The largest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe

The Jewish necropolis in Chernivtsi is the place of repose of more than 50,000 dead. The cemetery was founded by the decision of the municipality in 1866. Its current area is over 14 hectares. The territory of the cemetery is divided into 137 fields-quarters, which together form one closed complex. Representatives of the Jewish community, who became related to the city, are buried in the cemetery. Among them are public and political figures, writers, poets, intellectuals, those who have made a significant contribution to the political, economic and cultural life of Chernivtsi.

At the entrance to the Jewish cemetery is the House of Farewell (Beit Kaddish). It was built in 1905 by architect Josef Fünkel. The building has four rooms: the central ritual hall, the funeral home, the office and the shop.

Many monuments and family tombs of the cemetery are culturally valuable and are monuments of monumental art. Monuments and tombstones in the cemetery have a great variety of styles and shapes. There are stelae, sarcophagi, mausoleums and obelisks made of marble, granite, gabbro, sandstone, cement and other materials. Visitors to the cemetery can get acquainted not only with the history of Judaism in Bukovina, but also with the symbols of burials. The ornaments on the monuments use traditional Jewish symbols, as well as elements of Ukrainian folk art. This necropolis is a carrier of living history, which reflects the past of Chernivtsi.