ORNAMENTATION OF GRAVESTONES IN THE JEWISH CEMETERY OF THE TOWN OF BOLEKHIV

Abstract

The article examines the history of the formation, functioning, and symbolic significance of the cemetery in the town of Bolekhiv as an important element of the sacred space of the Jewish community in Eastern Galicia between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The legal and socio- cultural preconditions for the emergence of the Bolekhiv kirkut are analysed in the context of the privileges granted to the Jewish population of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, alongside the historical development of the Jewish cemetery itself. Particular attention is devoted to the localisation of the cemetery, the semantics of the terms okopysko and kirkut, and the specific features of the spatial organisation of Jewish burial complexes in Galicia. The structure of the cemetery has been examined in relation to commonly accepted typological models, and an attempt has been made to systematise the symbolism of the Jewish funerary monuments. Drawing upon archival documents, epigraphic materials, and field research, the study traces the evolution of matzevah ornamentation from the earliest surviving examples to the first third of the twentieth century. The role of funerary monuments as sacred objects combining text, ornament, and the symbolic code of Jewish culture is explored in detail. Special consideration is given to the semantics of symbolic imagery and its possible interpretations. Zoomorphic and floral motifs employed in the decoration of gravestones are analysed as manifestations of the local artistic tradition of Jewish sacred art. The kirkut is interpreted as a space of collective memory reflecting the religious life and cultural identity of the Jewish community of Bolekhiv. The article also addresses the tragic transformation of the cemetery during the Holocaust and its significance as a site of remembrance for the annihilated Hebrew community. In addition to field investigations, the study draws upon the scholarly contributions of the Doctor of Art Studies Borys Khaimovych, the architectural historian Serhii Kravtsov, the specialist in Jewish culture Anatolii Kerzhner, the Judaica scholar Yevhen Shnaider, and the researcher of the Jewish cemetery in Sataniv, Dmytro Poliukhovych.