Gravestones from Jewish cemetery found in Chop

21.10.2019, 10:48
Gravestones from Jewish cemetery found in Chop - фото 1
Recently, four gravestones from the Jewish cemetery were found in a private yard in Chop in Transcarpathia. They were found by the owners, who a few years ago bought a house on Tysova street and now doing repairs.

Recently, four gravestones from the Jewish cemetery were found in a private yard in Chop in Transcarpathia. They were found by the owners, who a few years ago bought a house on Tysova street and now doing repairs.

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The family told about the find on the web, and in the comments, they determined that the plate comes from the burial place of the Rabbi's disciple, dated 1939, as evidenced by the inscription in Hebrew on one of the plates.

However, local historian Robert Drob explained all the inaccuracies. He said that the plates depicted in the photo feature mostly texts of Psalms, as is usually the case on Jewish tombstones.

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It "belongs" to a young man who studied at the Yeshiva (Jewish school for boys) of Rabbi Amram Blum. Date of death — 3 Tishri (September 16) in 1939.

"All days he followed the clear (in sense "light") road —  it is written on a plate.  he died with a good name, he reposed, leaving a wife and three sons." No photo contains the man's mane, because the plates are cut off and the photo shows their lower part, the name is usually written at the top of the tombstone.

Basically, it is quite a common phenomenon, when gravestones from the abandoned or destroyed cemeteries (incidentally, not only Jewish) gained a second wind and enter millstones public urban or private life. They are used to lay sidewalks, foundations for houses, as grindstones, etc. It is obvious that a similar fate befell the plates found in the yard in chop: clearly filed edges are indicative only of this.

So far, few people know that the paving on both sides of the former department store "Ukraine" on the square of Cyril and Methodius in Uzhgorod consists of pieces of tombstones. Local historian Ludwig Philipp recalls that in the 1950s near the Uzhgorod castle there was a small Greek Catholic cemetery, where priests and their families were buried.

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"We used to run there as little kids to play, so I remember those beautiful marble tombstones well. Unfortunately, they were not recorded in photographs, and in 1974 disappeared altogether. The fact is that when near the castle began to lay the Museum of folk architecture and life, the cemetery was simply destroyed by a bulldozer. Obviously, it was decided to allocate high-quality black marble "in work" therefore gravestones split and laid out them partially the area of Cyril and Methodius," he told. 

The slabs found in chop were handed over to the mayor Valery Samardak, who is seeking to install another memorial sign on the site of the former Jewish cemetery.

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During the years of Soviet power, the cemetery was completely destroyed, and the tombstones were filled up, crushed and went "to the farm", and the city grew on the burial site.