Polish strongmen assist in Jewish headstone recovery
Jack Mendel is the former Online Editor at the Jewish News.
Two Polish strongmen were summoned to assist a Polish-Jewish organisation lift two gravestones carved as tree-trunks, writes Jack Mendel
From The Depths is an organisation in Poland, rooted in the notion of ‘connecting with the Past to build the Future’. It runs a project called the Matzeva (tombstone) project, which seeks to recover and return thousands of lost Jewish gravestones to a cemetery.
Two pieces of Jewish gravestone had been found in the Garden of a Warsaw resident, and they had contacted the head of From The Depths, Jonny Daniels.
These stones needed to be removed, but weighing in at 250 kilos, it seemed somewhat unlikely that Daniels could do it without assistance of machinery.
Due to the Matzevas being over 50 metres away from the gate of the plot of land, machinery was not an option.
So, two strongmen turned up to assist.
The first stone, weighing in at 250 kilos needed both Polish Strongman Federation head and former world champion Tomasz Kowal, and an assistant.
They lifted the stone, before it could be returned to Warsaw Okopowa Jewish cemetery.
Kowal removed the second smaller piece which weighed in at 120 kilos alone, and it too was returned.
The Jewish News recently sent a reporter to Poland to discover the work of ‘From the Depths’ in greater detail.
To follow ‘From the Depths’ like their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ftdepths
View their website: http://www.fromthedepths.org/
To follow their Matzeva project like their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/matzevaproject
View the section on their website dedicated to the project: http://www.fromthedepths.org/#!matzeva-project/c9kd
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