Parysow Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
The Jewish cemetery in Parysów is located approximately 2.7 km south-east of the town centre, approximately 800 metres south of the village of Starowola, at the junction of the road from Starowola to Słup Drugi and a railway line, within the geodesic plot no. 240 with an area of about 1.6 hectares. The cemetery was probably established in the 19th century, though the exact date is unknown. In 1862, Tzadik Jehoszua Asher Rabinowicz was buried in the cemetery. At the beginning of the 20th century, the cemetery was surrounded by a brick and wooden fence. There was an ohel over the graves of the tzadikim from the local Hasidic dynasty.
During World War II, the bodies of people who died in the ghetto and of those murdered during the deportation of Jews from Stoczek Łukowski were buried in the cemetery. The cemetery was devasted around this time. Some tombstones were taken away by the Germans, but most were used by local residents in the surrounding villages for construction work, including the construction of three barns in Starowola. The cemetery fell into further disrepair in the post-war years. The graves were dug up by people searching for gold dental crowns. The cemetery has become a sand mine and an illegal landfill. The boundaries and all above-ground traces of the cemetery have disappeared. In 2009, there was one matzevah in the cemetery. In 2012-2013, thanks to the efforts of Duvid Singer from New York and the funds of an anonymous donor from Poland, the ohel of tzadik Jehoszua Asher Rabinowicz was erected. In 2015, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in cooperation with ESJF Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung und zum Schutz Jüdischer Friedhöfe in Europa fenced the cemetery with a wall. The cemetery is owned by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage.
Jewish settlement in Parysów began to develop in the 19th century. In 1921, 1906 Jews lived in the village (56% of the total population), most of whom were murdered by the Germans in September 1942 in Treblinka.