ORHEI JEWISH CEMETERY

It's a huge cemetery of 400,000 square meters on a hill. There are 15,000 tombstones dating from the 18th century. The cemetery, which is already dilapidated, is on a landslide zone, which has caused some damage. The size of the cemetery and the number of graves gives an idea of the importance of the Jewish community in Orhei before the Second World War: 8,000 people of the Jewish faith lived in this town and 6,000 others in the region. Many died in massacres and deportations to Transnistria. Among the celebrities or important personalities buried in Orhei's Jewish cemetery are the mathematician Ancel Sadicov, the former Romanian ambassador to Chile Aron Ravici, who spoke twenty-six languages, and a Polish tanker driver named Grigore Gorvitz or Arcadi Grimberg who ran the local bus company. In Soviet times, part of the cemetery became a park and the vegetation grew due to lack of maintenance. The tombs are a testimony to the history of the local Jewish community and give an indication of its way of life, culture and traditions. The tombs with stelae in the shape of a tree trunk with all its branches cut off are those where people or couples without descendants are buried. Memorials dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust and Jewish soldiers are visible. The memory of the local Jewish community has been maintained, in particular thanks to the efforts of Izislav Mundrean, President of the Jewish Cultural Association of Orhei.