Yahilnytsya Jewish Cemetery

The Kloyz of R. David Moshe Friedmann in Chortkiv is a Hasidic synagogue built between 1881 and 1885 by architect Jan Marcin Cieślikowski (1842–1927). This Romantic Historicist brick building is now a library.

The Great Synagogue in Chortkiv is an Ashkenazi synagogue completed in 1771. The synagogue has wall paintings from 1921. The Baroque stone building is now abandoned. The prayer hall of the synagogue was decorated witht the depictions of the Four animals (a tiger, an eagle, a dear, and a lion). The running inscription הוי עז כנמר וקל כנשר רץ כצבי וגיבור כארי (be strong as the leopard and swift as the eagle, fleet as the gazelle and brave as the lion, Mishnah Avot5:20) corresponds to the images. Other mural paintings included The Jaffo Gate in Jerusalem (Tower of David), The Western Wall, כרם היה לידידי, and Rachel's Tomb. On the western wall there were two paintings with frames to the memory of perished in pogroms. Among the prayers written on the walls were אבינו מלכינו, ויהי בנסוע הארון, ספירת העומר, מזמור שיר ליום שבת. On the ceiling the Zodiac signs were depicted. In the windows of the east wall there were stained glass.

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. It appears on cadastral maps of 1826, 1858 and 1899. It can be assumed that the cemetery already existed in the middle of the 18th century. The grave of Baal Shem Tov’s mother, Sarah, is located on the Jewish cemetery of Tovste.