Felshtin is a name that has almost disappeared from maps. The Yiddish name belongs to a small town in Podolia, in western Ukraine, now called Hvardiiske, where for generations Jews and Ukrainians lived side by side among the orchards and rolling fields. The Jewish community lived by trade and craft, with a synagogue, a market square and a cemetery on the edge of town. In February 1919, during the chaos of the civil war, the town was attacked, and hundreds of its Jewish residents were murdered in one of the worst pogroms of that period. Later the community was destroyed completely in the Second World War.
What remains is mostly the cemetery, with old tombstones carved in Hebrew with symbols such as hands, lions, and trees, many of them leaning, broken or covered in moss. Hunting for the stones is a quiet and sombre experience, and visitors who come are asked to treat the place with respect, to keep to the paths and not to disturb the stones. Baranowka, mentioned in our label, is a neighbouring Jewish heritage site in the same district of Khmelnytskyi province.
I should be honest about the practical side. Ukraine is at war, and although this western region is far from the front line, there are air-raid alerts, restrictions on movement, military checkpoints and fuel shortages from time to time, and travel advice from most governments is to avoid non-essential travel. If you are thinking of visiting, check the current situation carefully, and do not plan a route without up-to-date local information. In peaceful times, the roads in Podolia are mixed, with decent main routes and rough side roads, and the countryside is gentle and pretty, with fields of sunflowers, wheat and maize.
The nearest town is Yarmolyntsi, around nineteen kilometres away, with shops and a market, and Khmelnytskyi city is larger. Podolia is also home to the Dniester canyon and the fortress of Kamianets-Podilskyi, which are among the most impressive sights in the country and, in better times, are well worth a visit. If you want to learn about the Jewish history of the region, local museums and researchers in Khmelnytskyi are the best source.