In the village of Sataniv, Khmelnytsky region, the local schoolchildren cleaned up a legendary but neglected Jewish cemetery.
In the village of Sataniv, Khmelnytsky region, the local schoolchildren cleaned up a legendary but neglected Jewish cemetery.
The ancient Jewish cemetery of Sataniv is called in guidebooks an “open air museum”. It is famous not only for its venerable age (oldest monuments here date back to the beginning of the XVI century), but the highly decorated stone steles. Especially good are the steles of XVII-XVIII centuries
Nowadays there is no one to understand the texts and symbols of ancient reliefs, neither is there anyone to look after the cemetery – now in the village that was once the “capital” of the Jews of Podillya no representatives of biblical people remain.
The local schoolchildren agreed to clean up the cemetery. They cleaned of moss and lichens from the most beautiful monuments, as reliefs were almost invisible.
The City Council responded to the initiative by sending to Sataniv a local historian and ethnographer Igor Oliynyk in order that he told the children about the history of the village, Sataniv Jewish community and the important symbolism “encrypted” in decorative reliefs.
The expert on Monuments also arrived to provide professional supervision of the work.
“We wanted the children to get closer acquainted with the culture and customs of the Jewish people, who for centuries lived side by side,” district administration chair Volodymyr Verbanovskyy said. “All conflicts begin with ignorance and misunderstanding the neighbor. And such activities engender tolerance and interethnic harmony.”
“Children took much interest, historian Igor Oliynyk states, “They always asked:
What does that mean? And this?” They called him when found some very interesting relief ... "
“I had no idea that we have such an amazing place,” 14-year-old Dasha Sidlyar was surprised,”I saw such things only on TV. But it turned out that we have even cooler things at hand! It was interesting to learn what all those ornaments and pictures mean.”
13-year-old Dmitry Soshik shares his experience: “As in a movie about knights, there are lions, unicorns, griffins ... We heard an interesting story about our Jewish fellow countryman who died defending the city gate from Tatars ... When a layer of moss was cleaned away, and the griffin wings become more apparent – it was an unforgettable impression.”
One of these plates says that here was buried the one who, “was killed in a battle with Tatars at the gate"
Officials assured that the initiative of students is only the beginning, and in the future there will be the general cleaning, the monuments will be put in place and the fallen slabs raises and restored if needed.