Latham, NY – Restoration of Eastern European Jewish Cemeteries Underway Thanks to New York Orthodontist

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    Despite being at an age when others retire, Lozman (in red) has no plans to quit the arduous work of restoring cemeteries. (Courtesy of Michael Lozman)Latham, NY – What began in 2001 as a personal sense of obligation for Latham, New York resident Michael Lozman to restore the Jewish cemetery in his father’s native town of Sopotskin in Belarus, has since become a movement called the Restoration of Eastern European Jewish Cemeteries Project, involving hundreds of American college students from all religious denominations.

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    “The place was a travesty,” Lozman, a full-time practicing orthodontist told The Times of Israel (http://bit.ly/W25pkY) of his first visit to the cemetery. “There was something inherently wrong with sacred ground being turned into a cow pasture and dumping ground.” Abandoned since 1941, the cemetery was used as a kind of holding cell for Jews awaiting deportation to death camps in Poland.

    Many of the 3,000 tombstones were co-opted by the Nazis for use in building roads. Nearly all of the remaining 90 Jewish cemeteries in Belarus were similarly neglected. Some even had sports stadiums or movie theaters built on top of them.

    Recognizing the immense undertaking involved in restoring the cemeteries, Lozman determined that college students, with their unscheduled summers, would be ideal to help him complete his mission. He initially contacted administrators at Dartmouth College and persuaded them to offer the restoration project for college credit. Students would be required to learn about Eastern European Jewish history and the Holocaust for one semester, and then would help restore dilapidated cemeteries in Belarus over a three-week period in the summer, as well as tour Jewish sites in Poland.
    Restoration efforts in Belarus.
    More than a decade later, 11 groups of interfaith students from several different colleges, some 200 people in total, have come to Belarus to participate in the restoration project. About one-third of the participants are Jewish and every student, regardless of religious background, is mandated to learn the halachos pertaining to Jewish burial. Students also learn how to stencil Hebrew inscriptions for inclusion on new tombstones.

    Lozman’s vision includes building an iron fence with a Star of David design around each of the vulnerable Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe, as well as archiving the names of the Jewish dead. The price tag for the perimeter fence runs up to $15,000 and the students are responsible for raising the necessary funding.

    Lozman has also invited in local schoolchildren and their families, as well as government and community leaders in Belarus to participate in the restorations at each site. “It’s essential we integrate into the village,” he said. “We are three generations removed from the Nazis, and almost none of the Jews in these towns returned. I want the people in these villages that used to have thriving Jewish communities to understand who we are and what we are doing.”

    Online:
    http://restorejcem.org/home


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    7 Comments
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    Robert
    Member
    Robert
    11 years ago

    Amazing what one man can do
    perhaps he is more worthy than any of the “commentators” who post rightious messages on VIN….
    He is all action and limited talk

    ct-yid
    ct-yid
    11 years ago

    I was in Belarus during the summer of 2004 i was sent to the city of grodna to do some work for the asra kadisha, the city decided to build a stadium so they uprooted a cemetery to make place for it, so what did they decide to do with the earth they dumped it in a wadi, built a road over it, and that’s where i came in, i was there overseeing the project to put the holy earth back in a cemetery, so we found room in the same cemetery as r, shimon shkopp ztl was buried in .
    now back to the site of the stadium i decided to go to the site and look around,now the stadium is half built ,i was there with a financial supporter from Baltimore, he was videoing as we were walking around i decided to sift through a pile of dirt and we found several bones in there . its shocking what goes on there .. i have many more stories but not for now

    11 years ago

    It is clear that this man is a Servant of Hashem. His faith in restoration of teeth and communities is really an ambassador to Jewish life and peace.

    ct-yid
    ct-yid
    11 years ago

    another short story i was staying in pinsk Belarus, one day a city official tipped us off that if the (jewish) cemetery is not cleaned up they will get rid of it and make room for a park, so r, moshe fimah who leads the Jewish boys and girls school there ,arranged that all the boys should go and clean it out….

    enlightened-yid
    enlightened-yid
    11 years ago

    It is the responsibility of descendants ( many of whom live in tri state area in organized communities) to care about these cemeteries. My community here and in Israel gather yearly donations to make sure the small cemeteries where our great-grand fathers and grandmothers are buried are kept in dignified manner. We have people that fly to these cemeteries to make sure maintenance work is being done. One shouldn’t be surprised that none frum looking people took up on this initiative. This is a basic principle that is universal to most cultures as it should be!

    CTJEW
    CTJEW
    11 years ago

    This article really (and literally) hit home. My paternal great grandparents left Sapotskin (then part of Imperial Russia) for NY in 1906. B”H they were the last family members to leave Europe, leaving no living relatives behind. In 1988 I visited Sapotskin and this neglected, abused, overgrown cemetery but was unable to locate any of my ancestors’ graves. Family members have been this fall and one identifiable gravestone has now been cleared and reset thanks to the efforts of the good dentist.