In a former Soviet republic, Jewish cemeteries get little respect

I. Citation-

In a former Soviet republic, Jewish cemeteries get little respect

Jerusalem Post, April 13th

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207649995883&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull



II. Summary-
In Gomel, Belarus a sports stadium was built over a Jewish cemetery in 1961 which destroyed the cemetery but left the remains unharmed. That is until this spring when the stadium began reconstruction and bulldozers uncover bones. The government told workers to pack the bodies in sacks so the remains could be moved to another location but workers say that this is impossible because of how many bones there are. The conflict between Gomel's Jewish citizens and Gomel's government continues to try and find a way to reconstruct the sports stadium and preserve the remains.

II. Reactions-

• The AP World History theme that this article relates to is State-building, expansion and conflict. Problems between Gomel, Belarus' government and their Jewish citizens are occurring over reconstruction of the sports stadium.
• Before World War II, Belarus was home to some 1 million Jews; 800,000 died in the Holocaust. Today there are about 27,000 Jews in the country's 10 million citizens. Jews began to settle in Gomel in the 16th century. By the late 19th century, they were more than half of the population. In 1903, according to the article, the Gomel Jews made history by being the first to resist a pogrom and defended 26 synagogues and prayer houses. Most of the city's 40,000 Jewish residents managed to get out before the Nazis arrived; 4,000 who stayed were murdered in November 1941. Today's population is 500,000 with only a few thousand Jews among them.
• The author and his or her point of view is unknown.
• Although readers don't know the author's point of view, it is evident throughout the article that he or she is bias in favor for the preserving of the Jewish cemetery. This could be proven by "Lukashenko, has shown little respect for Jewish culture." The author also chose to interview people who are against the stadium to give readers a negative outlook upon it.
• The missing voice within this article is a stadium construction worker, hearing their point of view would show if they think that destroying this Jewish cemetery is wrong too. It would be interesting if there was a Jewish construction worker to gain why they would help to demolish a part of their history. Hearing this point of view, readers would also know how many bodies they have found and the difficulty of packing the bones in sacks.
• This article shows that when a society has a larger percentage of one religion, sometimes the minority's cares can be overseen by the government. I found it upsetting to think about because I thought about any Jewish person whose ancestor could be buried in the cemetery that is now getting destroyed by a sport stadium. I believe that the government needs to think about this also and put themselves in a Jews' shoes.