Chernovtsy is a regional center in Western Ukraine, along with Lviv is considered to be cultural center of Western Ukraine. The city has rich history and cultural background (in different periods it was part of Turkish Empire, Austrian-Hungarian Empire and Romania, the city is called ‘little Vienna” or “European Alexandria” because of its rich cultural and historic backgrounds), and very multi-national community – according to population census in 2001 65 different nationalities are living in the city. One of the biggest ethnic groups is Jewish, and before 2nd World War Jewish minority was playing important part in the life of the city. One of the traces left by Jewish group is a cemetery from 19th – first half of 20th century, which has many tomb stones made by famous artists. During 2nd World War Jewish population suffered terrible losses at the hands of the Nazis and those who survived the war, mostly emigrated.
The cemetery is in abandoned state, bushes and weeds destroy the monuments. It is planned to contribute to renovation of the cemetery by cleaning one of its parts with volunteer efforts.

The idea of the project was born just few weeks ago, when SCI-Germany and SVIT were contacted by group of people, whose families came from Chernivtsi and who are concerned about neglected state of the cemetery. We hope that joining our efforts, we could lay a foundation for volunteer work in the West of Ukraine, and contribute to preserving this cultural and historical monument. The project is planned to take place in August 7-21, 2008.