Students restore Jewish cemetery

It had once been an empty field where children played soccer and animals grazed. But a Latham orthodontist, Michael Lozman, could see a greater story that lay just outside Vselyub, Belarus: The boulders were actually headstones, and the grass grew above an abandoned Jewish graveyard.

Thirteen people from Siena College in Loudonville recently accompanied him to Vselyub in order to restore the cemetery.

For a week, they worked with townspeople and students from the village school to put stones upright, clear brush, install an iron fence and reclaim a sacred space.

Goals of trip

Outlining the purpose of the trip, Dr. Lozman told The Evangelist, "I wanted to make it appear more like a Jewish cemetery and give it the respect it deserves. I thought it would be an excellent project for students -- to learn more about the effects of the Holocaust, as well as acquaint them with the role that the Jews played in the development of the country.

"I thought it would be an excellent opportunity for our two faiths to come together and work in unity."

The trip was Dr. Lozman's sixth to Belarus. His father, a Jew from Sopotskin, emigrated to the United States before the Second World War.

Belarus

While tracking down his family history, Dr. Lozman came across a Jewish cemetery in Sopotskin overrun by 60 years' worth of brush and pocked with toppled headstones.

Many Jewish cemeteries in Belarus lie in such disarray. Before the Holocaust, Belarussian history and culture were tolerant of Jewish culture, said Ralph Blasting, dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Siena.

The population was 30 to 50 percent Jewish. During a brief period of independence between the First and Second World Wars, the Belarussian constitution was written in Russian, Belarussian and Yiddish.

What happened

In Vselyub, said Matthew Gaschel, a Siena senior and parishioner of Sacred Heart Church in Castleton, two elderly women who had witnessed Nazi atrocities told the students about what had happened there.

They spoke of the 40 Jewish families, mostly shopkeepers, who had been an integral part of the town's life before the war began. All were killed or taken to concentration camps.

"They pointed to the corner of the cemetery which the Nazis used as an execution site," he said.

The Nazis took headstones from the cemetery to use as paving for roads and smashed "everything Jewish," said Dr. Lozman.

Restoration

The students spent nine-hour days searching for the gravestones that were now buried in thick soil up to a foot deep, installing iron fencing in poured concrete, and clearing the thick brush and many trees that had grown up over the past six decades.

They hauled rocks to anchor the fenceposts, threw kindling and brush onto fires, and welded iron to iron to make a workable fence.

"It was an enormous sense of accomplishment when you realized what you've done," said junior Brian Hicks. "There was a sense of teamwork and cooperation, of people working together for one goal: to restore justice for a community."

Linkages

Many of the participants were struck by the intensity of friendships that built between the Siena students and their hosts.

At first, the students said, the townspeople really didn't know what to make of the Americans; as they worked, however, the townsfolk began to show up with shovels. Schoolchildren helped identify headstones and brought the workers water.

Mr. Gaschel said that the people of Vselyub "would go out of the way to do anything for you. Now that they know [the cemetery] is there, they worked alongside us, and they'll continue to preserve this. It's something the town can really be proud of."

Readying for trip

To prepare for the trip, the students took a seminar course that focused on the Holocaust, Belarus, Jewish culture, and its approaches to death and dying.

That seminar prompted Dr. Blasting to decide he wanted to do more than teach the class; he wanted to participate in it.

"It seems to fit into Siena's mission of bringing a more just and peaceful society," he explained. "It was a good cultural exchange opportunity and an opportunity to serve another community. For a group of non-Jewish students to experience this history lesson in Jewish culture and to be lifting tombstones with Hebrew writing on them -- we would not have gotten that from reading about it in class."

Connecting to school

While working on the cemetery, Dr. Lozman connected the students with the local school in order "to get them significantly involved in the village."

There were question-and-answer sessions, an overnight stay in the homes of villagers, a dedication ceremony at the cemetery and a student essay contest on the Holocaust. The group also donated a digital camera to the school.

"We leave with strong bonds of friendship," said Dr. Lozman. "The students were an amazing group to work with. They were extremely hard-working and extremely respectful of the culture that we were in. They were just wonderful people."

(Also participating in the trip were social work professor Diane Strock-Lynskey, who has done work in restorative justice; Malachi Martin, technical director of Siena's theater; and Ralph Blasting, dean of the School of Liberal Arts.)

Touched by Auschwitz visit

The week in Belarus included visits to museums, memorials and historical sites in Poland, including the infamous Auschwitz/Birkenau concentration camp.

One of the most moving moments for Mr. Gaschel was the group's stop at Auschwitz.

"The day we went, it was sunny and clear and 80 degrees," he recounted. "But once you walked through the gas chamber, it hit you. Nobody could really say anything. When we walked out, it was really quiet. Auschwitz really identified why I was on the trip and why you didn't have to be Jewish. It was a moving experience."

Said Mr. Hicks: "You realize just exactly the full extent of the horror of the Nazis. Walking through one of the areas where they had mounds of hair and glasses, I was thinking to myself, 'What if that had been me, my hair, my glasses?' It was really eye-opening. It made an impression." (KDO)

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