U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Academic Programs Ethan Rosenzweig, accompanied by Minister of Culture Sergiu Prodan, visited the Church “Assumption of the Mother of God” in Căușeni and also one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Buiucani district of Chisinau, IPN reports.
The Ministry of Culture said that different sources assess the dimensions of the preserved part of the cemetery in different ways. This is reportedly 11, 12 or 15 ha in area and includes up to 40,000 graves. The cemetery dates from the start of the 19th century.
Among the graves is also the tomb devoted to the Jews who died during the Chisinau Pogrom of 1903 and the grave of Rabin Leib Yehuda Tsirelson, the chief Rabin of Bessarabia during tens of years. There are also the ruins of a synagogue that is one of a kind in Moldova.
During World War II, the eastern part of the cemetery was seriously damaged. In 1958, the territory was divided into two and one part was later turned by the authorities into a farmers’ market. By 1960, the eastern part of the cemetery had been fully destroyed. The western part of the Jewish cemetery was kept until now but most of the graves there are in a deplorable state, with the funeral stones and plaques being damaged.
The monument is part of the Museum of the Jews of Moldova, which submitted a rehabilitation project to the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. The fund during over six years has contributed to the rehabilitation of the Căușeni Church “Assumption of the Mother of God”.
Ethan Rosenzweig is visiting Moldova as part of the U.S. delegation that is taking part in the high-level meeting of the United States - Moldova Strategic Dialogue on March 15.
