Foreign Volunteers Clean Historic Jewish Cemetery In Poland

Warsaw’s Jewish cemetery is one of the largest in the world. Image by Wikimedia

By JTA August 21, 2017

WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — An international group of 18 volunteers from seven countries are cleaning a Jewish cemetery in Warsaw with the help of with the help of volunteer Polish scouts.

The work on the Jewish cemetery at Okopowa Street in Warsaw began on August 16, and will continue through August 24. The organizer of the project, the Cultural Heritage Foundation, has been carrying out cleaning work in this cemetery for three years. This year, together with the One World Association, the foundation decided to send an invitation to young people from abroad.

“The cemetery is largely undiscovered, and access to many cemetery quarters is hampered by wild plants. Thanks to the help of over 100 volunteers, we managed to organize almost 3 hectares of the cemetery,” coordinator of the volunteer projects of the Jewish Heritage Foundation, Ola Waszak, told JTA.

Cleaning work consists mainly of cleaning of the oldest part of the cemetery and removing broken tree boughs and plants. Preliminary cleaning of the cemetery is essential to allow qualified conservationists and visitors to gain access to historic gravestones. All work is supervised by the director of the cemetery, the Jewish Community in Warsaw and the Jewish Historical Institute.

Founded in 1806, the cemetery is one of the largest in the world, with over 80,000 identified gravestones.

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