Jewish Cemetery Desecrated In Rahachow :: Charter'97 :: News

On January 13 the head of Judaic Religious Union in Belarus (JRU) sent a letter to the chairman of Rahachow local executive committee of Homiel region, Ivan Kolas, and to the chair of the Committee on Religions and Nationalities by the Council of Ministers Stanislaw Buko, in connection with desecration of an ancient Jewish cemetery in Rahachow.

As the BelaPAN agency was informed by the executive director of the Union, Alexander Rosenberg, in the letter it is stated that the JRU is worry by the fate of the town Jewish burial ground in the Kazlow Str. In the end of the last year A. Rosenberg visited Rahachow and familiarized himself with the situation at the neglected Jewish cemetery. As said by him, he saw a sacrilege that strikes with horror. “I have never seen something like that in Belarus. Many tombstones lie about in a mess. Some gravestones and monuments are partially recessed into the ground. Playing-field with football goals is made on the territory of the graveyard. While last burials took place in the 1980th there”, said Mr. Rosenberg.