A new project in Opatow, a small town in Poland, is seeking to renovate a Jewish cemetery destroyed in World World II.
The location for years was one of the most important Jewish cemeteries in Poland. It was the burial place of many prominent figures in the community, including Hassidic Rabbi Meir HaLevi.
During WWII, the cemetery was destroyed, and the gravestones were looted by locals for construction and sometimes decoration of their homes. Now, an amphitheater stands in the place where the cemetery once was.
In 2020, a project was initiated by Poland’s Museum of the History of Polish Jews to collect the looted gravestones and return them to their original location. So far, 200 fragments of Jewish tombstones were collected from locals, who voluntarily returned them to the museum.
These fragments were used to build a cenotaph, which will be placed at the cemetery on Sunday in a ceremony marking 80 years since Opatow’s Jewish ghetto was demolished. The ceremony will be attended by Jews from across the world, whose relatives lived in the town.
Meir Bolka, head of the J-nerations foundation working to memorialize the Holocaust, arrived at Opatow’s cemetery site in order to attempt to find the burial site of Rabbi Meir Halev.
In his search, Bolka found the amphitheater didn’t completely cover the area where the cemetery once stood, and that a wall standing between the town’s auditorium and cultural center was made in part of tombstone fragments from the Jewish cemetery.
Some fragments were found on river banks and other public spaces, while others were discovered with the tombstone writing facing away, making them harder to locate.
Opatow’s municipality is not taking part in the new project. Bolka appealed to Opatow’s municipality about helping with the collection of the fragments, was told there was no proof the fragments were part of the cemetery. In a statement by the municipality, the town’s mayor said that anyone interested in returning the fragments should do so with their own money.
Bolka said the project is a complex one. “On the one hand, this is a very important project. Polish people interested in preserving the Jewish heritage should be encouraged to do so. On the other hand, we’re in a tough situation."
He added: “If the residents of Opatow really mean well, the town will work to remove tombstone fragments and return them, as well as fence the entire cemetery, in line with Jewish traditions.”