The old Jewish cemetery in Shargorod

The list of Burials and their photos available HERE.

On the bank of the Murashka river, on the slope of a low mountain there is an old Jewish cemetery. It is on the same side as Shargorod itself. It is known from historical sources that the date of the foundation of the cemetery falls on the beginning of the XVIII century. At that time the town belonged to the Podolsky province and was a part of the Russian Empire. 3670 Jews lived on its territory.

The territory of the cemetery is quite small — from north to south it occupies only 24.5 meters, and from east to west — 36 meters. But how many burials there are, even on this modest territory, is not exactly known. Above the ground, only 21 tombstones can be seen, all the rest are buried under a dense layer of earth. All gravestones are located face west.

Right next to the road there are two graves of the tzaddik righteous. Tombstones on these graves are painted in blue, which makes them practically unreadable. The graves are surrounded by a small metal fence.

The oldest burial in this cemetery dates back to 1755, though the researcher I. Dvornik, who compiled a detailed map of the burial ground, assures us that one can meet graves much older. It is the age of the tombstones and the unreadable format of the text are the main reasons for the impossibility of date this Jewish cemetery.

On some graves, one can see hand-drawn ornaments, for example, the outlines of lion figures, the silhouette of a unicorn that holds a crown, or an ornament from plants. This is how the Jewish graves were decorated approximately until the middle of the XIX century.

At the moment, work on restoration of the old Jewish burial places on the slope of the Murashka River in the city of Shargorod continue.