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Kowel; Testimony and Memorial Book of Our Destroyed Community

Kowel; sefer edut ve-zikaron le-kehilatenu she-ala aleha ha-koret

Cover of the Kovel Yizkor Book

Kowel; sefer edut ve-zikaron le-kehilatenu she-ala aleha ha-koret

Editor of Original Yizkor Book: Eliezer Leoni-Zopperfin Project Coordinator: Bruce Drake Layout and Name Indexing: Jonathan Wind Cover Design: Nina Schwartz Reproduction of Photographs: Sondra Ettlinger Hard Cover, 8.5" by 11", 376 pages with original photographs

About This Book

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Jewish community of Kovel grew economically, politically and intellectually. In the 1920s, as part of the new Republic of Poland, the community supported three major synagogues, kindergartens, two elementary Hebrew schools, a Hebrew high school, a Yiddish school, a vibrant Yiddish theatre scene, and several political parties, both Zionist and Orthodox. In 1937, Kowel's 13,200 Jews made up nearly half the total population. Soviet occupation in 1939 ended community life, and the murderous Nazi occupation that followed wiped out the Jews themselves.

The anguish of those who lost their lives was recorded in nearly 100 pencil-written notes on the walls of the city's Great Synagogue, lamenting the dead, asking for remembrance, and calling for vengeance.

May this book be a memorial to them and the community that no longer exists.

Place Details

Kovel Ukraine is located at 51°13' / 24°43'

Alternate names of the Town:

Kovel [Ukr, Rus, Yid], Kowel [Pol], Kovla, Kovle

Nearby Jewish Communities:

Turiysk 11 miles SW
Milyanovichi 12 miles WSW
Nesukhoyezhe 12 miles NNE
Ozeryany 14 miles SSE
Cheremoshno 15 miles ENE
Kupychiv 15 miles S
Holoby 16 miles SE
Dolsk 16 miles WSW
Lukov 17 miles W
Melnytsya 17 miles ESE
Povorsk 18 miles E

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