Ambassadors from Eastern and Central Europe promised to urge their governments to help in the preservation and safeguarding of Jewish cemeteries, following an emergency meeting on the issue in Brussels.

Some 30 Rabbinical dignitaries from Europe and Israel, as well as European diplomats, attended the gathering on the Jewish cemeteries crisis organised by the Brussels-based Rabbinical Center of Europe on Wednesday.

“I was deeply moved by what I heard,” Latvia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union, ambassador Eduards Stiprais, said after hearing an account of the situation of Jewish cemeteries.
“Your initiative deserves full moral, human and historical support,” the Polish Permanent Representative to the European Union,Marek Grela said.

The RCE’s division for the Renovation of Jewish Cemeteries, had called for the meeting as a result of the desecration and excavation of thousands of cemeteries in recent years.

Over ten thousand Jewish cemeteries are spread around Europe, many in states of disrepair. Problems include unpaved pathways and unfenced enclosures as well as shattered tombstones damaged by hooligans or anti-Semites.

Call For Help

At the meeting the RCE urged the European Commission States to work together with the Member to prevent the excavation of Jewish cemeteries and to punish acts of desecration.

The Jewish religious leaders stressed the importance of the respect and the dignity of the dead, both from a moral perspective and from within Jewish Law.

Rabbi Shmuel Halpert, Israel’s Deputy Minister of Transport and Member of the Knesset, underlined the need for member States to legislate on the issue. "It should not be allowed for a private or public contractor to change the purpose of a cemetery,” he said.

Chief Rabbi Avraham Yafe Schlesinger of Geneva, RCE Chairman Committee for Jewish Cemeteries Preservation, challenged the representatives of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, on the decayed conditions of cemeteries in their respective countries. 

As Slovakian representative, Beata Urabanova, personally pledged to Schlesinger that the condition of Jewish cemeteries in her country would be drastically improved.

The European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC), in conjunction with the European Centre for Jewish Students (ECJS), is coordinating a program to recruiting students volunteering to help restore Jewish cemeteries during the summer period.

Ambassadors’ pledge

The ambassadors of Eastern and Central European States, who attended the two-hour meeting, expressed their understanding and interest of the issue and promised to help the Jewish communities in their respective countries to improve the state of cemeteries.

Stressing that the situation of the cemeteries "is a very sensitive issue in our memory,” Croatia’s head of mission to the EU, Branko Baricevic, noted that the "Jewish community is part of his country’s heritage.” He promised that their will be "joint efforts of local authorities and the Jewish communities to improve the conditions of cemeteries."

Latvia’s ambassador Eduards Stiprais stressed that the "problem concerned all communities.” 

Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, Ukraine’s deputy head of mission, promised that his government “would do its best to meet the requests of the Jewish communities.” “It’s a matter of national dignity for the Ukrainian people as a whole," he said.

The UK representative, Michael Aron, said his government would be "delighted to help Eastern Europe authorities in order to tackle the problem of cemeteries." Britain is currently chairing the European Union.

Israel’s ambassador to the European Union, Oded Eran, reminded the assembly the importance of cemeteries for the heritage of Europe, underlining that "those buried Jews were citizens of European countries".

Jewish representatives appeared to be encouraged by the support they got from the European diplomats. “The situation is really catastrophic. We need your help. Let’s stop talking, let’s do something,” Rabbi Porush, head of the "Agudat Israel worldwide", said.