Restoring a Jewish Cemetery in Belarus
In Dokshitsy, a small town in what is now Belarus, the entire Jewish
population of 3,000 men, women and children was taken to a pit across
from the cemetery and murdered. This heinous act took place in three
"actions" during Passover, on Lag B'Omer and at the end of May in 1942.
In 1965, the government destroyed the Jewish cemetery and turned it
into a park.[At that time the Soviet Union was engaged in religious
persecutions.] Today, there are no Jews in Dokshitsy.
In December 2005 the local authorities in Dokshitsy [in
the new Republic of Belarus] wrote a letter seeking help to restore the
Jewish cemetery: “We would like to discuss with you the methods of
resolving this situation in the best way so that all our actions do not
seem to be blasphemy regarding the buried and also we would like to
correct a mistake that was done many years ago.”
Aaron
Ginsburg, whose father was born in Dokshitsy, was surprised by this
friendly message from Belarus. In response, he created a non-profit
organization, The Friends of Jewish Dokshitsy, and sought out
descendants to help. Ginsburg said, “I have always been interested in
history and Jewish history, and more recently in my family history. I
believe that the message of Judaism is about respecting each other.
This extends to respecting those who preceded us. When I became aware
of the letter from Dokshitsy two years ago, I was in the right place at
the right time, and with the help of others seized the opportunity to
honor our ancestors and save our history.”
A letter written by
the authorities in October 2007 to Mr. Ginsburg who lives in Sharon, MA
reiterated: “Dokshitsy Regional Magistrate considers it is necessary to
preserve the remnants of the Jewish Cemetery: to beautify the place, to
install a memorial... We hope for your support and understanding in the
intention to create a Memorial to the hundreds of Jewish citizens of
Dokshitsy.”
On it’s own initiative and without receiving any
assistance, the town of Dokshitsy recently re-erected over 100
tombstones, which had been buried under a road from 1965 to 2005, in
the cemetery. With the help of donations from all over the world a
fence will be erected, the cemetery will be landscaped, and monuments
will memorialize the Jews buried there. At the site of the Holocaust
massacres, a monument will be erected that states that among those
killed were more than 3000 Jewish residents. The current monument calls
the victims "Soviet citizens".
On May 23, 2008 (Lag B'Omer),
Aaron Ginsburg will be in Dokshitsy, Belarus with friends and family
from the United States, Israel, South Africa, and Moscow to remember
it’s Jewish community. “Together,” he said, “we will recite the Kaddish
at the newly restored Jewish Cemetery and at the site of the Shoah
massacres across the street.”
Soon after the rededication on 23
May, The Friends of Jewish Dokshitsy will landscape the site of a
Holocaust massacre in nearby Parafianov, and participate in the local
historical museum, including a memorial wall with hundreds of names of
the holocaust victims. The wall will be left unfinished in memory of
the thousands of victims whose names are lost.
“Growing up in
Newport, RI I didn’t understand what a special experience it was being
in a transplanted shtetl. In addition to my family, many other families
from Dokshitsy immigrated to Newport,” said Ginsburg. Other large
concentrations of Dokshitzers went to Brooklyn, Waterbury, CT,
Sheboygan, WI, Cleveland, OH and Memphis, TN.” Among the Memphis
families was the Kabakoff family, which had a reunion in Memphis in
2006.
To learn more about Jewish Dokshitsy including pictures
of the current condition of the cemetery, instructions for making
contributions to overcome 67 years of neglect, and how to be at the
re-dedication in May visit http://www.jewishdokshitsy.org/ or contact
Aaron Ginsburg at info@jewishdokshitsy.org or at 508-682-3115.
(this article appeared in the Memphis Hebrew Watchman on March 27, 2008)