Shtetl Links: Lyakhovichi

This is a page in our Documents section. Click the button labeled "Documents" in the left-hand column to reach all of the other resources of the Document area. It is also a part of the Current Projects listed in the Welcome section, so you may also click that button to read about other current collaborative projects on which we are working.

The Cemetery Stone Project now encompasses around two dozen pages. Please go to Cemetery Stones, page 1 to find out what is included in these pages, to find the links to all of the pages we have created documenting Lechovicher burials, and to learn about the key role of Tina Levine in creating this tremendous collection of data for Lyakhovichi researchers. She photographed every stone in every NYC plot related to Lyakhovichi and Baranovichi, over 1200 photographs including the ones on this page.

Cemetery Stones, page 1 also describes some of our new discoveries that allow us to determine key facts about the deceased even when their stone is damaged, eroded, or missing. Please check the introductary article on that page to learn what the symbols and shapes of the monuments may tell you as well as details we can learn from the Hebrew names on the markers. The database of stones that the webmaster created, based on the images created by Tina Levine, is what you are using as you examine the listings created for Baron De Hirsch Cemetery on Staten Island, below.

Bnai Aron Chasidim's graves at Mount Judah Cemetery and at Baron De Hirsch Cemetery
We do not yet have a burial register for Baron De Hirsch Cemetery's Lechovicher graves so they are ordered here by the obvious family plots and alphabetically for those whom that can't be determined. Should a register become available, we will reorganize the database on this page. We also have a list of the 64 burials at Mount Judah in the Bnai Aron Chasidim burial section. The 64 individuals are listed twice in the right-hand column of this page, first by date and then alphabetically. When we have photographs or transcripts of those matsevot we will create a second page for Bnai Aaron Chasidim at Mount Judah Cemetery and your knowledge of the organization and of reference and documentary materials would make it even more valuable.

The graves at Baron De Hirsch are particularly difficult to access - this cemetery is most frequently described as "covered in poision-ivy," the cemetery is somewhat out of the way on Staten Island, and there is no office staff generally available. Yet many of the graves are marked with the small pebbles and rocks of caring family members who have not forgotten those buried here. Back in 2005, Harriet Gerson and Michael Paley generously shared the finds they had made lookng for Palefsky burials. In Summer 2008 Tina Levine made her way back into the overgrowth, photographing each stone that she could reach. Even that short time period between the two site inspections has made a difference in the information available. Michael and Harriet reported on burials that would have been lost in the rampant growth since that time, and Tina has given us a permanent record of what she found in the site-wide burials.

This page is temporarily organized alphabetically, as we need to take the time to sit down and figure out who is where in relation to others. Your help and family knowledge would be greatly appreciated.