Please read this appeal to help fence and maintain the Jewish cemetery in Shumsk!

This is what remained of the Jewish cemetery in Shumsk when I visited in 1999.  Most of the headstones are no longer present, and about a third of the graves are covered over by thicket and trees.  An effort to

Underneath the greenery lie many more graves. The horizontal stones do often have information identifying the buried, although degradation over time has made many illegible. Ironically, the trees and overgrowth have actually offered protection to some of the stones from the elements.

The Jewish cemetery was once at quite a distance from the center of town. However, the newer part of the town, which is now its busiest part, has grown up quite close to the cemetery. The cemetery is surrounded by industrial and residential development, and many graves succumbed to this development a number of years ago.  The effort to erect a fence surrounding the cemetery will help prevent further destruction.

This is the best preserved section of the cemetery, with most of the headstones standing.

This is a more typical section, with most of the headstones missing.

This was a heartwarming find: the tomb of my great-grandfather's sister Reyzel, grandmother to Lee White and Shirley Levy of the United States, and to Shoshana Reisin of Israel. It reads that Reyzel bat Shmuel Dov died on Lag B'Omer 5695, which was May 18, 1935.