Obj. ID: 50363
Jewish Funerary Art  Jewish cemetery in Mogielnica, Poland

According to ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the cemetery is located about 700 metres (m) north-east of the town centre, and about 100 m north-east of Armii Krajowej Street, on a vast hill, and covers a plot measuring 1.24 hectares. The cemetery was established at the end of the 18th century. It had a wooden fence, which was repaired in 1848. A year later, Rebbe Chaim Meir Jechiel Szapira, the founder of the local Hasidic dynasty, was buried in the cemetery. Around 1862, the area of the cemetery was enlarged.

The devastation of the cemetery began during World War II, when the Germans used some tombstones to harden the yard of the gendarmerie building. Numerous tombstones were also stolen by locals and used as construction material. At the beginning of the 21st century, there were individual destroyed tombstones within the cemetery. Around 2002, thanks to the efforts of Hasidic communities, two ohels were built. The larger ohel was built over the supposed graves of Rebbe Chaim Meir Jechiel Szapira, his father Zelig, mother Lea Perel, and wife Gitel. The smaller ohel commemorates Rebbe Jakow of Mogielnica, son of Elimelech from Leżajsk. In 2012, as a result of an open-pit archaeological excavation, the proper burial places of members of the Hasidic dynasty and several tombstones with preserved polychromes were found. The area is surrounded by a fence made of prefabricated concrete elements. The preservation work on the cemetery was conducted by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage and The Heritage Foundation for Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries Avoyseinu. Tombstones taken from the yard in front of the former gendarmerie building were placed in the ohel. In the following years, a monitoring system was installed in the cemetery.
The owner of the cemetery is the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage. The facility is listed in the Register of Immovable Monuments of the Masovian Voivodeship (entry No. 526 / A / 92, April 8, 1992).

There is a concrete wall, 2 m high, installed by FODZ and HFPJC Avoyseinu. The ESJF field team was unable to gain access to the cemetery area.

According to sources there are 32 standing, 21 lying and some fragments of tombstones in the cemetery. Some tombstones were returned from the yard in front of the former gendarmerie building and placed in the ohallim.