Baal Shem Tov Shrine Survived War Ravages, Brooklyn Rabbi Reports

The grave of The Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hassidism, in the old Jewish cemetery at Miedzyboz, deep in Soviet Ukraine, has miraculously survived intact, despite the ravages of World War II and occupation of the area by the Nazi armies, it was reported here today by Rabbi Chaim Tversky, spiritual leader of a synagogue in Brooklyn.

Rabbi Tversky, who arrived here from Moscow, said he had been given special permission by Soviet authorities to visit Miedzyboz, where he wanted to see whether the tomb of The Baal Shem Tov, revered as a shrine by Hassidim throughout the world, had come through the war without desecration. He reported that not only the Baal Shem Tov’s grave, but also the burial crypts of other famous Hassidic rabbis in the same cemetery, were in good condition. The Brooklyn rabbi reported also that he inspected the new cemetery in Kiev, where thousands of Jews had been reentered by the Soviet authorities in the Ukrainian capital.