Wednesday, / November 27, 2024
Home / news / Photos

A few days before UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pronounced anti-Semitism “alive and well,” the Jewish cemetery of Svalyava, Ukraine, was vandalized. Eduard Dolinsky, the director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, in a statement wrote that the incident in Ukraine was discovered August 22nd.

The scenic village once bustled with Jewish life—before Hungarian forces rounded up area Jews in 1944, deporting them to Auschwitz death camps. Twenty headstones were found overturned and smashed at the local Jewish cemetery, one of the only remnants of a once thriving community where Jews made up more than 20% of the population. One of the stones desecrated belonged to the town’s rabbi, Rabbi Shalom Goldberg.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Wilhelm, Chabad emissary to the Carpathian region, appealed to authorities to condemn the vandalism and pursue the criminals aggressively and bring them to justice. Rabbi Wilhelm also reached out to major Jewish organizations in Ukraine demanding action from central authorities. “These despicable acts cannot be ignored,” he said.

This event follows similar wreckage in nearby cities; earlier this year government officials in Belarus approved the building of a luxury condo over a mass grave of Jewish bones, discovered mid-development.

Though U.N.’s Guterres believes “the horror of the Holocaust should be such that anti-Semitism should now be dead forever,” bigotry, sadly, still continues in Eastern Europe.

Comment

Be the first to write a comment.

Add

More Galleries
Olathe, Kansas—the state’s fourth-largest city—will welcome its first Jewish center
Olathe, Kansas—the state’s fourth-largest city—will welcome its first Jewish center, as Rabbi Mendel and Sheina Wenger have moved to Olathe, where they are founding a…
Sukkah on aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln
As the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln continues its mission in the Arabian Sea defending Israel and deterring Iranian aggression, it will have a symbol…
Keren Mamosh Impact Report
In a special initiative marking the 30th yahrtzeit of the Rebbe, Keren Mamosh, under the auspices of Machne Israel awarded 100 special grants to Chabad-Lubavitch…
Chabad Rabbi sworn in as first Jewish Rabbi chaplain in the Oregon Army National Guard
Tigard, Oregon Chabad Rabbi Menachem Orenstein was sworn in as a chaplain in the Oregon Army National Guard — the first Jewish rabbi chaplain in…
Campus Chabad Rebbetzins Gather in Israel to Inspire and Be Inspired
More than 150 Chabad-Lubavitch rebbetzins serving college campuses around the world met in Israel for a five-day convention. Usually held in the U.S., the convention…
3,000 Teens Converge on Times Square In A Show of Jewish Pride
More than 3,000 Jewish teenagers representing the largest network of Jewish teens met up in New York City at the annual CTeen International Shabbaton on…
At the Farmer’s Market
Been to the Farmer’s Market lately?   The freshly-baked hand-braided breads—courtesy of your local Chabad center—are selling out fast.  From Setauket, N.Y. to Petaluma, California, from…
Newsletter
Donate
Find Your Local Chabad Center
Magazine