The huge Jewish cemetery in Zhytomyska St (Ukrainian: Єврейське кладовище), located just behind the railway crossing, at Zhytomyrska St, 72 (Ukrainian: Вул. Житомирська 72) fully corresponds to the fame of this center in the Jewish world (although there used to be more cemeteries here).
It was established at the end of the 18th century, probably around 1798. It survived the German occupation without major losses, although over a dozen percent of the monuments were moved to the central part of the cemetery, probably for removal. The official closure for burials took place in November 1973, but later graves, even from 2006, can be found here. Its original boundaries were even larger than today, although today it is 13.75 ha. It included, among others the area of the adjacent car exchange.
No one can determine the number of tombstones. 550 were inventoried, but in many places whole slabs and tombs look out from under the ground; in total, there may be up to 10,000 of them. The dominant form of the monument is a tombstone composed of a stele (matzevah) flowing smoothly into a tomb; in fact, it resembles a recumbent long-leg shoe. Such tombstones were made of a mixture of lime and cement (which became popular in the 19th century). Limestone and granite tombstones, sometimes with symbols, almost always with Hebrew inscriptions, have been preserved much less and much worse. All monuments were originally facing west.
The burial in Berdychiv was a prestigious matter. Not only locals were buried here, but also merchants arriving at local fairs. As well as tzadiks and rabbis from smaller towns in the then eastern part of the Volyn Governorate. The most famous, still a destination for thousands of pilgrims every year, is the resting place of Tzadik Levi Yitzchok of Berdychiv (died 1809). Currently, it is a two-story ohel, but the modern form of the building dates from the period after 2010. Originally there was a "cave", like in the descriptions of the burial places of biblical patriarchs. In one part there were the tzaddik's and his sons' tombs, in the other - his wife and daughter. This facility was demolished in the USSR era. In 1991, a typical ohel was built thanks to the foundation of the Israeli Nachman Elbaum. The first expansion took place in 2007, and then another one, with the addition of today's women's gallery around. It is worth emphasizing that the arrangement of the burials, including the "long-leg shoes" around and below the ohel, is not accidental. Among others, persons recognized as disciples of Levi Yitzchok. The indescribable yellow, vertical ohel with the Star of David on the door, by the route to the ohel of Levi Yitzchok, houses the burials of the rabbis from the Tversky family serving in Berdychiv: Moshe Mordekhai Tversky (1844–1920), his son Tzvi Ari Tversky (died 1935) and son-in-law the latter Chaim Kanner (d. 1937). Another tiny ohel with a plaque hides the grave of a woman from this family - Mirl Kanner-Tversky. Finally, the tomb on a white pedestal, with a Hebrew tablet next to it, belongs to Rabbi Shmerl, son of Abraham (died 1910), who was worshiped by Hasidim from Breslov. This tomb was discovered only in 2010.
The cemetery was the site of the mass executions of Jews by the Germans, carried out on September 15-16, 1941. In 1990, a commemorative obelisk with inscriptions in Yiddish and Russian was erected in front of the gate. In 1990, a mass grave of 195 victims of Stalinist repressions of 1937–1938 was also discovered at the cemetery; all victims were killed with a shot to the back of the head. Currently, this grave is marked by a monument from 1995.
