Pavlohrad Jewish Cemetery

The cemetery was established no later than the first half of the 19th century, as the earliest tombstone dates to 1833.

Jews first settled in Pavlohrad in the late 18th century and by 1803, the Jewish population numbered 167 people, including 21 merchants amongst them. In the middle of the 19th century, the community already operated a synagogue and a cheder. According to the census of 1847, there were 979 Jewish residents.
By 1863, the number of Jews had grown to 1,185 people. There were 2 synagogues, a state secondary school, and 14 private chadarim at this time.
Jews owned a candy factory, a cotton-printing factory, two printing houses, and a mill as well as several dozen other shops and stores. According to the census of 1897, the Jewish population of Pavlohrad had grown by more than 3.5 times, and it numbered 4,382 people (27.7% of the town).
It continued to grow and by 1910 there were 11,647 Jewish residents. In 1910, there were 5 synagogues, a Talmud Torah and a kosher tavern. In 1913, Jews owned all 3 drug stores, 4 pharmacy goods warehouses, the only coffee house, 5 bakeries and pastry shops, 1 of the 4 hotels and more than 80 shops. The Jewish community greatly suffered from the pogroms in 1918 and 1919, with many Jews leaving Pavlohrad after these pogroms.
By 1920 the population had halved and there were only 5,154 Jews living in the city, this fall continued and by 1939, there were only 2,510 Jewish residents remaining (7.4%).
Pavlohrad was occupied on October 11th 1941. Jews were concentrated in the labour camp and then moved to Mavrino. They were murdered in the period between November 1941, to January 1942. During the occupation, 3,700 inhabitants from Pavlohrad and the surrounding areas were killed, most of whom were Jews.
Some Jews returned to Pavlohrad after 1945, however the Jewish community was not revived until the 1990’s.

Josef Yakovlevich Kotin, an armored vehicle design engineer, was born in Pavlohrad in 1908.

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. The earliest found gravestone dates to 1833, therefore the cemetery was founded no later than in the first half of the 19th century. The most recent gravestone dates to 2010. The cemetery is fenced and protected. There are around 400 gravestones in the Jewish section, the entire cemetery contains 1,000 graves in total, mostly Christian graves.