Ukrainian authorities notified Vice Prime Minister Shimon
Peres that the development work for a high-rise building on
the grounds of the ancient Jewish cemetery in Uman, the
burial place of Rebbe Nachman of Breslav, would cease
immediately.
The decision followed expressions of concern from Jewish
community heads in the Ukraine, Israel and the US.
Several months ago HaRav Yaakov Bleich, the rov of the
Ukraine, warned that a building was slated for construction
at the site and called for combined efforts to thwart the
plan to raze the cemetery.
Jews have been buried at that cemetery for thousands of
years, including 30,000 Jews buried in a mass grave in 5528
(1768) following a massive pogrom during the Chmielnicki
revolt. Thirty thousand Jews from the surrounding area
gathered in a fortification in Uman in the hopes it would
protect them, but the attackers carried out a massacre.
By the time R' Nachman of Breslav arrived in Uman, Jews were
being buried in the new cemetery instead, but he asked to be
buried in the old one, saying, "You don't know what
tremendous kedushoh this cemetery has, for it is very
dear and holy."
After the Communist Revolution, the beis knesses in
Uman was destroyed and various buildings were constructed on
the cemetery grounds, including single-family homes built on
top of gravesites. Nevertheless the boundaries of the
cemetery were known to Breslav chassidim thanks to aerial
photos taken by Elimelech Shochat of Lvov. The area now in
question was part of the cemetery that remained relatively
intact between Rechov Poshkina 38 and 44. The area was bought
by a trading house called Megometr long ago when the
authorities put the land up for sale.
A few weeks ago people living adjacent to the cemetery
noticed that workers were carrying out land surveys and they
were told that a high-rise building was slated for
construction. The local residents, who objected to the
construction project for their own reasons, notified Breslav
chassidim, who called on Jewish community activists around
the world to help try to prevent the destruction of the
cemetery.
Now Ukrainian authorities say the real estate project has
been cancelled.
