Set on a slope facing the Nistru (Dniester) River, the Jewish cemetery of Vadul-Rașcov is one of those places where the landscape itself becomes part of the archive. Recent documentation estimates around 2,500 tombstones and identifies at least four sectors, separated by traces of ditches and walls, indicating distinct phases of use and expansion of the burial ground.

The local Jewish community took shape around the mid-eighteenth century, and the cemetery contains burials dating from at least 1746–1747; the most recent dated tombstone is from 1955. Overall, inscriptions are predominantly in Hebrew, with rare bilingual examples (Hebrew and Russian) appearing in the later records.

Beyond its historical value, there is a solid body of data. The JewishGen project (Bessarabia SIG) began systematic documentation in 2017 and published a final report (phases 1 and 2) indexing 1,927 graves, with thousands of photographs and a significant number of “unknown” graves, unidentified at the time of recording, a valuable resource for genealogy and social history.

Protection and contemporary interpretation: in December 2023 the cemetery was entered into the National Register of Monuments, and in 2024 an official inspection was carried out to assess the condition of the site and its fencing, with a view to restoration and safety measures. In parallel, the Jewish History Museum of the Republic of Moldova has promoted the idea of an “open-air museum” at the cemetery itself, with an interpretive center dedicated to the shtetl and local memory.