Posted to Crown Heights News on

Crown Heights Girl Saves Forgotten Mass Grave

by Michael Orbach – VIN News

Left: Lea New. Right: Some concrete and a wreath were the only ‘Matzeva’ on the burial site.

In the small town of Netishyn, Ukraine, more than 1,500 Jewish bodies are buried in two shallow graves. The bodies are victims of the Einsatzgruppen, Hitler’s infamous para-military death squads that swept through the region in 1941. There is no monument and the victims’ clothing and shoes, along with fragments of Torah scrolls, prayer books and tefillin [phylacteries] still lay on the ground.

All this may change soon, thanks to the efforts of Lea New, a 2008 graduate of Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women.

“I think it’s important work to make a resting place to remind the world and ourselves of this tragedy,” said New, who is currently pursuing a dual master’s degree in Judaic studies and Jewish education at New York University.

New learned about the site from her brother, Dovid, who spent the summer of this year in the Ukraine serving as a Chabad-shaliach [emissary]. During his trip, he saw many gravesites, but the one in Netishyn struck him.

“It seemed untouched since the war,” said Dovid. “There were scattered bones and a couple of old shoes and clothes. It was a pretty horrific site.”

To make matters worse, the Ukrainian government planned to bulldoze the gravesite to build villas for international visitors.

Dovid contacted his sister who immediately began working on a plan to build a proper burial site. After reaching out to local government officials, New was told that construction plans would be stopped provided the community could prove that the site was, in fact, sacred. In addition, she was informed a proper monument could be built but that all the funding had to come from private donations.

Working with the local Chabad shaliach in nearby Zhitomir, Rabbi Nachum Tamarin, who served as New’s interpreter, and members of the Netishyn Jewish community, New was able to get in touch with the German branch of the American Jewish Committee to verify the site of the massacre and Nazi involvement.

New then contacted Geder Avos, a small non-profit based in Brooklyn that is dedicated to preserving and restoring Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe.

Moshe Rubin, head of Geder Avos, estimated that fixing the site would cost roughly $5,000. Geder Avos in turn reached out to Rabbi Israel Meir Gabay, the dedicated and tireless founder and director of Oholei Tzadikim who spends much of the year based in Ukraine working on restoring Jewish cemeteries. Within several days of getting the call, Rabbi Gabay traveled Netishyn and began work.

Over the last three months New has raised close to half of the $5,000 total required for the project mostly through friends and family in her community.

New, who has never been to Netishyn but hopes to visit in the spring, attributed part of her determination on this quest to the year she spent after graduation working in the YU library and archives as a Presidential Fellow.

“The archive is very committed to preserving older things and finding meaning and relevance,” said New. “That added to my resolution.”

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24 Comments

  • You Know

    Oh yes give it up to DAVE!!!
    My man in NEzzhin. Respect to Nochum Tamarin for hookin this all up, and stopping the YEKA bus Motzei Shabbos for this – Remember??

    shabbat shalom to all the YEKA CREW

  • emet

    #6:
    she is dressed tzanua
    the Rebbe went to university

    how much more negativity do you want to spread.
    for what, what will that bring. she is making a TRUE kiddush HaShem and kavod to kedoshim. WHAT MORE.
    What more can YOU do than that

  • deplorable comment 6

    you are the degenerate part of crown heights that is holding Chabad back from reaching it full potential

  • Well Done!

    Yes “Chassidic Crownheightser”- we’re honoring a WOMAN who went to college and achieved something remarkable with her education. Well done Lea!

  • Shlomo

    AFTER you’ve sent in YOUR donation to this organization Geder Ovos, then you can talk.
    To #6
    As of right now, she’s helping 1000’s of neshomas and your doing what???
    She isn’t being honored for going to collage, she’s being honored for her WORK!!!
    Come to think of it, I don’t hear about the seminary girls doing such a Chessed. Maybe collage does teach them something!
    Why do you have this nature, that you have to put someone else down to make you feel greater or holier?
    Maybe you should ask those neshomas how THEY FEEL!

  • concerned in MA

    To #6:
    As previously commented on, the young lady IS dressed properly and modestly. So, she went to college…you have a problem with that? Why? The college was not co-ed, it was a women’s college. Obviously it honed her sensitivity towards what is the right thing to do.

    To Lea:
    You are the type of person I would be honored to have my daughter call ‘friend’. May you always retain this sensitivity kindness, & sense of duty
    Thank you for getting involved & for getting others involved in this. As another poster stated, you are making “a TRUE kiddush HaShem”. And, may I go so far as to think that the Rebbe would be proud of you? We certainly are!

  • yanky l . london

    i would love to donate to this worthy cause. Please can you give contact details.

  • chayaf

    To Leah
    You are an inspiration, and this article should be sent to all the major newspapers. You are a light, and may all the souls that were so brutally killed, may they intercede on your behalf and give you many blessings for performing chesed shel emes. Please send us a place where we can donate and participate in your mitzvah. To number 6, you are brain dead.

  • Pinchos Woolstone

    A remarkable undertaking.
    This lady is to be admired.
    Klal Yisroel need more dedicated people like Miss New.
    May be Blessed

  • Sara

    I think it’s so special what Leah is doing.
    I visited the Ukraine this summer, and i couldn’t help but feel pain as i knew there is Jewish blood all over the land.
    May all the murdered yidden’s memories serve as a blessing.

  • a stern friend!

    go lea you are awesome and so special! i knew you’d do big things-may it continue!

  • Single gal

    There are many brochos for those that help with this very special project – go and donate!! I just did.

  • THHM

    since I am #23, I am proud to say that out of 23 postings, only ONE was negative. this shows many lessons.
    I’m sorry for that one negative person, but I’m sure that this does exist and I feel that the person will be able to learn from others,
    sometimes people say things that don’t make sense and they learn later….