This is a descriptive annual report for Rohatyn Jewish Heritage (RJH) covering the calendar year 2019 – in essence a year-in-review summary of our project progress and events, with an outline of our finances as well. To compare our progress in 2019 to our forecast of a year ago, see also our report for 2018. Most elements of this review…
This week Marla and I led a small volunteer event in Rohatyn, continuing the vegetation clearing and conditioning work in the old Jewish cemetery following several larger volunteer events earlier this year. As usual we were joined by friends and colleagues, but only a few this time so we could focus on a small number of specific tasks which did…
This morning we recovered seven Jewish headstone fragments from a residential construction site on vul. Petra Mohyla in Rohatyn, and returned them to the old Jewish cemetery in town, where we are working this week again to tame wild vegetation. The headstone fragments were discovered last week in the structure of a post-war house which is currently being dismantled. The…
This week Marla and I joined friends and colleagues in another large 3-day volunteer event to clear and clean the Jewish cemeteries in Rohatyn, conducted by our NGO Rohatyn Jewish Heritage. Building on past efforts and powered by the muscle and minds of many wonderful American and Ukrainian volunteers, together we accomplished more than we had hoped at the start,…
I am proud and excited to report that Marla has been selected to receive a Fulbright scholarship grant for the 2019-2020 academic year, to support a heritage project at the old Jewish cemetery in Rohatyn. The grant will enable research and planning for rehabilitation and commemoration at the cemetery site, networking and educational exchanges with academic and cultural institutions in…
This week, Marla and I again had the great pleasure of working with friends from all over Ukraine, both Americans and Ukrainians, to further advance the efforts of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage in clearing and conditioning the vegetation and grounds of one of Rohatyn’s key Jewish heritage sites, the old Jewish cemetery. As they say, together we made hay – and…
Yesterday, Jay and I joined a tour group organized by the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, who are participating in a study program over 3+ days of Jewish heritage sites in eastern Galicia. In addition to the tour leaders and us, there are six women in the group, hailing from South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. To our…
Today, Jay and I returned with friends to Rohatyn to recite a prayer at the “vodokanal” wartime Jewish mass grave (north of Rohatyn town center), on behalf of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage and Jewish descendants of towns and villages in the district now living around the world. 76 years ago, over a period of three or so days, the Jewish ghetto…
Last week, Marla and I were very pleased to work for several days alongside old and new friends from Rohatyn, around Ukraine, and beyond, continuing our effort to clear and condition the vegetation and grounds of Rohatyn’s four Jewish burial sites (old and new Jewish cemeteries, and north and south wartime mass graves). This first major volunteer event of 2019…
Today we returned to Rohatyn to mark the 77th anniversary of the destruction of the city’s Jewish community. At the 1942 wartime mass grave, south of the city center, we read a prayer – El Malei Rachamim (אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים, “God, full of mercy”) – for the more than three thousand Jewish victims of the first deadly “aktion” of the…