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Residential construction project damages Jewish cemetery in Ukraine
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Ukraine, Jewish cemetery 

An ancient Jewish cemetery in the Ukraine sustained damage last week by construction work carried out at the site. A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews caused a commotion by attempting to stop the construction work with their bodies.

The cemetery, located in the Ukranian city of Vinnitsa, is one of two Jewish cemeteries in the city. The ancient cemetery served the Jewish community until about a century ago and now stands neglected and abandoned. Several months ago, local Jewish community leaders tried to get municipal approval to transfer control over the site from local authorities to the Jewish community, so that it could renovate it.

However, despite early agreements on the subject, last week construction began on a residential project planned for the site of the cemetery. The construction work resulted in tombstones being desecrated and graves being dug up.
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Shaul Horovitz, a Chabad representative, summoned a group of utlra-Orthodox Jews from the nearby town of Uman, who physically tried to stop the construction. The disturbance stopped the work temporarily. In a meeting with Vinnitsa mayor Vladimir Grossman, who is himself Jewish, community leaders were promised that the construction would cease, but work continued Friday, after the Hasidim left the site.

The community is now trying to pressure Ukraine via the American embassy and European Union institutions. It hopes that international pressure will lead the Ukrainian government, which seeks to join NATO and the EU, to stop the project.

The city of Vinnitsa was once considered a significant Jewish center, with about 40,000 residents, up until World War II. With the German invasion of the USSR, some of Vinnitsa's Jews were drafted into the Red army, while around 25,000 others were rounded up by the Nazis and sent to their deaths. Many of the Jews who returned to live in the city after the war came to Israel as part of the wave of immigration in the 1990s, and today Vinnitsa is home to approximately 4,000 Jews.

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