Shumen | Bulgaria | International Jewish Cemetery Project

Alternate name: Shumen andï¿½???e? [Bulg], ?umnu [Turk], Schumen [Ger], Kolarovgrad [1950-1965], Shumla, ï¿½umla, ï¿½umen, Choumen, Shumla under Ottoman rule. ï¿½.

In NE Bulgaria, 186 miles ENE of Sofiya, south of the Danube river and near the Black Sea. It had an important Alliance Israelite Universelle school and the local Jewish community played an important role in the Bulgarian Sionist Movement. After WW II almost its entire Jewish population immigrated to Israel. Today, only very few Jews live in Shumen, most in mixed marriages.Only the Jewish cemetery remains from the Jewish community.

Yehudei Bulgaria - Kehilat Shumla (Tel Aviv, 1968)
Sephardic Gen
photo of Jewish kindergarten [Sep 2014]
Brill Encyclopedia of Jews of the Islamic World. Aksel Erbahar. "Shumla (Shumen)."ï¿½Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online, 2014.ï¿½Reference. 06 September 2014

CEMETERIES:

OLD CEMETERY: no longer exists. founded at end of 16th century.
NEW CEMETERY: Next to Stadium N17
- contains 653 graves of Jews who died between 1873 and 1966. pdf of burials in the Jewish cemetery: handwritten by Marko Abraham Farin (1893-1963) , but few names have been added after the date of his decease. list of burials in the Jewish Cemetery in Shumen
- A new cemetery was established in 1872 because of an outbreak of cholera and is owned by the Jewish community. Active at least until 1964. Enclosed by a wall, with about 650 gravestones, both vertical in a variety of shapes, as well as horizontal slabs and higher horizontal "breadloaf" type of gravestone that resembleï¿½ sarcophagi with a rounded top.ï¿½ Many of the vertical headstones are decorated with enameled portraits of the deceased and simple decorative devices, especially Mogen David.ï¿½ Inscriptions are in Hebrew and Bulgarian. Some maintenance is occasiona. Vandalism is occasional. A pre-burial house and a monument to 356 individuals whose remains were moved to this site in 1935 can be seen. [Sept 2014]
  
  Photographs of the Cemetery in Shumen
  
  photo and photos.ï¿½[Sep 2014]
- The last knownï¿½Jewish burial at this site was in 1964.ï¿½The cemetery owned by the local Jewish community marked by a Mogenï¿½David on the gate. Access can be obtained with permissio to the 0.46 hectares site with about 650 headstones. Only a part of the old fence with a gate that locks still survives. Commercial or industrial encroachment can be seen in places not surrounded by the fence. Thoughï¿½vegetation is a constant problem, the Jewish community clears the cemetery seasonally.ï¿½A commemorative monument to 356 individuals whose remains were moved toï¿½this site in 1935. Apre-burial house exists at the site. Source with photos.ï¿½[Sep 2014]