LvivVolunteerCenter, together with friends from Rohatyn Jewish Heritage, joined the initiative of Oksana Savchuk, an activist from Sokal, and the local government of Sokal OTT, to the memory project to organize the Jewish heritage in Sokal.
Jewish gravestones were found about 30 years ago, during the repair of the city’s streets and dumped in the old Roman Catholic cemetery. From time to time there were talks about streamlining, but in practice no one dared to interfere with them.
Thanks to the coordinated actions of all participants, it was possible to successfully start the project, which is the result of long and fruitful preparatory work of the initiative group.
So far, the tombstones have been sorted and placed near the ruins of the Great Synagogue in Sokal:
It is good when the city authorities go to the meeting and understand the importance of the case they have started. So, in our case, this project was implemented with the support of the Sokal City Council, in particular, Serhiy Kasyan and Igor Datsyuk. Perhaps this project will arouse interest among the Sokal community and next time the circle of volunteers will expand and be filled with new local enthusiasts. P.S. Separately, I want to thank LLC “TD SOKME”, represented by V.Y. Bomka, for the help with the pallets. Without them, we would not be able to do anything. – reported Oksana Savchuk.
“During the Soviet rule, this part of the Jewish cemetery was destroyed. It was distributed to the residents of Sokal for development, for houses. With the restoration of independence, already the local Ukrainian authorities, those matzev were simply scattered, used for curbs,” said the head of the Sokal society “Prosvita” Ihor Datsyuk to Society. Lviv.
They decided to collect and place the tombstones near the synagogue, according to Igor Datsyuk, it is one of the oldest in Galicia and has the status of an architectural monument of local importance.
“In the future, we want Sokal to be a tourist city. We see that it should be near the Sokal Synagogue, but not so that they are simply piled up, but that a certain place is set aside for each matzava, so that it is located in a certain order.” – says the mayor of Sokal Serhiy Kasyan.
Be continued.
We will remind you that in 2019, our volunteer center held the #InternationalVolunteerHeritageCamp, when more than 70 volunteers from five countries of the world cleaned the ruins of the Great Sokal Synagogue.