From Bialystok to Kishinev”: The Dubnow Grave Inscriptions and their Significance for Russian Jewish Historiography and Cemetery Studies

In October 1892, maskil Simon Dubnow published an open letter in Voskhod, the liberal Jewish monthly in Odessa where he worked as a journalist and literary editor. His letter, directed to both the maskilim (intellectuals) and mithnagdim (traditionalists) of his day, appealed to his cohorts to assist in writing the history of Russian Jews as a value distinct from the larger world history of Jewry. The letters Dubnow received in response bear witness to this process of historiography, and many are preserved in The Simon Dubnow Papers, 1632-1938, part of the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections. Within Record Group 87, ten folders from Jewish towns spreading from Bialystok to Kishinev were recently re-discovered. These folders include: Bialystok, Gomel, Lipoviets, Lublin, Lutsk, Miedzybozh, Mohilev Podolsk, Ostroha and Stepan, and Kishinev. This paper examines the inscriptions contained in these letters and responds to the simple questions: Why did the zamiers select specific epitaphs that they transcribed for Dubnow?, and What value does each gravestone letter hold for Jewish historiography then and now?