tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72239435123311815422026-02-05T18:33:27.314-05:00A blog on international Jewish cemeteries, preservation and restoration projects, reading Hebrew tombstones and more. <br> <br> <br>Charter Member of the Association of Graveyard RabbitsSchelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-75811937877295604262014-03-24T16:42:00.000-04:002014-03-24T16:42:07.332-04:00

Recently I was contacted by Ghila Valabrega, writer, director and producer of Felice Nel Box, what it seems to be a very interesting comedy with a Jewish cemetery as the starting point. This movie shows the unfortunately condition of many of Jewish cemeteries across Europe and I hope it will be a wake up call for many people that can help restore and save this and many other pieces of the history

Daniel Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08841542053459871794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-191571767433951232012-05-31T17:09:00.000-04:002012-05-31T17:09:41.311-04:00

I have what some people consider a weird custom of visiting Jewish cemeteries wherever I go. It’s not that I have a relative buried there, although it may be so&nbsp;-you never know- it’s simply that I’m a genealogist, and this is similar to checking phone books to see how many with the Horowitz live in a town.&nbsp;&nbsp; Cemetery Main Entrance In March, I was on my way to the

Daniel Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08841542053459871794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-21723680746336370652011-04-28T02:01:00.009-04:002011-04-29T22:15:40.375-04:00

I was on Long Island in New York the other day, preparing to give a lecture, when I realized that my aunt Rika Singer was buried only a few miles from where I was to speak.I decided to go a little early and pay my respects.Thanks to GPS, I arrived at the cemetery with no problems. Soon I found the section, block and area.But as I began counting rows and tombstones, I realized I had problems.

Daniel Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08841542053459871794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-80859744852637542162010-04-18T17:34:00.017-04:002010-04-19T08:08:40.948-04:00

The Jewish Graveyard Rabbit welcomes contributor Steve Lasky, creator of the online cybermuseum, Museum of Family History. Recently, someone wrote me with a question about baby markers, and how to keep the gravestone from completely sinking into the ground over time.The question was: "I recently had a baby marker created but the monument dealer/installer never heard of adding cement around the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-91480749138884027052009-11-09T01:05:00.010-05:002009-11-09T01:24:26.805-05:00

The Jewish cemetery in Kalvarija - southern Lithuania - has just been recorded by Ralph Salinger of Kfar Ruppin in Israel.Born in the UK and raised in New Zealand, Ralph lives on Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin. He has researched his family history and discovered that the SALINGER family lived in Vilkaviskis (c1805-1941).To learn about the project, go to Ralph's site, JewishVilkaviskis.org.Working with Ralph

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-59308428511822843662009-07-12T00:30:00.005-04:002009-07-12T00:43:46.994-04:00

There is an ongoing dispute between the Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities in Turkey because the Sephardic cemeteries are running out of space. Ashkenazim - in Turkey since the 1400s - make up only 5% of the Jewish community, but the two communities are extensively intermarried. The Sephardic community grew after Spanish Jews were welcomed at the time of the 1492 Expulsion.The office of the

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-45476984414093974102009-07-07T00:34:00.007-04:002009-07-07T00:47:46.107-04:00

AFP reported that prisoners are to do conservation work in disused Jewish cemeteries, Poland’s prison service said Thursday.Prison spokesperson Ireneusz Mucha said an agreement had been signed with the national Polish-Jewish heritage foundation enabling the prisoners to volunteer.Some 1,000 Polish cemeteries need work; many were destroyed by the Nazis during World War II.“The voluntary, unpaid

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-72013710707172366302009-07-06T21:00:00.001-04:002009-07-07T01:00:51.229-04:00

Temple Beth Israel Cemetery (Jackson, Michigan) has been nominated for inclusion in the National Register of Historic PlacesWhen Denni and Carl Glick of Jackson walk through Temple Beth Israel Cemetery, it's like taking a step back in time. The two wander through the 1-acre burial plot on N. West Avenue, just south of the railroad tracks, and reminisce on the congregation's history, as told

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-35553910067559769572009-05-31T09:30:00.000-04:002009-05-31T09:30:00.254-04:00

Did you know there was a Jewish cemetery in Shtip, eastern Macedonia?According to BalkanTravellers.com, in 1512, 38 Jewish families were the first to be recorded in Shtip. In 1943, all 560 Jews from the city's Jewish quarter were deported to the Treblinka death camp.The cemetery's reconstruction and conservation project will soon begin under the auspices of the Institute and Museum of Shtip,

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-78951641402651873212009-05-18T01:00:00.000-04:002009-05-18T06:07:19.516-04:00

Are you looking for family members who may have been buried in a Jewish cemetery in Michigan? This resource may help your quest.The Irwin I. Cohn Michigan Jewish Cemetery Index provides burial information for more than 64,000 Jews who died between the mid-1800's and 1999.While many cemeteries were very helpful in allowing access to their records, old, damaged, incomplete or missing records made

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-85676568287874318372009-05-17T00:00:00.001-04:002009-05-18T05:41:29.745-04:00

Kohanim - members of the Jewish priestly clan, descendants of Aaron - may not enter cemeteries, as part of the restrictions concerning coming into contact with death or impurity.On some streets near cemeteries in Queens, New York, certain sections are marked so that Kohanim will not unknowingly walk on a sidewalk that might be disputed territory.In Eastern Europe, cemetery borders are less

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-696879820653565212009-05-05T12:00:00.004-04:002009-05-18T05:19:16.849-04:00

Venezuela is located at the northernmost end of South America, has a population of some 30 million and covers 912,050 sq.km. One of the oldest cities is Coro, capital of the state of Falcon. It's a northern port city founded by Juan de Ampies in 1527.In 1827, a group of Jews emigrated from the Caribbean island of Curacao. Among the families were the Henríquez, Capriles, De Sola, Cardozo and

Daniel Horowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08841542053459871794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-4517206605506521812009-05-05T12:00:00.003-04:002009-05-05T12:00:00.737-04:00

The first 2009 update to the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) database includes more than 55,000 new records and some 25,000 new photos from 17 countries. The database now has more than 1.125 million records from more than 2,100 cemteries and cemetery sections in 45 countries.Although the burial records are now "live,", additional files, maps and overview photos will be posted

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-44877726483272697402009-04-01T05:08:00.004-04:002009-04-01T05:18:02.113-04:00

According to the JTA, A Nazi-era mass grave for 200 Jews has been located in Uzhhorod (Uzhgorod) , a western Ukraine city that was part of Hungary prior to WWII, and then known as Ungvar. The city is on the Slovakia/Ukraine border.The city's chief rabbi, Mendel Teichman, recently discovered an open area in the local Jewish cemetery. It was not fenced; there were no headstones.Historical documents

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-75449696261257156912009-03-29T14:00:00.004-04:002009-03-30T07:45:35.157-04:00

If you are searching for your Jewish ancestors in cemeteries, be aware of Jewish tradition and law pertaining to burial issues. This may complicate location of graves in some cemeteries.Jewish cemeteries, depending on denomination and tradition, may have separate sections for men and women, thereby precluding husbands and wives to be buried next to each other, some have separate sections for

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-72562628214028316082009-03-22T08:13:00.012-04:002009-03-22T08:49:53.915-04:00

The Alliance Cemetery in New Jersey may be getting some help. The Garden State Preservation Trust ratified and sent to the state legislature a recommendation to fund a project to help the Jewish Federation of Cumberland County help preserve the cemetery and synagogue near Vineland.The Alliance Colony was settled by 42 families who fled late 1800s Russian pogroms to start one of the first Jewish

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-30381654990496872462009-03-14T15:00:00.005-04:002009-03-14T19:16:16.818-04:00

There were two recent mentions of Jewish cemeteries in Hong Kong and Harbin.Ed Cohen writes in his blog about Hong Kong's Jewish cemetery.I wish I had seen this while I was in Hong Kong. There are lots of interesting little pockets of Jewish history in Hong Kong that can easily slip past detection. Though it might not always be an immediate association, Judaism has a pretty decent history in Asia

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-83907258647312004602009-03-13T15:10:00.004-04:002009-03-14T19:13:22.280-04:00

Numerous mass graves are located throughout Ukraine and in the eastern territories of the former Soviet Union.Created by Nazi German and local collaborators, the principal objective of the Einsatzgruppen (a mobile killing task force) was the annihilation of Jews, Gypsies and Soviet political commissars. As a result, 1.3-1.5 million Jews were killed between 1941-1943. Two memorials mark the area

Grapevynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04657881619411615319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-48927275462953473562009-03-13T15:00:00.000-04:002009-03-14T11:35:24.550-04:00

Photographer Vincent de Groote only uses black-and-white film, and his evocative photos of the abandoned cemetery at Hegenheim in Alsace demonstrates the site's desolation.To see his photographs, click here

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-59476692205970220022009-03-06T09:40:00.019-05:002009-03-06T13:19:03.153-05:00

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania runs a “Question of the Week” quiz on its website, created by technical services archivist Cary Majewicz.One recent question was “What Philadelphia woman was rumored to be the inspiration for the Jewish heroine in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe?”I knew the answer because my first job in Jewish education was as a raw teacher in the Philadelphia Hebrew

First Rabbi in Rabbit Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01386546620711455784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-74896674253491583152009-02-22T11:39:00.004-05:002009-02-22T11:52:19.922-05:00

The Times of Malta covered a brewing controversy over Jewish remains found in Rabat catacombs. The Jewish catacombs are part of the St Paul's catacombs in Rabat, discovered at the end of the 19th century and dating to the late Roman period some 1,500 years ago. The Maltese Jewish community called in international experts from Israel and the US to provide proper burials according to Jewish law,

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-63550905822009744432009-02-22T09:00:00.003-05:002009-02-22T09:00:03.199-05:00

Restoring Jewish cemeteries through lottery funding is a possibility in the UK.According to the Liverpool Echo, the city's historic Deane Road Jewish cemetery has applied for lottery funding to aid its restoration. Deane Road Jewish cemetery in Kensington is the final resting place of some of Liverpool’s best-known entrepreneurs including David Lewis, pioneer of Lewis’s, and Moses Samuel, founder

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-15088166709272206682009-02-22T09:00:00.001-05:002009-02-22T09:00:02.447-05:00

The Lo Tishkach Foundation has published a new Catalog of Jewish Cemeteries of Masovian Region in Poland.Established in 2006, the Lo Tishkach Database now contains details on more than 9,000 Jewish burial grounds in 29 countries. The Lo Tishkach Foundation estimates that there are some 20,000 such sites in Europe. The foundation is a project of the Conference of European Rabbis and the Conference

Samuel Gruberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06669871743659835632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-5286143146090573052009-02-06T00:31:00.010-05:002009-03-10T10:58:04.998-04:00

Why is this grave covered with stones?I recently returned from Israel with my confirmation class where we occasionally visited the graves of famous Zionists. The grave pictured is that of Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. That of his wife, Paula, is adjacent. Seeing this as a teaching moment, I offered the kids what I call an SAT word; in this case, “cairn.” Dictionary.com defines a

First Rabbi in Rabbit Worldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01386546620711455784noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7223943512331181542.post-84898014930916977552009-02-05T03:32:00.015-05:002009-02-06T02:59:50.049-05:00

Although Carnegie Museum of Natural History research associate Aydin Örstan specializes in mollusks and snails, he did spend an afternoon at one of Istanbul's old Jewish cemeteries back in October and recently blogged about it, adding some of his beautiful photographs.He and a friend climbed over a high metal fence to get in to photograph the tombstones (and collect snails!)."Only much later, at

Schelly Talalay Dardashtihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10930641777765846278noreply@blogger.com0