Chief Rabbi’s Mausoleum Torched in Ukraine
Image by Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group
A Jewish mausoleum in western Ukraine burned down in what a human rights group said may have been a deliberate arson attack connected with a dispute over a commemoration project.
The gravesite of Hillel Lichtenstein, a 19th century Jewish sage and former chief rabbi of the Ukrainian city of Kolomyia, was partially destroyed last week in a fire that began in the early hours of the morning, according to a report published on Monday by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
The watchdog said the fire was the second arson within two months committed at the gravesite, which is located inside a sealed room at the center of a Kolomyia park that used to be a Jewish cemetery. The previous arson occurred on Sept. 18 and was extinguished before it spread. This month, however, the fire caused extensive damage to the structure around the gravesite, consuming the walls and the roof.
Municipal authorities gave the Jewish community permission to add memorial monuments to the park surrounding the mausoleum. Soviet authorities destroyed the Jewish cemetery that used to stand there.
But a dispute arose when the community said it would close off the park for two years for the duration of work on the monuments, according to the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. Residents were angered by the closure, which began on Sept. 17, the Kharkiv group wrote.
Western Ukraine is a stronghold of the nationalist Svoboda party, whose officials on many occasions have used anti-Semitic rhetoric.
The arson happened shortly before the second annual Jewish learning conference of Limmud FSU in Lviv, where hundreds of Jews convened over the weekend.
Anti-Semitic incidents are much more rare in Ukraine than in Western European countries. The Congress of National Communities of Ukraine documented 11 such incidents this year. The number of incidents documented in 2009-2014 ranged from 19 t0 33 incidents per year.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
