Yampil Old Jewish Cemetery

According to Commission on the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, the cemetery was established in the first half of the 18th century.

Yampil was known as a flourishing market town in the 16th century. From 1569 the region belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. By 1740, Yampil maintained a burial society (chevra kadisha). In 1758, a blood libel took place in Yampil, but with the intervention of Cardinal Lorenzo Ganganelli and Pope Benedict XIV the matter was settled. In 1784, in Yampil 104 Jews, belonging to Sharhorod Jewish society, lived in 24 households. By1787, Yampil already had its own Jewish community of 307 members.
In 1793, after the Second partition of Poland, Yampil came under the control of the Russian Empire, and became a part of the Podolia Governorate (Podolskaya Gubernia). About 2000 Jews were living in Yampil at the end of the 18th century. In 1802, 1850 Jews were recorded. In 1860, 1317 Jews made up around one third of the town’s population. In 1897, Yampil’s Jewish population comprised around half of the town’s total population (2823 of 6605). At that time there were four synagogues. The old beit midrash of Yampil dates back to 1795. A chevra kadisha was organized in 1800 and in 1808 a synagogue was dedicated. A new beit midrash was opened in 1883.
The Jewish population of Yampil suffered greatly during World War I and the civil war in Russia. Pogroms in 1917, 1919 and 1920 claimed a number of victims with many Jews leaving the town at that time.
After 1922, Yampil became a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR. In 1929, 1823 Jews were recorded in Yampil, comprising 29% of the total inhabitants. In 1939, Jews in Yampil comprised 24% of the town’s population of 1753.
Yampil was occupied by the Germans and Romanians on July 17th 1941, and included in the Transnistria Governorate. In late July 1941 the Romanians deported thousands of Jews from Bukovina across the Dniester river into the Ukraine. Since the deportation was not coordinated with the Germans, the German army held a large number of deportees near the bridge at Yampil for a couple of days. Most of the deported Jews were murdered in the following days by Einsatzgruppe D and by Romanian army units. The concentration area for Jews was opposite the old Jewish cemetery. After the war around 1500 Jews lived in Yampil.
In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yampil became a part of the independent Ukraine. Today there are no Jews living in the town.
The Old Jewish cemetery of Yampil is situated on the bank of Dniester river, at the eastern outskirts of the town. It was established in the early 18th century and today contains around 150 matzevot, which date back to between the late 18th to early 20th century.