The local Jewish community became independent at the end of the 16th century. Source data shows that a kehilla operated in the town in 1589, owning a wooden synagogue and a cemetery which was also used by Jews from neighbouring small towns.

The Description

The cemetery was established outside the town, about 0.5 kilometres from the Market Square, on the eastern slope of the Kalwaria Hill. The number of Jews living in Rymanów was steadily growing. In 1765, the local community was the third most numerous in the Sanok region. In 1799, the town had 568 Jewish inhabitants. Due to the growing size of the kehilla, the cemetery needed to be enlarged twice, in the 18th and in the 19th century. Today, it covers an area of 2.64 hectares.

At the turn of the 19th century, Rymanów became an important centre of Hasidism. The court established by Menachem Mendel of Rimanover, a disciple of Elimelech of Lizhensk, attracted many pilgrims to the town. The splendour of the Rymanów court was cultivated by Menachem Mendel’s successors, Tzvi Hirsh Rimanover and Joseph ha-Kohen Friedman Rimanover. The tzaddikim of Rymanów were buried in the cemetery on the Kalwaria slope and ohelim were erected over their graves.

During World War I, the southern section of the Rymanów cemetery became the resting place of Jewish soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian army killed in battles in the vicinity of the town. Preserved photographs show that the military section was designed on a circular plan and surrounded with a stone wall. In the centre there was a matzeva decorated with carvings depicting lions and a jug with flowers, with an epitaph in Hebrew and German. The only surviving trace of the quarter is the matzeva, still bearing traces of the inscriptions, and the remains of the earthen graves.

During World War II, the Germans destroyed the cemetery and tore out most of the tombstones, later using them in road construction. They also used the necropolis as an execution site. Most of the victims were local Jews, but five Romani people were also murdered in the cemetery. The bodies were buried on the spot in unmarked graves. Only the outline of one mass grave has been preserved to the present day; it holds the bodies of people murdered in August 1942, during the liquidation of the Rymanów Ghetto.

The cemetery continued to fall into decline after the war. For many years, it was used as grazing grounds. Nonetheless, two ohelim appeared over the graves of two local tzaddikim: Menachel Mendel (1745–1815) and Tzvi Hirsh Kohen (1788–1847). The former was probably erected in the 1950s, and the latter – in 1980.

In the 1990s, the cemetery was cleaned up and surrounded with a metal fence. The works were carried out on the initiative Rabbi Mendel Reichberg and the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage – the caretaker of the site. In 1995, the necropolis was entered into the register of monuments under the number A-343, dated 24 October 1995.

Ca. 800 tombstones have survived in the cemetery. The oldest identified stone dates back to 1616. In its vicinity there are also four matzevot from the 17th century. Most surviving tombstones date back to the 19th century and can be found in the northern and western sectors of the necropolis. One of the preserved matzevot, placed over the grave of a woman deceased in 1849, is decorated with Rusyn solar symbols.

Since 2008, Rymanów has been hosting the annual Days of Memory of the Jewish Community of Rymanów (Polish: Dni Pamięci o Żydowskiej Społeczności Rymanowa). One of the items on the agenda is cleaning the local cemetery.

Właściciel praw autorskich do opisu: Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN.