1. Main Entrance. In Jewish tradition, a 3. Site of Caretaker’s House and Burial restored, stands near the front of this language of travel, including his sudden grandeur is present. Beyond the cemetery 9. Memorial Complex. In the center of this Bagnowka Jewish cemetery is frequently termed a beth olam Society Buildings. Just within the main section. After decades lying face down in death in a train station, the 20th century walls, the order of the Catholic Cemetery is cemetery stands a black pillar that serves as “house of eternity.” Bagnowka is entrance, at left, is a large grass-covered hill. the earth, this tombstone was re-erected in gathering place of merchants and of the readily apparent as well as the day to day a memorial to the victims of violence in 1905 Cemetery designated as such in the Aramaic prayer, A recent test-trench as well as a 1937 map, 2016. Using a small back hoe, a crew of five affluent. life that transpires in the surrounding and 1906. The names on the pillar remember written on the gray metal plaque, which is found on the informational plaque on the men re-erected this monument in place. residential streets. the eighty Jewish men, women and affixed atop the whitewashed, plastered exterior wall near the main entrance, reveal Standing at over seven-feet high and children, who were killed in the Pogrom of Bialystok, Poland gateway at this cemetery’s southern (main) that two brick structures are buried here. weighing almost 1.5 tons, it is the largest 1906. Those who died in the months entrance on Wschodnia Street: One is a Caretaker’s Cottage, typical of rural extant monument on Bagnowka. preceding this pogrom, as anti-Tsarist Cemetery Tour Jewish cemeteries; the other may very well forces struggled with the Polish and House of eternity (beth olam), Bagnowka. be the burial house used by the Hewra Russian armies in Bialystok, are also Blessed are you, O Lord, Our God, King of the Kadisha (Burial Society) to prepare and care recorded on the pillar: forty-two Jews slain World, who fashioned you by right and for the body until burial. An extant 1916 in the massacre of 30 July 1905, and five sustained you by right and brought you to death by right and knows your total number Postcard of the Cholera Jewish Cemetery on Jews killed in the storming of the city jail on [of years] and is ready to restore and bring you Bema Street in Bialystok records one such 31 October 1905. On the western façade back to life by right. Blessed are you, O Lord, structure. The distance from the city of A view of the main entrance from the knoll, 2017. (main side), at top, is a historical description who revives the dead. Bialystok and Bagnowka may have initially of the Pogrom: required a caretaker to live onsite, thus 8. Ohel of Chief Rabbi Chaim Hertz Beneath this plaque, reminding the visitor necessitating two structures. Beside this hill Halpern and burial site of Chief Rabbi A memorial of sorrow for us, inhabitants of Bialystok and for all the house of Israel, of the sacred realm that lies ahead, are the are stacks and individual tombstones Shmuel Mohilewer. Upon this knoll is this pillar is a witness for us and for our black wrought-iron gates through which the returned from various locations throughout The land of Tsvi. perched the ohel, the tent-like mausoleum, sons that on the 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 to the visitor gains access to and a first glimpse of of Rabbi Chaim Hertz Halpern, a visual Bialystok. They probably once stood on the month of Sivan year 5666 (1–5 June, 1906 the largest Jewish cemetery in northeastern Old Rabbinic Cemetery or in the Cholera [TsV] The host of his days were filled while living reminder of Bialystok’s traditionalist [OC]) the inhabitants of this city fell upon Dr. Heidi M. Szpek Poland—forty acres (ca. sixteen hectares) in Cemetery in Bialystok. Here, too, is a large on the road. beginnings. Rabbi Halpern served as a rabbi our brothers, the sons of Israel, plundering Chwoles’ bilingual Hebrew-Russian inscription reads: [Y] The road was great but the thread of his life size, with the potential to cradle thirty-five- megalithic boulder, the last tombstone from in Bialystok for over fifty years and as Chief at noontime and plundering houses and Emerita Professor, Religious was shortened. thousand burials at its peak in the early possessions and they murdered about 80 the Old Rabbinic Cemetery, now Central “(Hebrew:) Matzevah for the grave of Reb [Mr.] [B] The train stations (houses of highways) were Rabbi of Bialystok from approximately 1900 Studies, Central Washington men and women and children, by 1930s. Ahead, the panorama reveals about Park. This tombstone was situated on the Dawid, son of Reb Aharon Chwoles, one of the an eternal highway for him. to 1919. His followers erected this structure shooting, by shehitah (ritual cutting of University (WA/USA) half of the one hundred nearly uniform- remaining intellectuals of the former generation. A [N] He stretched out to rest there but from there over his grave in 1922, as recorded in the hill opposite the current Opera House. throat, slaughter), by strangling, by sized sections of this beth olam, with each hand and name is his among the wise of Israel. He he walked to his eternal life. once-faded inscription on the ohel’s These fragments and tombstones will st burning, and for the remainder by dying was born in the city of Vilna. He died 21 Tevet [MR] Bitterly his wife and sons wept and howled. section delineated by grassy alleys that run eventually be set within a memorial wall on whitewashed southern wall, an inscription from wounds. 5667 in the 72 years of the days of his life. His toil [D] His pride and progeny cannot be given both north-south and east-west. Another Bagnowka’s interior wall. and the celebration of his work can undoubtedly replaced in 2013 by a granite plaque. Rabbi compensation for their glory was taken. secondary entrance is found farther east on be seen in his fruitful life. May his soul be bound Halpern’s inscription is no longer extant At the bottom of this same façade is a poem [KhY] Alas, in the desolation of his days! Wschodnia Street with a third (service) in the bond of everlasting life. It is he the precious scholar, the honorable within the ohel; however, it is preserved of great pathos, entitled “Pillar of Sorrow” Guidebook at: entrance at its northeast corner. This (Russian:) Bank director, merchant, our teacher R. Tsvi, son of R. Mordechai within Abraham Samuel Herszberg’s Pinkos by Zalman Schneour, ancestor of Shneur David Aron Khvoles, cemetery was established in 1892 and of blessed memory, Konica, Bialystok (Chronicle of Bialystok): Zalman of Liady, the founder of the Chabad www.jewishepitaphs.org died 25th December 1906 functioned until 1969, with few burials, from the settlers of Slonim. (ultra-Orthodox) movement. In addition to in the 72nd year of his He died on the eve of the Holy Sabbath 17 Adar however, during WWII when burial was Our Master, our teacher, our rabbi, the gaon, this Memorial Pillar, memorial matzevoth charitable life. year 5671 [4 March 1911] as the abbreviated restricted to the Ghetto Cemetery. Today, Peace to your ashes, righteous and humble, of the chain of (tombstones) stand before this pillar and in distinguished rabbis, an awesome gaon, the .תנצבה/era about 15% of gravesites are still marked Dear husband and father.” the adjoining Section 26, serving as splendor of the generation and its crown, the with tombstones. symbolic gravesites to the victims. Before © Photo, Daniel Zamojduk 2017 Ariel of measures and the seal of truthfulness, an image of discretion and of the pillar also stands a memorial to 25-year- Caretaker's and Burial Society Cottages beneath hill. 6. Section 2. Restored from 2015–2017. The support, a wise mouth, compassionate, the old Bundist, Ester Riskind, who died in the Just to the right are stacks of tombstones awaiting last row of this section offers poignant placement in a memorial wall, 2017. commentary on one harsh reality of life for dew (which) gives life to hard days and to June 1905 (Sabbath Nahamu Massacre), 5. Section 7. Partially restored in 2015–2016, humbled soul(s). His heart is pure, a women – death related to childbirth. Here erected by her friends on the fifth this section (at near center) offers distinct fountain of love, compassion and loving- 4. Section 1. Restored from 2013–2016, this are eight tombstones that remember women kindness for his people and for all creatures. anniversary of her death. Several deceased rows for professionals. Inscriptions section holds some of the oldest gravesites who died while “in-confinement” at the At (more than) sixty years, God’s court remembered on these memorial matzevoth remember, for example, Dr. Zalman Flatte of Bialystok’s most distinguished turn of the 20th century, as recorded in their welcomed him in comfort and into the plain. are also remembered by epitaphs on (d. 1921); Professor Eliyahu Shmuel Gluk (d. community members. Here we find, for inscriptions. At the far left in this row, cause As an angel of God walked to and fro in his tombstones in sections outside the 1902); textile manufacturer Kopel example, the tombstones of Avraham Ber of death is unclear for a Nehama Lea midst, God took him. Our Master, Chaim memorial area, indicating that not all Introduction Zabludowsky (d. 1898); the merchant Hertz Halpern, a tsaddik of blessed memory, Gotlober (d. 1899), one of the original Berenbaum (d. 1908), who is called ‘bubele’ victims were buried in a mass grave beneath Nathan Faulkner (d. 1896), who hailed from first head of the Beth Din of his congregation, maskilim (intellectuals), who made Bialystok (grandmother or precious one) and whose the pillar. The Memorial Complex was Located in Bialystok, Poland, Bagnowka Main entrance on Wschodnia Street features an Odessa and Taganrog; Lieutenant and son of the gaon, the righteous is the one of his homes; Naphtali Hertz Neymark epitaph conclude with the admonition in everlasting foundation, Our Master, restored in 2014–15 but work still remains, Jewish Cemetery is the largest extant urban Aramaic prayer. medical student, Julian Heublum (d. 1920); (d. 1893), merchant and founder of the Yiddish “Children remember your Raphael Yom Tov Lipman, a tsaddik of especially in the adjoining Section 26, where Jewish cemetery in northeastern Poland. In and the bilingual inscription of a woman 2. First Sections of Restoration. Directly on Neymark Beth Midrash, with the longest mother!” Two rows before this row of blessed memory, father of the Beth Din of preliminary work has revealed victims of all its details, this cemetery reflects the doctor, Dr. Sheyne Lea (Sophia) Garfinkel Bialystok. He was born 8 Shevat 5601 [18 entering, at right, are Sections 3–5. These inscription on this cemetery that records his women’s burials is the tree-style tombstone violence after 1906. nature of Jewish life and culture from the Kuricki (d. 1919). The visitor will also find a January 1841]. He died 6 Iyar 5679 [7 January accident with a trolley in St. Petersburg and for a Pinhas Topolski (age 18), who died in .תנצבה .turn of the 20th century until its devastation were the first sections of intense restoration number of folk art panoramas that highlight 1919] as the abbreviated era the resulting exaction that provided funds 1903. Adjoining the Memorial Complex, at during the Holocaust and in Post-Holocaust by the German-based, Aktion Sühnezeichen a women’s domain. And, in this section, are to establish his beth midrash; and Pelte the near center of the cemetery, the visitor years under Communism. At the turn of the Friedensdienste (ASF) from 2010–2013. In also preserved several megalithic tree-style Rabbi Shmuel Mohilewer became Chief Halberstam, eldest daughter of the foremost will find another tree-style monument that st these sections, the visitor will find monuments that seem to be used for young Rabbi of Bialystok from 1883 until his death 21 century, amidst the new climate of the Bialystok entrepreneur and businessman, representative styles of tombstones, women of Russian ancestry. tells the fate of Pinhas’s three younger in 1898. He dedicated this cemetery and Republic of Poland, efforts are beginning to Izak Zabludowsky, and wife of Eliezer symbols and inscriptions that remember the brothers. served as an early advocate of religious restore what remains of this cemetery to its Halberstam, who brought the Haskalah varied nature of Bialystok’s Jewish Zionism. He was buried on Bagnowka in former dignity. All efforts are coordinated (Enlightenment) to Bialystok. community. At the front corner of Section 3, this same section near the ohel of Rabbi by Lucy Lisowska, President of Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej Polska-Izrael in stand three more elaborate burials Halperin. Mohilewer’s advocacy of Zionism Bialystok, who also serves as the Bialystok (decorative sarcophagi and tombstones) for was remembered when his bones were the mercantile Trop family of Bialystok. disinterred from Bagnowka and reburied in representative to the Jewish Community of Warsaw. Local and international students Here, too, is found the humble gravesite of Israel in the late twentieth century in Petaḥ Moshe Wallach, father of Maxim Litvinov, Front façade of black pillar remembering victims of the and volunteers of all ages, including those Tikva, the town in which he had first 1905 Massacres and the 1906 Pogrom. Memorial with ancestry in Bialystok, come to learn Soviet diplomat, and Foreign Secretary and encouraged Bialystok pioneers to settle. matzevoth stand before the pillar; the memorial to Ambassador to the United States (Section 5). about Jewish life in Bialystok and Eastern Bundist Ester Riskind stands to the right of the pillar in this photo. This complex was (nearly) restored in Europe while engaging in these efforts. In Women who died “in-confinement” at the turn of the 2014-15. the process, Bagnowka has become a living Partially restored Section 7 features the tombstone of 20th century. (Section 2) Background, right, is the Lieutenant & medical student, Julian Heublum (at museum. main entrance. The small tombstone of merchant Neymark stands right, d. 1920), megalithic tree-style monument for In the adjoining Section 31, stands the Ester Wolkomirskaya (d. 1908); the tombstone of Dr. beside an informational tablet (at right, d. 1893). 7. Viewpoint tombstone of Alfred Simenauer, a soldier Flatte (d. 1921), Bialystok physician for over 20 years. . Standing on the knoll on the Behind his tombstone is the tall obelisk of maskil main north-south arterial, halfway between who died in the Battle of Waniewo in 1915 Avraham Ber Gotlober (d. 1899). (Section 1). the main entrance and the ohel but was not brought to Bialystok for burial Just to the left of Section 7, at the edge of (mausoleum) of Rabbi Halpern, offers the until 1930. Nearby also stands a tree-style Near the front of this section is also the Section 12 is also the restored tombstone of monument for the three young Topolski gravesite of Sora, wife of Josef Zamenhof (d. the merchant Tsvi, featuring two 12-point visitor a most provocative 360’ view of this Ohel of Rabbi Chaim Hertz Halpern (d. 1919), cemetery and its surroundings. Areas of who served as Chief Rabbi of Bialystok from c. brothers, ages 4–8, who perished in a fire c. 1900), aunt-by-marriage to Ludwig bucks (tsvi) in combat. His inscription is 1900 to 1919. Nearby once stood the gravesite of that may have occurred in their home above Three burials for mercantile Trop family (Lajzer) Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto. entitled “the land of Tsvi.” Tsvi Konica’s restoration are immediately apparent as are (d. 1902). (Section 3) the extensive restoration efforts still needed. Chief Rabbi Shmuel Mohilewer (d. 1898), the family glassware factory in February of A view toward the main entrance, The megalithic monument of the bank inscription is crafted as an acrostic poem who served in this role from 1883 to 1898. Nonetheless, a hint of the cemetery’s former 1908. Future restoration may reveal that the with restored sections, 2017 director Dor Chwoles (d. 1906), recently that remembers his profession through the Memorial Complex extends to victims of “May his soul be bound in the bond of other unnatural circumstances. everlasting life.” New strategies for reading Tour Map inscriptions on worn stone will hopefully

allow the other inscriptions in this section to

be deciphered.

Toppled monuments, nestled in the cemetery's woods, await restoration. Tombstone for WWI soldier, Alfred (Aharon) Simenhauer (d. 1915). Back, left, tombstone for the three Topolski brothers “who burnt in a fire” (d. 1908).

10. Desolation of 1920. In Section 60 stand A cluster of the most rugged-style, roughly-hewn two tree-style monuments to siblings tombstones on Bagnowka contains the oldest extant burial site on this cemetery, dating to 1892, just a few Eliezer (age 21) and Golda (age 17) months after the cemetery was dedicated. (Section 32) Zabludowsky, whose epitaphs record their premature deaths amidst “desolate days.” 14. The Lions of Bagnowka. Section 5, Their ages and the year suggest that they nearly restored by ASF in 2010-2013, offers may have been members of a revolutionary a wonderful opportunity to examine how group, set against the events of the Polish- Restored northern wall adjoins the Catholic varied is the folk art on this cemetery. In this Soviet War (1919–1921). In the nearby Cemetery, 2010. section alone, nine improvisations of the Section 76, stands an inexpensive concrete Jewish Lion of Judah can be found in this tombstone that mimics the shape of the 12. Empty Sections. From the secondary region. The Lion of Judah is a symbol traditional Ashkenazi matzevoth. The entrance on Wschodnia inwards toward the derived from the biblical text. It can inscription remembers the death of a nine– Memorial Complex are sections nearly symbolize the strength of death over life year–old girl in the August 1920 Pogrom: devoid of tombstones. By the early 1940s when the lion stands beside a broken tree or these sections would have been packed with just a branch, two flora symbols symbolic of A blossom is fresh; a flower is tender. / life. A lion may also flank a book(s); the lion Before it has fully ripened, it was plucked row after row of tombstones remembering off, it was killed… the Jewish deceased who died (in most is seen as the protector of Torah (sacred Here lies—in the shadow of the field,/ the cases) a natural death. Tombstones may still Jewish literature and tradition), and may child Dabe, daughter of Reb Chaim Ha- recline beneath layers of grass and topsoil symbolically represent the deceased cohen, Kaplanski, takes refuge, who died today. Today, the appearance of these scholar. In some depictions, the lion before (her) time in the ninth year to the days empty sections offers an eerily compelling scarcely looks like the proud yet terrifying of her life on the 5th day of Elul 5680 [19 animal it is, resembling rather a bovine. August 1920]. visual commentary on the absence of Jewish Such variation in depiction suggests a life and Jewish heritage in contemporary variety of artisans at work, some using the Section 60 has been undergoing restoration; Bialystok. same template to which individual details Section 76 is seasonally engulfed by forest. were added. These sections tentatively suggest burials are related to the desolate time of war and pogrom in 1919-20.

1. Main Entrance.

2. First sections of restoration. 8. Ohel of Chief Rabbi Chaim Hertz Halpern and burial site of Chief Rabbi

3. Site of Former Caretaker’s House and Shmuel Mohilewer. Tombstones for relatives of early Bialystok textile Burial Society. manufacturer, Sender Bloch (Section 4), stand before 9. Memorial Complex. Partially restored in Section 5, at right on entering the main entrance, nearly empty sections. 4. Section 1 2014-2015. preserves nine unique improvisation of the Lion of . Restored in years 2013-2016.

Judah. 13. Oldest Matzevah. Just east of the main 5. Section 7. Partially restored in 2015-2016. 10. Desolation of 1920. (Left:) Monuments for siblings, Eliezer (front) entrance to Bagnowka Beth Olam is a and Golda (back) Zabludowsky, who died in the section that holds more than a dozen of the desolate times of 1920. (Section 60). (Right:) 6. Section 2. Restored in the years 2015- 11. Woods and Cemetery Wall. Wall rebuilt Tombstone for the young girl, Dabe Kaplanski, most ruggedly–hewn, Ashkenazi-style 2017. in 2010. who was killed in August 1920 Pogrom. matzevoth. Carved out of sedimentary rock, (Section 76) the elements have done much to render 7. Viewpoint. 12. Empty Sections. illegible many of the inscriptions. One 11. Woods and Cemetery Wall. Several legible although worn inscription may hold 13. The Oldest Matzevah (d. 1892). years ago, a young growth forest covered the oldest extant words of remembrance on nearly 50% of the cemetery. Progress in this cemetery today: Two improvisations of the Lion of Judah. At left, the 14. The Lions of Bagnowka. lion (the scholar) protects the book (Torah). At right, clearing today leaves about 30% still beneath a canopy of immature trees and Here lies the God-fearing, prominent the inclusion of a broken tree, a symbol of life now gone, indicates that the lion also represents the strength of ground cover. Beneath this dense array of scholar, our teacher, the Rabbi Pinḥas, death over life. (Section 5). forest and foliage, tombstones can be found son of Mordechai Ha-lewi. He died 4 in various states of disarray. Some attempts Nisan 5652 [20 March 1892] according to Bibliography

.תנצבה .at documenting these tombstones was made the abbreviated era © Heidi M. Szpek, 2017. All photographs in the early 2000s but systematic restoration Bagnowka. Jewish Epitaphs, 2014. are the property of the author unless efforts are needed. Eventually, this forest Rabbi Pinhas died about three months after www.jewishepitaphs.org otherwise indicated. gives way to a recently renovated wall that the dedication of Bagnowka in late Bagnowka: A Modern Jewish Cemetery on the separates Bagnowka from the adjoining December 1891–early January 1892. The Russian Pale, by Heidi M. Szpek. iUniverse, Catholic Cemetery. structure of his epitaph reflects the most 2017. (Available: www.amazon.com ) basic formulaic pattern within the “Bialystok.” Virtual Shtetl. 2009. Bagnowka corpus of inscriptions, featuring http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/city/bialystok/ just a name and date of death, conjoined “Cmentarze/Cemeteries.” Centrum with brief epithets praising the deceased. Edukacji Obywatelskiej Polska Izrael. These words are framed by an opening www.bialystok.jewish.org.pl meaning “Here lies,” and Essays by Heidi M. Szpek. The Jewish ,(פ״נ) abbreviation meaning Magazine. www.jewishmag.com ,(תנצבה) a closing abbreviation