באטאשאן

באטאשאן — בתי החיים

Botoșani — the Jewish cemeteries

Jewish cemetery, Bulevardul Mihai Eminescu 403, Botoșani, Botoșani County, Moldavia, Romania

• GO TO MIHAI EMINESCU 403. Two of the town's three grounds are there, one seventeenth-century and one nineteenth-century, and one man holds the key to both — the survey gives him as Iordache Ilie, living at that same number. Entry is with permission, and that is the address to ask at.
• The third and oldest ground, on Penes Curcanul 6, is shut. It is walled, the gate locks, and its key is held separately at number 22 on the same street. Only twenty to a hundred stones are still visible in it and most of those are down.
• The nineteenth-century ground is the large one — over five thousand graves — but more than three quarters of its matzevos are toppled or broken, so finding a particular stone is a long job rather than a quick one.
• Botoșani is one of the places where Romania's rare wooden grave markers have survived, which is worth knowing before you walk past one.