Radoszyce Jewish Cemetery

The first records of a Jewish presence in Radoszyce date back to the 16th century. The development of the Jewish community began after royal privilege was granted in 1635. In 1921, 1,278 Jews lived in the town, which was 38.2% of the total population. The majority of them were murdered by the Germans in Treblinka in 1942. The cemetery is situated on a hill in the village of Wisy, next to the road to the village of Lipa, approximately 1500m north-west of the center of Radoszyce. The cemetery was established before 1789. In 1843, tzadik Isachar Dow Ber Baron, the founder of the Hasidic dynasty in Radoszyce, was buried there. In 1905, the area of the cemetery was enlarged and in the interwar period, the cemetery was surrounded by a stone wall. During the Second World War, the destruction of the cemetery began. The tombstones were used by the Germans and local people as a building material and other uses. On June 22nd 1964, the Minister of Municipal Economy, following the resolution adopted by the Presidium of the National Council in Radoszyce on August 6th 1957, issued an order to close the cemetery. In 1987, the facility was “devastated, completely covered with forest”. Within the cemetery, there were individual fragments of matzevot, excavated graves and scattered bones, and part of the stone wall. At that time, the cemetery was used by the Ruda Maleniecka Forest District. The ohel of tzadik Isachar Dow Ber Baron was rebuilt in 1984. In 2010–2011, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland, in cooperation with Hasidic communities, fenced the cemetery and built an access road. In 2017, a new ohel was built, the architecture of which resembles the images of the Temple of Solomon. Within the cemetery, there are several dozen tombstones, found in recent years in Radoszyce and surrounding villages. The owner of the cemetery is the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage. The facility has been entered into the Register of Immovable Monuments of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (No. A.938, August 16, 2018).