This Very Stone Shall Be a Witness

This book is an expansion of the author's previous work, privately published in the Polish language. This Stone Shall Be a Witness: The Jewish Cemetery in Wielkie Oczy is a descriptive and historical analysis of the art, iconography and inscriptions of gravestones in the Jewish cemetery in Wielkie Oczy a small village in southeastern Poland. It is a stunning and groundbreaking work by Andrzej Trzcinski, professor emeritus of Maria curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, a world authority and Poland's best known, most distinguished expert on the topic of traditional Jewish art, especially cemetery, sepulchral art in the Ashkenazi tradition. This publication will be of significant importance to people from around the world who are interested in the local monuments of material culture and enthusiats of Wielkie Oczy's past. It is also a resource for Jewish genealogists for whom it will be an important source of knowledge about the past of their families. Lastly, an important task of this work is its potential impact on standards of documenting Jewish cemeteries in Poland.

A descriptive and historical analysis of the cemetery and extant gravestones in the Jewish Cemetery in Wielkie Oczy, Poland.
Andrzej Trzciński, professor emeritus of Maria-Curie Sklodowska University in Lublin (Poland), is a historian and art historian who specializes in the field of material and artistic culture of the Ashkenazi Jews. He researches Jewish antiquities in the area of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in their historical context, iconography and iconology of images on gravestones, the equipment and interior decor of synagogues as well as Hebrew epigraphy and paleography.

"Professor Andrzej Trzciński is a world authority and Poland's best known, most distinguished
expert on the topic of traditional Jewish art, especially cemetery traditions. Sepulchral art is an area of his special interest. This publication will be of significant importance to local historians, to enthusiasts of Wielkie Oczy's past, and to numerous people from around the world who are interested in the local monuments of material culture. Undoubtedly, the book will also be used by Jewish genealogists, for whom this type of publication is an important source of knowledge about the past of their families. Finally, an important task of this work is its potential impact on standards of documenting Jewish cemeteries in Poland."

Marcin Wodziński
Professor of Jewish History and Literature
University of Wroclaw