In July of 2017, a team of volunteers began the process of clearing and restoring the Jewish cemetery in Przerosl, Poland, which had been abandoned and neglected since the members of the Jewish Community were forced from their homes and shipped to concentration camps about 75 years earlier.

The team of volunteers was led by descendents of the former Jewish community, including Hatte Blejer, Bernie and Carol Lowe, Joseph Lowe, Elinadav Ohana, Jonathan and Rena Horowitz, and Brian Wartell. Several local residents also pitched in to help out and provide support, an effort that was notably advanced by Jan Wiktor Sienkiewicz, a Przerosl native and art professor who has been interested in the history of the former Jewish community of his hometown for decades. The entire effort was coordinated and led by Steven Reece of The Matzevah Foundation, with the assistance of his colleague Kevin Little.

This website features high-resolution photos of the matzevot (headstones), each with a "comments" section where you're encouraged to help us translate the inscriptions. We've also posted photos and videos of the volunteers clearing the cemetery grounds, as well as other documentation relating to the restoration effort. (If you're a member of Facebook, you can keep up with related events by joining the groups The Przerosl Jewish Cemetery and The Jews of Przerosl.)

We've made a great start, but much work remains to be done. Please send us an email to let us know if you might be interested in joining us when we return to Przerosl in the summer of 2018 to continue our effort to restore the dignity and peace that our ancestors deserve in their final resting place.

-- Hatte Blejer and Hank Mishkoff, for The Project to Restore the Przerosl Jewish Cemetery