 |
Remember Ostrava |
 |
|
Remember Ostrava |
|
|
|
|
|
|
How You Can Help Project Tikvah Profiles Jewish Settlement in Ostrava scroll down for more links
NEW! CLICK HERE for a preview of the Hlucin cemetery memorial and reconstruction!
CLICK HERE to read Josh's article in The Jewish Week!
Welcome to Remember Ostrava! Our project is lovingly undertaken in the spirit of Tikkun Olam, Repair of the World, and has two facets, both of which assist the Jewish Community of Ostrava, Czech Republic. The first is to assist Holocaust survivors in the Ostrava community through Project Tikvah, the second is to help return dignity to the Jewish cemetery of Hlucin, a town one mile from Ostrava.
The project was initiated by Joshua Lewittes, who is currently a Sophomore at the Ramaz School, a Jewish Day School in New York. He is on the Varsity Hockey team at Ramaz and on the Varsity team of the New York Ice Cats. He became interested in the Jewish community of Ostrava during a trip to Ostrava with his hockey coach, a native of Ostrava. Josh and his brother Jack played ice hockey at the local city arena. He returned to Ostrava this summer where he met members of the Jewish community and visited Jewish sites in Ostrava, and helped to dig out gravestones from the Hlucin Jewish cemetery that were buried in a drainage ditch by the Nazis more than half a century ago. Click here to read a message from Josh.
The project is realized in cooperation with the Czech Heritage Action Initiative (CHAI) an organization dedicated to supporting the continuum of Jewish life in the Czech Republic. Our web site is evolving every day, so please check back for updated information.
Project Tikvah is a social services agency founded by the Jewish community of Ostrava in 2004 in response to the needs of its aging community members, most of whom are survivors of the Holocaust, and were victims of Nazi persecution. In all, 7,533 Jewish residents from Ostrava were murdered by the Nazis.
7,533 Jews from Ostrava perished. Miraculously, some survived. Miraculously, some returned. Please help us to help them.
Tikvah provides social services and home care to 80 clients in Ostrava. Services include home health care, various types of assistance in maintaining the household, transportation to doctor visits, rehabilitation / physical therapy, social and community programs, etc. They strive to help these survivors live a full life, connected to a vibrant and supportive community, and with the highest degree of independence possible: With dignity, in the comfort of their own homes. Some of the community members have shared their stories with us, click on Project Tikvah Profiles to read.
Project Tikvah was founded with a grant from the Endowment Fund for Holocaust Survivors and receives some funding from the Czech-German Fund of the Future, but is primarily funded directly by the tiny Jewish Community of Ostrava. There is a very serious shortage of funds, and the community's resources are extremely limited. Each year, the ability to provide these basic services is seriously threatened, while the need continues to grow. The agency functions at an extremely high level of efficiency, yet there are far from enough resources. When the funds run out, each year, the Jewish community must continue to provide these important services at the expense of other vital services and programs.
Please make a tax-deductible donation to help. 100% of donations received (with the exception of nominal unavoidable bank fees) goes directly to fund these programs at the Jewish Community of Ostrava. Click Here to help. We are grateful for the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (www.heritageabroad.gov) for their assistance in transferring the funds.
The Jewish Cemetery of Hlucin
The town of Hlucin is located approximately one mile from Ostrava. The Jewish cemetery was founded in 1814.
These gravestones were removed from the Jewish cemetery of Hlucin, Czech Republic by the Nazis, during the German Occupation of Czechoslovakia. They were dug out, and removed so that no trace of or monument to the Jewish community of Hlucin would remain.
They were placed lining a drainage ditch, some kilometers from the cemetery. In January, workmen from the city of Hlucin public works department discovered the gravestones that had been separated from the cemetery for more than half a century.
At the end of the Second World War, the Russians founded a military cemetery for Red Army soldiers who fell in battle around Hlucin. This military cemetery was placed partly in and partly beside the area containing Jewish burials. Presumably, the Jewish graves that were dug up were placed in a large mound on the remaining cemetery ground.
In August, the Jewish community of Ostrava, with cooperation from the town of Hlucin started digging out the gravestones. When all the stones have been recovered, a thorough inventory and photo-documentation will occur. Sadly, most of the stones are so badly broken it may not be possible to put them together again. We will support the continuing effort to restore dignity to this cemetery that was twice desecrated, by two different regimes.
The Jewish cemetery of Hlucin offers hope - all traces of the lost Jewish community were almost lost, almost forgotten - and now, there is a chance for healing, and for teaching. For years, only a handful of people knew the cemetery existed, and where it was located. Now young people are discovering a page that had been torn from their local history.
Interesting Links:
The Memorial Scrolls Trust, in London England: Learn about how 1,564 precious Torah scrolls from the former Czechoslovakia were brought to London, restored, and given a second chance to teach and inspire.
The Czech Torah Network: The Czech Torah Network is an education organization dedicated to remembrance and Jewish spiritual continuity by connecting synagogues and religious institutions that have Czech Torah Scrolls.
JewishGen: The on-line source for Jewish Genealogy. The Austria-Czech Special Interest Group - an invaluable resource for Jewish Genealogy in the former Czechoslovakia and Austria.
© Lisa B. Feder
