Dzyhivka Jewish Cemetery

According to Commission on the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, the cemetery was founded in the second half of the 18th century. It can be found marked on maps of the region from the 1900s and 1941.

The village of Dzyhivka is mentioned by name as early as 1500. From 1569 the region belonged to The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and became part of the Bracław Voivodeship. In 1787, King Stanisław August Poniatowski of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth officially proclaimed it a market town. At this time there already lived a few Jewish families. Due to that fact, Dzyhivka attracted a large Jewish population. In 1793, after the Second partition of Poland, it came under control of the Russian Empire, and became part of the Podolia Governorate (Podolskaya Gubernia). In 1847, Jews in Dzyhivka numbered 1028 people. 12 chadarim were established there, for around 120 students. In 1852, there were 35 Jewish craftsmen with a total turnover of 1500 rubles per year. In 1853, there was a synagogue with a congregation of 1056 people, by 1889 there were three synagogues, and in the early 1900s there were five synagogues. At this time many Jewish people were working at the bank, at the medical facility, and running the factories. There were approximately fifty Jewish owned registered businesses. In the late 1880s, Zionist ideas became popular, especially among the young Jews. In 1897, Jews comprised 30% (2187 of 7194) of Dzyhivka’s population.
In November 1905 and again in December 1917 there were Anti-Jewish pogroms. After 1922, Dzyhivka became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR. In 1923, the Jewish population was 1561 (20%). Between 1923 and 1926 Dzyhivka natives founded 3 Soviet Jewish agricultural colonies in the Kherson region. In Dzyhivka operated an official Yiddish school and illegal cheder. In 1939, right before World War II, the Jewish population of Dzyhivka numbered 858 people, approximately 12% of the population.
In late July 1941, the village was occupied by the Romanian Army and became part of the Transnistria governorate. A labor ghetto was established and 100 Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina were brought in, with many locals being sent to other labor camps. By September 1, only 105 Jews were still alive in the ghetto. In the spring of 1944, the village was released from occupation, and the Jewish exodus began to major cities and to other countries. By 1998, only 12 elderly residents remained, and there are none living there today.
The Jewish cemetery is situated on the Eastern outskirts of the town. It contains around 1000 headstones dated from the 19th and 20th centuries.