Our
Initiatives

Likrat Moldova is an intercultural leadership and dialogue project that fosters a sense of belonging in the revived Jewish community, providing Jewish education and identity. We inspire young people to explore their Jewish heritage and culture and participate in community events. Likrat Moldova also promotes peaceful coexistence among non-Jewish people to reduce antisemitism. Through meetings at schools and universities, Likrat breaks stereotypes and educates young people about Jewish culture, history, and modern life.

Before LivingStones began its work in 2016, the Jewish cemeteries in Moldova stood in an advanced state of deterioration. Less than ten of the seventy cemeteries were maintained to an acceptable standard. The cemeteries were unmarked, not cared for, desolated, and forgotten. We recovered their space and the trace of its people lost as the result of the annihilation of their communities in the Holocaust. Preserving the memory of the Jewish presence in the cemeteries was our top priority, and we took action to protect the surviving gravestones from being built over and lost forever. We contacted and teamed up with the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative (ESJF) to save Moldova's first cemetery since WWII. In September 2017, the Briceva cemetery, our pilot project, was fenced and their gravestones were finally taken care of. Two years later, all the other cemeteries were marked and documented. Another of our initiatives to preserve a cemetery includes an online platform to connect descendants to their Bessarabian Jewish ancestors and vibrant history. In July 2021, LivingStones started a project taking over 2800 photos of surviving graves at the Yedinitz cemetery. They are now being translated with the voluntary expertise of Yedinitz's descendants to help future generations find their ancestors and Jewish heritage. This powerful tool will also help maintain with the help of donations in this cemetery in the future. The newest LivingStones initiative is placing QR codes in the Yedinitz cemetery to educate visitors about the history of the once-thriving Jewish community.

Install, Revive, Coexist - the reasons why we build memorials We build Holocaust memorials for relatives to remember and mourn, and for public schools, locals, and visitors to pay respect and learn about what happened in the past. Making these stones speak out is what we do. With our well-researched QRCODES, visitors experience the monuments in a new way. They bring to light a brighter future when breaking the silence, telling stories about the vanished Jewish life in these forgotten shtetls and towns.