KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Teams of Ukrainian youth visited Jewish burial grounds in the Kiev and Odessa regions as a part of a project to survey hundreds of Jewish burial sites in Ukraine.
Participants led by the Kiev-based Center for Jewish Education and Odessa Jewish University carried out comprehensive surveys at 48 Jewish burial grounds in 29 locations. Each location will be accessible on the Lo Tishkach Database, which is coordinating the project with the support of the Genesis Philanthropy Group.
According to the foundation, the first year of this three-year educational project will engage young Ukrainians with their culture and history, and collect information for the foundation’s database.
The foundation has completed a report on legislation and practice relating to the protection and preservation of Jewish burial grounds in Ukraine. It found that most of the country’s Jewish cemeteries and mass graves lack proper demarcation, identification and regular maintenance, and are not properly recognized as burial grounds.
Ukraine is thought to have more than 2,000 Jewish cemeteries and World War II-era Jewish mass graves.
