The Southern Buh River (known in ancient times as the Boh) washed Yerusalymka along the northeastern side of Vinnytsia’s central riverbank. Its waters also separated the residential quarter of Vinnytsia’s Jewish community from their traditional place of burial—the old Jewish cemetery, which likely remained in the same location since the 16th century.

In 1901, representatives of the Jewish community appealed to the city administration with a request to expand the cemetery using a vacant plot of land owned by the city.

A major problem for the district, also связан with its proximity to the river, was the lack of a proper sewage system and organized waste disposal. As a result of unsanitary conditions, the river water often became unfit for consumption and a source of epidemic outbreaks.

Before the construction of a centralized water supply system in Vinnytsia in 1911–1912, a common business was the delivery of drinking and technical water by Jewish water carriers throughout the city. In particular, to support their work, two оборудовані water-drawing descents were operating in Yerusalymka as of 1902.