A Varsavianist stroll in the Jewish cemetery at Okopowa Street in the footsteps of social workers and philanthropists

The Warsaw Ghetto Museum would like to invite you to the second stroll in the series of our monthly, educational Varsavianist strolls. We meet at Okopowa Street on 7 July.

Charity – tzedakah – is one of the most important mitzvot (commandments) in the Jewish religion. The ability to speed up the coming of messianic times and reparation for sins was attributed to it.

Before the war, the Jewish cemetery at Okopowa Street was called the cemetery at Gęsia Street. Established in the beginning of the 19th century, it is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe. Around 200 thousand people are buried here – famous tzadikim and rabbis, doctors, scientists, writers, artists, social and political activists, and philanthropists. One of the sepulchral symbols commonly found in Jewish cemeteries is a hand throwing a coin into a can for charity, or tzedakah. It is the honouring of those, who by their activity and donations supported the neediest.

During our stroll, we will visit the graves of famous Jewish families of social workers and philanthropists, i.a.: Hipolit Wawelberg, Samuel Orgelbrand, Samuel Bergson, Jakub and Adam Epstein and the founders of the Children’s Hospital – Majer Bersohn and his daughter Paulina Bauman.

Jagna Kofta, an employee of the Education Department of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum and Warsaw guide, will share her extensive knowledge with us.

The meeting point for the stroll’s participants is the cemetery gate at 49/51 Okopowa Street – 7 July at noon.

Anna Kilian