Yahilnytsya Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Country
Ukraine
Region
Ternopyl
District
Chortkiv
Settlement
Yahil’nytsya
Site address
To reach the cemetery, proceed for about 70 metres from the beginning of Sonyachna Street. The cemetery is located on the left of the road.
GPS coordinates
48.94003, 25.75302
Perimeter length
378 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
The cemetery is surrounded by a concrete fence with metal gates, constructed by ESJF in August 2017.
Preservation condition
Fenced and protected Jewish cemetery
General site condition
This is a fenced and well-maintained Jewish cemetery.
Number of existing gravestones
About 50
Date of oldest tombstone
1710 (oldest found in an ohel by ESJF expedition)
Date of newest tombstone
1926 (latest found by ESJF expedition)
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Property of local community
Preserved construction on site
There is an ohel of Rabbi Yekutiel’ Shmelka (died in 1710), installed by the Ohalei Tzadikim — Gader Avot union.
Drone surveys
Yes
Historical overview
The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. Presumably, it appears on maps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1880s. The cemetery was photographed by Wisia Freud in 1938. It was fenced and well-maintained as most of the cemeteries in Galician shtetls. The site was fenced by ESJF in 2017.
The Jewish community of Yahil’nytsya emerged in the 18th century. 347 Jews resided in Yahilnytsya in 1765. Tzvi Shapira founded a rabbinical dynasty in 1780. The Jews of Yahilnytsya were engaged in trade and craft. At the end of the 19th century, many of the Jews were employed in the manufacturing of bricks and tobacco. The Jewish population reached a peak of 1,892 (60,1% of the total population) in 1880. 50 Jewish families lost their house in a 1904 fire. In 1910, 1,284 Jews (42,4% of the total) were inhabitants of the town. Emigration and the actions of WWI reduced the Jewish population to 988 (36,5% of the total) in 1921. In the interwar period, many Zionist and Jewish parties such as Poale Zion operated. In the 1920s, Ha-Shomer Ha-Zion branch and two associations of Tarbut functioned as well. By the same time, Baron Hirsh school and a Hebrew supplement school were opened. On July 6, 1941, the Wehrmacht troops occupied the town. In autumn 1942, the Jewish population was deported to the Belzec death camp. Most of those who escaped were found.
