Excavations in Uman – The full story

Two weeks ago, an excavation of a certain area behind the Tzion was started to make room for another hotel. Tractors had entered the area to start removing the old buildings there. This area behind the Tzion is part of the Old Cemetery in Uman and is part of the mass grave of the 30,000 Jews killed there hy”d. Unfortunately, the shocking desecration has continued in recent days and there have been protests in the area.

One of the Breslov Chassidim who was there said: “On Erev Shabbos Parshas Shemos, we were davening shacharis in the Tzion and realized that the digging and excavating was continued even though an agreement had been reached that they would stop. We immediately went out in our tallis and tefillin to protest and demanded from the workers there to stop. The Breslov Union in Uman and other Breslov activists are doing everything possible to prevent more digging and desecration of holy graves.”

The story became more clear after a full investigation into the area: The former Mayor of Uman, who lost in the most recent election and tried to prevent the Uman Rosh Hashanah gathering, issued illegal permits to build a hotel in that area. The construction involved destroying a certain part of the cemetery.

When the Breslov Chassidim purchased the area of the Tzion many years ago – the purchase only included the area up to a certain point in the cemetery. The area where this digging is taking place remains under the ownership of the city of Uman.

Lawyers representing the Breslov Union in Uman have already met with the Mayor of Uman and other representatives from the Cherkassy province (where Uman is) to put a stop to this desecration of graves. Through the intervention of the Mayor, the work has temporarily stopped but it is not completely over and major askanim are getting involved to save the area.

We must daven that all work on the holy cemetery will be stopped completely.

Pictures courtesy of Breslov Live and Bresov Neis: