The site is located in an area that was one of the earliest centers of Hasidism and holds exceptional historical significance.
This fence marks ESJF’s 10th and final project in Ukraine for 2025.
According to Hasidic tradition, after his marriage in Brody, Israel Baal Shem Tov lived “between Kuty and Kosiv.” During the same period (1720–1740), Rabbi Nachman of Kosiv served as the town’s rabbi. A member of the intellectual circle of the Brody Kloyz, he was initially an opponent of the Baal Shem Tov, later becoming one of his devoted followers.
From the early 19th century, Kosiv emerged as the center of a major Hasidic dynasty. In 1802, the rabbinical post in Kosiv was assumed by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hager, the dynasty’s founder and a disciple of Moshe Leib of Sasiv and Zvi Hirsh of Nadvirna.
In 1890, the Jewish population of Kosiv numbered 2,472 people, representing 81.3% of the town’s total population.
The Jewish cemetery in Kosiv was established no later than the early 18th century. Today, approximately 200 tombstones remain, dating from 1712 to 1939. Some of these gravestones are unique examples of 18th-century Jewish funerary art. The cemetery contains the 1779 burial of Rabbi Baruch of Kosiv and his wife, as well as an ohel and the graves of the admorim of the Kosiv Hasidic dynasty. A memorial marking the mass grave of Kosiv’s murdered Jews is located behind the cemetery.
The Kosiv Jewish cemetery is now protected by a fence installed by ESJF with the financial support of the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt), Hasidei Vishnitz in the US and the Schapira family as well as the cooperation of Geder Avos.