TALNOYE:
The former Yiddish name of the town is Tolna. The cemetery is located on the outskirts of Talnoye, near Uman, Kiev Oblast, Ukraine, about 38 km NE of Uman at 48º45 30º13. Present town population is 60,000 with one Jew.
- Town officials: Mayor in 1994 was Andre Ilyavich Ploishuk, v1 Lenine 28, 2nd Floor, 258730 Talnove, Uk.
A pleasant Christian woman named Claudia, who worked in the record office, ran around town to find the one Jewish woman remaining. She is married to a Christian and her children are Christian. Her name was Galyne. The Jewish population before WWII was 4,169. The Twersky Rabbinical line comes from Talnoye. (Rabbi Y. Twersky, Talner Congregation, 64 Corey Road, Brookline, Mass 02146 and Harvard Univ. Center for Jewish Studies, 6 Divinity Aven, Cambridge, Mass 02138.) An ohel close to the center of town holds the remains of Reb David Twersky. The unlandmarked Jewish community was Orthodox. On the outskirts of town is the isolated rural/agricultural flat land with no sign or marker. The site is reached by turning directly off a public road. Access is open to all with No wall, fence or gate surround. The cemetery is many hectares. Five gravestones are in original location but many are in the new section. Most are buried beneath earth and grass. Vegetation is a problem in the newer parts of the cemetery. The granite finely smoothed and inscribed stones or double tombstones, some with portraits on the stones, are inscribed in Yiddish and Russian/Ukrainian. The cemetery contains no special memorial monuments but on one road is a marker commemorating the Soviet citizens who died at the hands of the Nazis. No known mass graves. The present owner of the property used only for Jewish cemetery is probably the municipality. Adjacent properties are agricultural. Compared to 1939, the cemetery is probably the same size. The cemetery is visited occasionally by private visitors. Some modern stones exist. Vandalism is questionable even though stones are toppled and broken, the cause and date are not known. No maintenance but those with family there seem to care for the newer section even if they are no longer Jewish. No Structures. Vandalism is a slight threat.
Irene Silfin, 15 Audley Clr., Plainview, NY 11803, 516-935-8224 completed this survey on 15 October 1997 after a visit to the site in July 1995. No documentation was used but she interviewed Galyne, the last Jewess and Claudia, a government employee in the record office.
