Polish Jews Will Build Western Wall Replica
A wall modeled on the Western Wall in Jerusalem will stand at the site of the Jewish cemetery in Bilgoraj, in south-eastern Poland.
The wall, which is being funded by the Isaac Bashevis Singer Association of Bilgoraj, will display the names of Jews who lived in the town.
One name that will be included on the wall is Shmuel Ben-Artzi, father-in-law of Benjamin Netanyahu. Ben-Artzi was born in Bilgoraj in 1914. He later studied in the town’s cheder and then at yeshiva in Miedzyrzec, Ukraine. He left Poland in the 1930s. He was a writer, poet, educator, who devoted several of his poems to Bilgoraj. He died in 2011.
The cost of the wall is about $15,000.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
