PIATRA NEAMT: Neamt judet [Karacsonko, Kreuzburg an der Bistritz, Piatra Neamts, Piatra lui Cracun]

• JOWBR: Jewish Cemetery

• JewishGen Romania SIG
• Encyclopedia of Jewish Life (2001), pp. 986-987: "Piatra-Neamt".

The national Jewish community owns the property now used for Jewish cemetery purposes only. Adjacent properties are agricultural and residential. Compared to 1939, the cemetery boundaries enclose the same area. Frequently, private visitors (Jewish or non-Jewish) and local residents stop. Care of the never vandalized cemetery includes cleaning of stones and fixing of fence and gate by regional/national authorities in 1998 and 2000. The Jewish Congregation of Piatra Neamt pays the regular caretaker. The preburial house has a tahara (table), a catafalque, and wall inscriptions. Security, pollution, and weather erosion are slight threats. Vegetation is a moderate threat.

(Neamt judet) also used this landmarked cemetery, 1.5 km from the congregation that used it.

The isolated urban flat land has no sign, but has Jewish symbols on gate or wall. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open with permission. A continuous masonry wall and a gate that locks surround the site. The pre- and post-WWII size is 420-m X 250 m. 500 - 5,000 gravestones are visible in the cemetery. 1 to 20 are not in original location. More than 75% are toppled or broken. Vegetation overgrowth is a seasonal problem, preventing access. Water drainage is good all year.

The cemetery has special sections for unmarried men, Cohanim, and children. The gravestones date from 1892 through the 20th century. Marble, granite, limestone, sandstone, and other material rough stones or boulders, flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed stones, and flat stones with carved relief decoration, double tombstones, sculpted tombstones, and multistone monuments. Inscriptions are in Hebrew, Yiddish, German, and Romanian. A monument to Jewish soldiers exists.

Lucian Nastasa, Clinicilor str., no. 19, Cluj, Romania, tel. 064/190107. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. completed the survey on July 18, 2000 using the following documentation:

• Leonida Colescu, Analiza rezultatelor recensamîntului general al populatiei Romaniei de la 1899, cu o prefată de Sabin Manuila, Bucuresti, Institutul de statistica, 1944.
• I.M. Dinescu, Fiii neamului de la 1859 la 1915. Statistica sociala pe întelesul tuturora, Iasi, Institutul de Arte Grafice N.V.Stefaniu, 1920.
• Pinkas Hakehillot, Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities Romania, I-II, Jerusalem, 1980.
• D. Ivanescu, Populatia evreiască din orasele si tîrgurile Moldovei între 1774-1832 , în "Studia et acta historiae iudaeorum Romaniae", II, Bucuresti, Edit.Hasefer, 1997, p. 59-65.
• Josef Kaufman, Cronica comunitatilor israelite din judetul Neamt, I-II, Piatra Neamt, 1928- 1929
• George I. Lahovari, Marele dictionar geografic al Romaniei, 5 vol., Bucuresti, Edit.Socec, 1899.
• E. Schwarzfeld, Din istoria evreilor: împopularea, reîmpopularea si întemeierea tîrgurilor si tîrgusoarelor în Moldova, Bucuresti, 1894.
• Sources and testimonies concerning the Jews in Romania, II/1-2, Bucharest, 1988-1990.
• N. Sutu, Notiti statistice asupra Moldaviei, Iasi, 1852.

He visited July 15, 2000 and interviewed Andronic Vasile, str. Cîrlomanu 17, Piatra Neamt, Neamt judet; phone 233150. [June 2002]

PIATRA NEAMT II:  
BOOK: abandoned sites Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to East-Central Europe by Ruth Ellen Gruber- New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1992. - 201, 220-221

Alternate names: Piatra Veauitz/Piatra. Located at 46°55' 26°20' in Neamt County, Moldavia region.
Cemetery located on western outskirts of the city, large and impressive in good condition and maintained by the city's tiny Jewish community. 10 pictures in book. Source: Saros Laszlo and Vali Dezso. Tanu ez a kohalom ; (This Cairn is Witness Today). ISBN 963 7476 172.Bruce Kahn This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [date? 1998?]
There are two different cemeteries. I did not visit the old cemetery in an entirely location of town than the newer cemetery--near the hospital. According to Ruth Gruber, the older cemetery contains stones dating back a few hundred years. Source: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.: [?1998?]

The new cemetery is located on the western outskirts of town, on the road leading to Bicaz. The Jewish community is in possession of an incomplete burial register dating back to the 1890s. The cemetery is always unlocked. The on-site caretaker is a drunk not particularly skilled at finding graves and cannot read Hebrew. The earliest graves date from the early 1870s. The very large and in very good condition cemetery is overgrown with thistles and brambles by late summer. Some of the approximately 5,000 stones contain photos. The oldest stones (1870s) are located immediately to the left of the main building. Men and women were buried in separate rows. Burials through the 1910s were in sequential rows toward the East. Newer graves are interspersed in available spaces and surround the edges of the older core. Source: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [about 1999]

Photos courtesy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [July 2012]

Lower Cemetery, in use

Upper Cemetery, in use

Behind hospital, no longer in use

Old and new synagogues

[UPDATE] Photos by Charles Burns [April 2016]