Novi Kovna Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Ukraine
Region
Dnipropetrovsk
District
Sofievsky
Settlement
Novi Kovna
Site address
Driving from the village of Zheltoe there will be a dirt road just before the sign for “Novi Kovna”. Follow this dirt road for 260m and then the cemetery will be on the right.
GPS coordinates
47.98106, 33.97065
Perimeter length
300 мetres
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
Fenced by ESJF in August 2022.
Preservation condition
Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The site is fenced and well maintained.
Number of existing gravestones
There are 7 gravestones.
Date of oldest tombstone
1872 (the earliest tombstone found by ESJF).
Date of newest tombstone
2000 (the latest tombstone found by ESJF).
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Municipality
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. The cemetery emerged no later than the second half of the 19th century, as the earliest tombstone dates to 1872. It is marked on maps from the 1870s and the Red Army map of 1941.

Novi Kovna was established in 1847 as a Jewish agricultural colony. In 1859, the population numbered 349 Jews. By 1868, a synagogue, a house of prayer and a school were operating. According to the census of 1897, the Jewish population had grown significantly to 787 Jewish residents who comprised 85.5% of the town.

The Jews were involved in agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry. There were 2 shops and a grog shop. In 1910, a Jewish secondary school was organized and by 1916 the total population numbered 845 people. In 1919, the Jewish community suffered a severe pogrom. The kolkhoz was organized in Novi Kovna in 1929. In 1938, the Yiddish school was closed.

In 1941, the head of the kolkhoz Feivel Karshenbaum, organized an evacuation and saved the majority of the population. The remaining Jews, some 60 people, were put into a ghetto and executed in May 1942.

There is no information on the modern Jewish community of Novi Kovna.

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. It is likely that it was founded no later than in the second half of the 19th century. The earliest tombstone found dates to 1872. There are 7 gravestones remaining in the site. The most recent dates to 2020. The cemetery is unmanaged.