mentioned in any published databases. Moreover, around 150 of the cemeteries surveyed do not appear in any published materials from previous expeditions.

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The ESJF Survey Results in Ukraine

Main results.

Of the 993 cemeteries surveyed in Ukraine, 647 (65%) cemeteries have been preserved (that is, they have at least one tombstone in situ) and 346 (35%) are demolished.

Among the preserved cemeteries, 356 (55% of preserved ones) are protected - 319 of which are specifically Jewish cemeteries and 37 of which are Jewish sections on municipal cemeteries without their own individual protection, which are instead protected by the municipal cemetery as a whole. 291 (45%) are unprotected.

Demolished and overbuilt Jewish cemetery 168 (17%)

Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery 319 (32%)

Demolished Jewish cemetery that has not been built over 178 (18%) Jewish section within the municipal cemetery 37 (4%) Unfenced Jewish cemetery (21%)

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

Among the demolished cemeteries, 168 were demolished and overbuilt, and 178 were destroyed but not built over - that is, the tombstones are gone, but the graves were most likely preserved.

The overall result is reflected in the chart below: Regions The above data represents an average for all surveyed cemeteries in Ukraine. However, in the case of Ukraine, the average data does little to describe the real situation. There is a striking difference between the different regions.

20

18,97

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2

5,49 4,99 4,94 4,76

3,87

2,84

2,7

2,53

2

1,53

0

Density of Jewish cemeteries (per 1,000 sq km)

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1,3

0,9

0,63 0,62

The ESJF Survey Results in Ukraine

Jewish cemeteries emerged and disappeared in the course of historical processes, which differed between Ukrainian regions. See below for data on the density of Jewish cemeteries, reflecting the different types of Jewish settlement in the regions.

The above data show that the regions surveyed can be divided into five distinct groups with different conditions: 1) The highest density of cemeteries (and, therefore, independent Jewish communities) was found in Zakarpattya, with 18.9 cemeteries per 1,000 square kilometers. This reflects the high density of small rural communities in areas under Hungarian influence and is similar to the density of cemeteries in eastern Slovakia (KoĹĄice region).

2) The second group - the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, and Khmelnytsky regions, have a density between 3.5 and 5.5 cemeteries per 1,000 sq km. These are the lands of Galicia and Bukovina, formerly part of Austria-Hungary, where there was a traditionally dense Jewish population.

The. Khmelnytskyy region,historically Podolia, which was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1793, exhibits similar figures.

3) The third group - the Volyn, Rivne, Kyiv, and Cherkasy regions, have a density between 2 and 3 cemeteries per 1000 sq km. These are former Polish regions within the Russian Empire (with the exception of Podolia). The main feature of Jewish life here was that Jews were prohibited from settling in villages and rural localities, a ruling issued by the Russian Empire several times during the 19th century. The Jewish communities here existed predominantly in towns and shtetls with a high-percentage or majority Jewish population, rather than in small rural communities.

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

4) The Odessa and Mykolayiv regions have a density between 1 and 2 cemeteries per 1,000 sq. km. These southern Ukrainian regions were sparsely populated, annexed by the Russian Empire between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Jewish communities here formed agricultural colonies in the early 19th century.

5) The Chernyhiv, Sumy, and Poltava regions have a density of less than 1 cemetery per 1,000 sq km. These left bank regions of Ukraine are historically sparsely populated.

Level of preservation

100% 90%

80% 70% 60% 50% 40%

Preserved

30%

Demolished

20% 10% 0%

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The ESJF Survey Results in Ukraine

As with other former Soviet countries in Eastern Europe, the destruction of cemeteries in Ukraine took place over many stages. For Ukraine, the following stages can be distinguished: 1) The destruction of cemeteries by the Soviet regime prior to World War II (with the formation of collective farms) - especially in places where the Jewish population disappeared after the pogroms of the Civil War of 1918-1920.

2) Further destruction during Nazi occupation in 1941-1944.

3) Demolition by Soviet authorities between the 1950s and 1980s.

4) Consistent theft of gravestones by local residents in the intervening years.

The average level of preservation of cemeteries in Ukraine is around 65%. At the same time, the preservation level in various regions of Ukraine varies from 91% in the Zakarpattya region (213 cemeteries preserved), to 27% in the Volyn region (15 preserved, 41 demolished).

Among the factors influencing the preservation of Jewish cemeteries in the region are the features of the Holocaust in the region, the decisions and policies of the local Soviet authorities, the presence of the Jewish population and communities in the post-war period, and the general level of anti-Semitism in the region, etc. Not all of these factors have been sufficiently studied, leaving it difficult to accurately interpret the effects of such regional deviations.

The highest rate of Jewish cemetery preservation is in Zakarpattya (91%). This can be attributed to the way in which the Holocaust was carried out in the region (as the Jewish population was immediately deported to death camps in 1944, practically no labour camps were built inn the region), and the generally tolerant attitude of the local population towards the Jews, making it possible to preserve the cemeteries in the post-war period.

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

A high level of preservation of cemeteries on the Left Bank is also noticeable: Poltava 78%, Sumy 73%, Chernyhiv slightly less, 59%. Most likely, this is due to the fact that during WWII, a significant portion of the Jewish population managed to escape, returned to the region afterwards, meaning the cemeteries remained in use. Even if a cemetery was destroyed, post-war burials would take place on the site.

The high level of preservation of Jewish cemeteries in the Chernivtsi region (a historical region of Bukovina and Northern Bessarabia) — 82% — is also most likely associated with the softer policy of the Romanian authorities during the Holocaust, which allowed a significant number of Jews to survive. About a third of the cemeteries in this region were used after WWII. On the other hand, in three regions the level of preservation is significantly lower than the average: Volyn (27%), Lviv (37%), and Kyiv (44%).

This may be attributed to the way the Holocaust was instituted in the region. Labour camps for the Jewish population were largely created in the Lviv region, one of the activities of which was the demolition of Jewish cemeteries and the construction of roads and other facilities from their tombstones. It is possible that this also took place in the Volyn region.

The mass demolition of cemeteries by the Soviet administration after the war in the Lviv and Kyiv regions can be explained by the proximity to large administrative centres (Kyiv and Lviv). The policy of expunging Jewish heritage may have been more strictly enforced in these central regions than the provincial ones.

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The ESJF Survey Results in Ukraine

Preserved cemeteries 55% of the surveyed Ukrainian cemeteries (356) are protected and 45% (291 cemetery) are unfenced and mostly neglected. With the absence of any state protection, the physical protection of Jewish cemeteries by fencing in Ukraine is the most important method for preserving cemetery sites.

90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40%

Fenced

30%

Unfenced

20% 10% 0%

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Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

At the same time, in different regions, the situation ranges from 76% of the total number of preserved cemeteries protected (Zakarpattya, 162 fenced, 76 unfenced) to 21% (Khmelnytskyy region, 16 fenced, 60 unfenced).

The fencing and physical protection of Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine is being carried out by ●

Municipalities (mainly Jewish sections in municipal cemeteries).

●

Charitable foundations (ESJF, Gader Avot, Avotainu).

●

Jewish communities (primarily operating cemeteries).

●

Private donors.

The survey results showed a high level of protection for cemeteries in those regions where one or more of the following factors were at work: 1) There are Jewish communities and a significant number of cemeteries remain in use.

2) Charitable foundations and private sponsors are active.

3) A significant proportion of Jewish cemeteries are sections on municipal cemeteries and therefore protected by municipalities.

The highest percentage of protected cemeteries, in Zakarpattya (76% of which remain, 162 out of 213), is due to the fact that charitable organizations and private sponsors are actively operating in the region. In particular, 54 of the 162 cemeteries have been fenced by the ESJF. The second reason is that in Zakarrpattya, in many cases

32

The ESJF Survey Results in Ukraine

the minimal fencing around the sites was constructed by local rural communities or residents of the neighbourhood.

In the Kyiv region, out of 18 fenced cemeteries, 7 are sections within municipal cemeteries and are fenced by municipalities, while 9 are fenced by ESJF. The remaining 4 cemeteries are active and are protected by local communities (Kyiv-Barakhty, Bila Tserkva New, Skvira New, and Stavyshche).

In the Chernivtsi region, of 20 fenced cemeteries, one is a section in the municipal cemetery and is fenced by the municipality, while 9 are fenced by ESJF. The remaining 10, 6 of which are in use, are fenced by local communities and private sponsors.

In Rivne, of 21 fenced cemeteries, 2 are sections in municipal cemeteries and are protected by municipalities, while 9 are fenced by ESJF. Of the remaining 10, only one is active, with the rest having been fenced off by the municipalities or private sponsors.

One further reason for the high level of protection of Jewish cemeteries in the Western regions of Ukraine and Zakarpattya, as well as the Kyiv region, is that these cemeteries are well represented in international databases and are often visited by tourists. This encourages further work by charities and private sponsors.

Areas with a high percentage of unprotected cemeteries are: Khmelnytskyy - 79% (60 of 76 preserved); Cherkasy - 74% (23 of 31 preserved); Volyn 73% (11 of 15 preserved); Odessa 70% (19 of 27 preserved); Chernyhiv 65% (11 of 17 preserved); and Mykolayiv 63% (12 of 19 preserved).

These regions in Central, Southern, and Eastern Ukraine are generally less developed than areas around Lviv and Kyiv and have poorer infrastructure and local budgets. As a result:

33

Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

1) The local municipalities pay less attention to the objects of Jewish heritage.

2) These regions are less visited by tourists.

With the absence of active Jewish communities at most of the sites, lack of donors, and poor attention from the state, most of the Jewish cemeteries are unprotected and abandoned.

It should also be noted that these regions have a very high percentage of cemeteries which are not included in international databases and generally unknown to the public, which may result in less attention from charitable foundations and private donors.

Demolished cemeteries 346 demolished cemeteries in Ukraine were located and surveyed, which is 35% of the total number. Of these, 178 (51%) are demolished and not built over, which means there are potentially preserved burials on site, while 168 (49%) are overbuilt.

The 90% data is distributed by region as follows: 80% 70% 60% 50% 40%

Non-overbuilt

30%

Overbuilt

20% 10% 0%

34

The ESJF Survey Results in Ukraine

It seems that the regional difference more or less accurately reflects the level of development of each region.

The smallest number of overbuilt cemeteries is in the Chernyhiv (17%, 10 non-overbuilt and 2 overbuilt) and Poltava regions ( 25%, 3 undeveloped, 1 overbuilt), as well as 32% in the Cherkasy region (15 non-overbuilt and 7 overbuilt). These are sparsely populated and mostly agrarian areas in the Left bank and Central Ukraine with poorly developed land.

In most regions, the ratio between overbuilt and non-overbuilt cemeteries is around 1:1, which is in line with the national average.

The highest number of overbuilt cemeteries is in the Kyiv and Lviv regions, which are the areas with the highest degree of land development.

35

Restitution and Legal Context

T

here was no process of restitution of Jewish property in Ukraine. A number of the preliminary agreements exist for the return of religious objects, which made it possible to restitute around 40 synagogues. However, the cemeteries are not recognised by Ukrainian legislation as religious property. Therefore, today there is no legal basis for the restitution of Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine.

According to Art. 83 of the Land Code of Ukraine, cemeteries refer to communally owned lands that cannot be transferred to private ownership or lease.

In accordance with the Law of Ukraine ÂŤOn Burial and Funeral BusinessÂť (2004), cemeteries fall under the jurisdiction of local governments (village, settlement, city councils), and cemetery lands are not subject to privatisation or lease. Local government bodies ensure the construction, maintenance, and protection of cemeteries.

Construction is therefore prohibited on the territory of operational cemeteries, as well as on the territory of closed cemeteries or land with signs of old burials.

However, not all Jewish cemeteries are registered in the National cadastre as cemeteries.

This creates a situation in which:

37

Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

1) The prohibition on the privatization and development of cemeteries does not work for a lot of sites.

2) The municipalities do not maintain and do not protect the considerable amount of cemeteries.

Accordingly, the land of some cemetery sites have been privatised, and there is a risk of further privatisation at other sites.

The study showed that at least 182 cemeteries in Ukraine are already privately owned.

Of the 168 overbuilt cemeteries, at least 100 are in private ownership. Of the 178 which are demolished but not overbuilt, at least 48 are in private hands. Finally, the most alarming thing is that even among the 647 surviving cemeteries, 34 are already privately owned. The number of cemeteries which are not marked on the cadastre and therefore can be privatised was impossible to establish within the framework of this survey.

38

39

Education events in the pilot project

I

t is our belief that long-term preservation begins on a local level, by encouraging locals to take an active interest in protecting their own cultural heritage. However, with two world wars, the Holocaust, and the mass migration which took place in its wake, in many of the regions surveyed there is no Jewish community to speak of. Jewish topics are often absent from the official curriculum, which risks a gradual loss of knowledge and awareness of a crucial segment of local history.

As such, the challenge becomes engaging with local communities and changing the way they perceive Jewish cemeteries. Our aim in our educational projects is to show inhabitants that, rather than artefacts from an alien, extinct culture, these cemeteries represent a significant part of their own material heritage. By teaching young people how to engage with their local Jewish cemeteries, as well as preparing educators to integrate the topic into their curriculum, our goal was to cultivate a respect and interest in Jewish heritage in the next generation. In addition, through technical training designed for engineering and architecture students, we take Jewish cemeteries out of the context of history and culture, showing their importance in digital heritage work.

41

Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

In Ukraine, this involved a series of secondary school outreach events, in which students were taught about the ways Jewish cemeteries form part of their cultural heritage, before being given the opportunity to explore their local Jewish cemetery, applying the knowledge they learned in the lecture. Teacher training also took place, to give educators the tools necessary to explore Jewish cemeteries in the classroom.

Finally, outreach events took place at Universities, where students were taught not only about Jewish heritage preservation from a historical perspective, but also about the technological side of it, with information being given on drones and spatial modelling.

The first event took place on the 6th of November 2019, with a secondary school outreach event in Bohuslav (Kyiv Oblast). Educator and Jewish cemetery expert Dr. Alexandra Fishel taught students from Bohuslavsʹkyi Lyceum № 2 about Jewish tombstones, including key information such as how to date them and interpret their symbols. Afterwards, Dr. Fishel led 50 students (ranging from years 9-11) on an excursion to the Bohuslav Jewish cemetery, where they were able to put their recently acquired knowledge to use in the field. Given the tombstones in Bohuslav do not bear symbols, the students were encouraged to focus on the shapes of the tombstones and calculate their dates instead. They were accompanied on the expedition by history teachers, employees of the Museum of Bohuslav, and the head of the local Jewish community.

Another secondary school outreach event followed in Vyshnivets (Ternopil Oblast) on November 14th, 2019, where students from four schools : Vyshnivets and the surrounding towns of Stary Vyshnivets, Butyn, and Bodaky were invited in small groups to participate in excursions to both of Vyshnivets’ cemeteries (The older of which dates to the 17th century and is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine), guided by Dr. Fishel. As with the previous project in Bohuslav, the students (all around 16 years of age) were prepared for the visit by being taught to read Hebrew dates and recognise

42

Education events in the pilot project

the most common formulas and epigraphic symbols found on Jewish tombstones. The outreach in Vyshnivets allowed 130 students to explore the Jewish cemeteries and was aided by the teachers who accompanied the excursions.

The first of the project’s University outreach events took place between the 3rd and the 4th of December 2019, at the Department of Geoinformatics, Kiev National University of Building and Architecture. Here, a seminar on spatial modelling using UAV data was held for geodesy students. With the help of Drone.UA, the largest system integrator of unmanned solutions in Ukraine, students were taught about the practical applications of photogrammetry and the latest drone technology in the interlinked fields of preservation and cultural heritage.

The third secondary school outreach event of 2020 took place on the 29th of January in Pyriatyn (Poltava Oblast). Here, Dr. Fishel delivered a lecture to the students and staff of Lyceum No.1, Pyriatyn, on the unique position of Jewish cemeteries as a part of Ukrainian cultural heritage. Other topics covered included the symbols found on gravestones and the proper techniques for interpreting them, as well as the significance of cemeteries in Judaism. A meeting was also held with the local authorities and members of the Jewish community.

On February 13th, 2020, educators were invited for a teacher training event titled “Jewish Cemetery as a Historical Source” in Mykolayiv. ESJF Chief Historian Dr. Kateryna Malakhova, along with Dr. Fishel, organised a series of lectures and workshops. Attendees were taught about the main objectives and challenges of cemetery preservation, as well as how to read Jewish tombstones and work with old maps. Among the speakers were curriculum development specialists Anna Sizova (of Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv oblast), Nadiya Kolpachenko (of Oleshki, Kherson Oblast), and Dr. Irina Selivanova-Zerkal. Moreover, Associate Professor Volodymyr Shchukin spoke

43

Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

about archival work and gave a lecture on the history of Ukrainian-Jewish relations, while artist Pavlo Fishel presented a class on traditional Jewish art. The event concluded with a roundtable discussion. Participants were given state level certificates upon their departure, along with copies of “Jews and Ukrainians: A Millennium of Coexistence”, provided by the nonprofit Ukrainian Jewish Encounter. The event was organised in conjunction with the Mykolayiv Department of Education and Science, as well as the Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education.

The next University outreach event took place on February 20th, 2020, at Lviv Polytechnic University, demonstrating the significance of the preservation work carried out by ESJF from both a historical and technological perspective. ESJF’s Olena Andronatiy introduced students to the ESJF’s mission, providing an overview of the organisation’s methods and results, with an emphasis on why Ukraine’s Jewish heritage remains relevant today. Moreover, Tatiana Kondratenko of Drone.UA, one of Ukraine’s foremost experts on UAV technology, gave a demonstration of how drones could be used in the preservation of historical sites. This involved hands-on training with the specific software and piloting techniques employed in historical preservation work.

By reaching out in such diverse ways over this four month period, ESJF was able to broadcast all the facets of its work, and to impart the importance of Jewish cemeteries to Ukrainian cultural heritage to some of the groups most likely to one day aid in its preservation.

44

Education events in the pilot project

Date

Location

06/11/2019

Bohuslav (Boguslavsʹkyi Lyceum № 2)

Programme Secondary school outreach: Students learned about Jewish tombstones, including:

No. of Attendees 50

How to read Hebrew dates.

How to interpret the most common symbols on them.

Afterwards, students were brought on an excursion to the Bohuslav Jewish Cemetery.

14/11/2019

Vyshnevets

Secondary school outreach: Students learned about Jewish tombstones, including:

130

How to read Hebrew dates.

How to interpret the most common symbols on them.

Afterwards, students were brought in small groups to visit both of Vyshnevets’ Jewish cemeteries.

03-04/12/2019

Kiev (Kiev National University of Building and Architecture)

University outreach: Geodesy students were given a seminar on spatial modelling using UAV data. Drone.UA helped lead a presentation on the use of photogrammetry in heritage preservation.

30-40

45

Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

Date

Location

Programme

29/01/2020

Pyriatyn (Pyriatyn Lyceum No.1)

Secondary school outreach: Dr. Fishel delivered a lecture on the place of Jewish cemeteries in Ukrainian cultural heritage, the symbology of Jewish tombstones, and the significance of cemeteries in Jewish culture.

60

13/02/2020

Mykolayiv

Teacher training event: “Jewish Cemeteries as a Historical Source�.

ESJF staff and guest speakers gave lectures and workshops on:

35

eading Jewish tombstones R and working with old maps.

The challenges of preserving Jewish cemeteries.

The history of UkrainianJewish relations.

Traditional Jewish art.

The event concluded with a roundtable discussion.

46

No. of Attendees

Education events in the pilot project

Date

Location

Programme

No. of Attendees

20/02/2020

Lviv (Lviv Polytechnic University)

University outreach: ESJF’s Olena Andronatiy taught engineering students at Lviv Polytechnic University about ESJF’s mission, before Tetiana Kondratenko of Drone.UA demonstrated how drones can be used in the preservation of heritage sites. This included a hands on demonstration of the piloting techniques employed in preservation work.

20-25

47

Conclusion

T

he pilot project succeeded in surveying over 1,000 Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine, and excluding the existence of Jewish cemeteries in over 250 further locations, where the size of its former Jewish population could have indicated the existence of a burial site.

Based on these surveys, in-house historians developed a taxonomy of the country’s regions, which will be finalised after the remaining sites are surveyed in the framework of the follow-up pilot project (EAC/S10/2019). The resulting data has been uploaded to an open access database on the project website. Due to the lack of comprehensive research prior to the surveys conducted within this pilot project, these results fill a considerable gap in research and documentation efforts.

Local authorities were contacted at every location and provided information about the project. We invited them to work towards increased protection measures for Jewish cemeteries, which led to the fencing of 28 sites in 2019-2020. All these undertakings came about as a direct result of this survey work, and the architects used the photogrammetric models prepared using the data gathered by our UAVs. Such developments are often rather slow, so we expect further collaboration to stem from the results of the pilot project long after its conclusion.

The absence of restitution, as well as a national policy line or even site list, means that involving local and regional authorities in preservation efforts is of the utmost

49

Country Report: Moldova. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020

importance in Ukraine. Our experience suggests that a sense of ownership is present in many locations, if not always accompanied by the resources and expertise needed for engagement-based protection models. This is true in areas that have traditionally been portrayed as hotbeds of nationalist mobilisation and antisemitism: the ESJF surveys report of considerably more optimistic conditions on the ground, and a general willingness to participate in the preservation of local Jewish heritage. An especially striking example is that of Ternopil region is Western Ukraine, where several mayors as well as the regional governor have sought out cooperation with the organisation. Such experiences signal the necessity of a continued presence on the ground, and give hope for more ambitious protection work moving forward. Soft measures like awareness raising are crucial in making these examples sustainable and transferable in the country.

The ESJF contributed to raised awareness among high school students and teachers through education events that brought the Jewish cemetery to the classroom, and fostered a broader understanding of the Jewish history and heritage of Ukraine than the previous curricula which would often focus exclusively on the tragedy of the Holocaust.

Feedback from these seminars suggests an appetite for such training events, and a high demand for similar projects in the future. The diversity of locations where educational events were conducted helped to ensure a fair representation of students. Their experiences were translated into the production of the manual, ‘Jewish Cemeteries in the Classroom - an ESJF Guide’, which remains a key milestone in formulating engaging methodologies for the inclusion of Jewish cemeteries in the classroom. Higher education seminars complemented the educational output of the pilot project in Ukraine, with the goal of ensuring the technical aspects of heritage preservation are addressed and transmitted to the next generation of professionals. Digital heritage initiatives are gaining prominence, and the skills required to accommodate this developing field are often missing from the higher education curriculum, making these training courses highly

50

Conclusion

popular and sought after. The production of the manual ‘Surveying and Modeling Jewish Heritage Sites - An ESJF Guide’ ensures that students will have access to this knowledge after the culmination of the pilot project.

Overall, our findings suggest that engaging mayors and other municipal stakeholders provides an easy and rewarding entry to protecting Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine. Likewise, many local civic initiatives exist in the country, undertaking valuable maintenance and preservation work. This does not offer a real alternative to full restitution and/or a comprehensive, stateled protection infrastructure, but it can lead to the spread of best practices across individual districts or even regions. It is highly important to support these, and to help scale up localised examples of best practice. While the mass surveys undertaken within the framework of this pilot project could not address this challenge as a core target, this recognition should be fed into potential future protection work in the country.

Education is a crucial element in making protection measures socially sustainable, and our engagement suggests that the relative lack of reliable information about Jewish heritage translates into a pressing demand among both students and teachers. This is especially the case in Southern and Eastern Ukraine, where considerably less Jewish heritage work has taken place than in areas like historic Galicia or Zakarpattya. The dominance of history-oriented interventions, though there is certainly room for them, meant that less attention has been paid to transferable technical skills of heritage preservation. Our higher education seminars narrow this gap, and our approach that conceptualised Jewish heritage as part of our shared, European heritage has proven popular and eye-opening for both secondary school pupils and university students.

The hands-on approach of visiting cemeteries was well received in all these events. It would be fruitful to continue this classroom work and eventually translate it into policy suggestions for the benefit of future generations in Ukraine.

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www.esjf-surveys.org INFO@ESJF-CEMETERIES.ORG