Russian Missile Strikes Jewish Cemetery In Ukraine, Not Clear if Kivrei Tzadikim Damaged

A Russian missile struck the Jewish cemetery in Pervomaisk, located in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, on Tuesday afternoon, causing widespread damage. Videos from the scene showed multiple fires breaking out across the cemetery grounds.

The missile hit the Bohopol cemetery, the largest of Pervomaisk’s five Jewish cemeteries. The site is named after the town of Bohopol, which was later incorporated into Pervomaisk and once had a thriving Jewish population of around 30,000 before the Holocaust.

Several Gedolim are buried there, including Harav Yisrael HaKadosh of Bohopol and the Tolner Rebbe Harav Mordechai, though it is not yet known if their graves were affected.

Chabad emissaries revived Jewish life in the city in 2004 when Rabbi Levi-Yitzhak and Rebbetzin Hannah Perlstein arrived, reopening the synagogue and strengthening the community. Today, about 2,000 Jews live there, and a new mikveh is set to be dedicated next month.

Rabbi Levi-Yitzhak told Arutz Sheva: “Firefighters recently arrived at the cemetery to put out several fires that broke out there and caused extensive damage to the tombstones. We are trying to assess the damage with the aim of treating the sanctity of the deceased.”

Rabbi Meir Stambler, chairman of the Jewish communities in Ukraine, added: “This is the fourth attack on the Jewish community in Ukraine in a month. As you may recall, just last week the synagogue in Odessa was hit, about three weeks ago the house of Rabbi Moshe Weber, a Chabad shliach, was hit in Dnipro, and a few days earlier the car of Rabbi Yossi Wolf, the rabbi of Kherson, was hit by a direct hit from a drone. Thank G-d, in all the cases I mentioned, by great miracles, there were no physical injuries. It is necessary to put an end to Russian terrorism, which is causing loss of life and great damage throughout Ukraine. We pray for peace and redemption.”