03.30.08
Jewish Tombstones in Haerbin
Back in 2005 I went up to Haerbin on China’s May vacation. Haerbin once had a prosporous Jewish community, with two Synagogues and a Jewish school. The Synagogues are still standing but remain closed to the public and the old Jewish school is now a Korean girl school. Dr. Irena Vladimirsky writes a fascinating article on the history of Judaism in Haerbin (if you are surfing from China try this link).
Haerbin also has the largest Jewish cemetery in the Far East, currently located outside the city in a place called Huangshan. According to www.Jewishgen.org, in 1958, 853 graves were transferred from the old Jewish cemetery located at the end of Bolshoi Prospekt behind the Russian Orthodox Usenski cemetery. 23 graves were added before Nov. 20, 1965 when the Jewish community stopped functioning.
I took a trip out to the cemetery. The taxi driver found it very difficult to find and most local residents did not know where it was. The cemetery itself is well kept, although it is quite clear that it does not see a lot of visitors. One notable exception was, now prime-minister, Ehud Olmert’s visit in 2005 to visit his grandfather’s grave. As can be seen in the picture below Joseph’s Olmert’s grave was obviously restored prior to the visit and unlike most other graves you can see small stones on the grave, which are placed by visitors with accordance to Jewish tradition.
Here are some other photos.
