Pohrebyshche Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
According to the Commission on the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, the cemetery was established in the early 17th century. It can be found marked on a Russian map of the region from 1907-1909.
Jews are first mentioned in Pohrebyshche at the beginning of the 17th century. There were 30 Jewish families. In the first half of the 17th century a synagogue was built. The Jewish community was destroyed in 1648. The community was revived by the end of the 17th century. The synagogue was rebuilt in 1690.
The Jewish community suffered from pogroms in 1736 and 1768. In 1765 Pohrebyshche was home to 664 Jews. According to the census of 1847 there were 1,726 Jewish residents. From 1880, the Rabbi was Shlomo David Weisberg. At the turn of the 20th century, Jews were engaged in crafting and trade.
According to the census of 1897, the Jewish population numbered 2,494 people, which was 40% of the town. At the beginning of the 20th century many of the Jews moved to the USA. In 1912 a loan-saving partnership was in operation. In 1914, the Jewish community owned: both pharmacy goods warehouses, 4 timber yards, a mead brewery,a watchmaker and more than 70 small shops. There were 4 synagogues at this time. The Jewish community survived the pogroms in 1917, 1919, in which around 400 Jews were murdered, hundreds were injured, the houses and shops were looted and the synagogue was destroyed.
In 1926 there were 2,881 Jewish residents (30%). By 1939 the Jewish population had halved to 1445 people (15.2%).
Michael (Mishe) Lev, Yiddish language writer, (- 23 May 2013) was born on 3 July 1917 in Pohrebyshche.
Pohrebyshche was occupied in July 1941. In October 1941, 1,360 Jews were murdered.
In 1990 there were around 300 Jews living in Pohrebyshche.
The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. According to the Commission on the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, the cemetery was established in the early 17th century. The cemetery is marked on maps from 1907-1909 of the region. The earliest gravestone found dates to 1911, the most recent dates to 1985. There are around 400 gravestones, around 230 of which are in the post-war section, and an ohel. There are many broken gravestones.
