Poland: Przemysl's Jewish cemetery project

David Semmel writes the Jewish Prezemysl Blog, which is devoted to the descendants who are researching and remembering 700 years of Jewish life in the town.

A recent post details work on the cemetery project, and a plea for funds to continue preservation and restoration work at the Slowackiego Street Cemetery, spearheaded by Dr. John Hartman, who leads The Remembrance & Reconciliation Foundation.

Anyone who has been to the site ten years ago and recently can testify as to the progress - and the amount of work that remains.

We wage a constant battle against the elements in the form of yearly maintenance and repair. In general, the winters in Przemysl are harsh and combined with the hilly topography of the site, there is constant and serious erosion in many places.

In addition, there was a windstorm recently that downed several trees, requiring an unplanned, emergency clean-up.

We are lucky to employ one of the very few Jews left in the town, Mr. Jocaim Glettner, a mason by trade, as the general contractor/overseer. Paying him, and just keeping up with maintenance usually costs $5,000/year – but over $8,000 this year as the dollar tanked.

Hartman and Semmel together raise about two-thirds of the funds which are mostly used for current upkeep with no funds for restoration or other projects.


Prezemysl descendants may be interested in remembering their ancestors by contributing to star plaques commemorating mass-murder victims ($100 each); Jewish historical plaques for the cemetery wall ($500 each); construction of a walkway between the two mass-murder monuments ($7,500); and the clearing of walks and access paths in the cemetery's older sections ($1,000) .


The Foundation is a tax-exempt, non-profit 501(c)3 organization and contributions are used only for projects in Poland. See the Foundation link above to make donations, or obtain more information.


Contact Semmel through his blog and Hartman through the Foundation.

Wales: Jewish cemetery in Merthyr Tydfil

On a photo site, I found an image of the old Jewish cemetery in Merthyr Tydfil. According to the photographer, it is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in South Wales. Here's the entrance to the cemetery.



The site was purchased in the 1860s, with the first burial in 1867 and others in 1872. there is a poem recited by Grahame Davies, with a link to the full text and recording.

Hungary: Jewish cemetery of Tinnye

The English-language Budapest Times posted an article and photographs about the Jewish cemetery in Tinnye, some 35 km northwest of Budapest.

The village of Tinnye, located around 35 km northwest of Budapest, has just 1,350 residents. Earlier Tinnye was a popular trading spot: roads from Buda, Esztergom and Székesfehérvár intersected here, and there were wealthy noble families as well as a bustling marketplace. The livelier a place has been, the more present death is. Tinnye has eight cemeteries.

The story, by Astrid Stangl, focuses on Eszter Toth, a German school teacher in Piliscsaba, who has been researching the area's history, including Tinnye's cemeteries. Her work is now on display at Budapest's Museum of Ethnography.

It mentions burial sites for the town's nobility, upper middle class and the Roman Catholic majority population, although Toth says that, in the old reformed Dióstemető (Walnut) cemetery, it was the custom to place gravestones at the foot of the grave instead of the head, as is common today. The Roman Catholics placed simple wooden crosses, and metal ones produced in the adjacent village of Piliscsaba are also seen.

In 1820, a synagogue was built, but is today used for storage. The Jewish cemetery has some 100 graves, some with Hebrew inscriptions. A cholera epidemic hit the town between 1837-47:

People were forbidden from entering the cemetery of the cholera victims to stop the disease from spreading. The cemetery was surrounded by dense lilac bushes and acacia trees.

Melancholy poems and inscriptions can be read on the 35 gravestones that remain. Next to the inscriptions broken off twigs can be seen as symbols of lives that ended far too young.

Tóth’s photographs of Tinnye’s cemeteries are on display through February 22, 2009 at the Musueum of Ethnography. The site is in Hungarian. I found some photos of some of the cemeteries, but none of the Jewish one.

Washington DC: Arlington National Cemetery

Marlene Bishow of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington (JGSGW) has provided information on new records added to the group's website for the "Ken Poch Index of Jews Buried in Arlington National Cemetery."

Bishow is the group's immediate past president, current ANC project manager, and will co-chair the 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Washington, DC.

Self-proclaimed historian of Jews buried in ANC, Kenneth Poch began the project more than 10 years before his 2003 death. His family donated 12 boxes of his work to the JGSGW.

Based on that research, webmaster Ernie Fine developed the website with a Steve Morse-model search engine. Currently, there are more than 2,600 entries; an additional 600 will go online in January 2009. More than 2,000 gravemarkers photos (taken by Poch) have been scanned by volunteers and will be added with links to view them online, and new photos will also be added.

Genealogical data is being added to the database using Poch's data and that of the group's volunteers. Visitors to the website are encouraged to submit names and additional information about Jews buried in ANC. For the present, the search is limited to the names of the interred.

Here (above) is the monument for sculptor Moses J. Ezekiel.

For more information, click here. To submit information, follow contact page directions.

UK: Skull and crossbones, Sephardic graves

Although I am certainly no expert on Jewish tombstone symbols, I must comment on the caption in the Jamaica cemetery section of this blog which implies that the skull and crossbones are symbols for a Jewish pirate's grave.

I recently was lucky enough to visit the site of the oldest Jewish cemetery in England in the grounds of Queen Mary's College, Mile End in the East End of London. Here are some photographs I took on my visit.

It is now hemmed in by buildings on two sides and has little to show of its former status as the graves were horizontal and are mostly now completely covered by turf and unreadable (left below).

There are a few other remains stacked by the perimeter wall, all having skull and crossbones on them (see below). The cemetery still has a very special feel and is very peaceful - a haven in the bustling and rather delapidated Mile End.

The Old Velho Sephardi Cemetery, as it is known, was created just over 350 years ago on the orders of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, who, overruling his own council, officially readmitted Jews to England for the first time since their expulsion in 1290. It was opened in 1657 and closed in 1742. It was the first Jewish cemetery to be opened following the readmission of Jews to this country under Oliver Cromwell.

A particular feature of Sephardi cemeteries are the flat tombstones which I am told symbolize that all are equal in death - rich or poor, high or low. Abraham Fernandez Carvajal, the founder of the modern Anglo-Jewish community, is buried in the old Velho cemetery as as well as Haham David Nieto, one of the greatest Sephardic spiritual leaders (born Venice 1654 - died London, January 10, 1728) and the physician Dr. Fernando Mendes. This interesting article discusses the background of Carvajal and the early Sephardim in London; read here about David Nieto.

Above right, see an image of the decaying wall plaque listing leaders of the community.

Surely the skull and cross bones in a universal symbol for death and fleeting nature of life and has nothing to do with pirates who could not have lived and flourished in Mile End in the 1600s?

These symbols from an early Scottish Christian cemetery look very similar to the ones in the old Velho cemetery:

Philly 2009: Website live, Call for Papers open!

The website - Philly2009.org - and the important Call for Papers for the 29th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy is now up and running. More information is sure to be added rapidly.

Mark your calendars, check for plane and train tickets, for what will be an excellent conference hosted by the JGS of Greater Philadelphia and the IAJGS at Philly's Sheraton Center City Hotel from August 2-7, 2009.

The proposal submittal deadline is January 15, 2009, with acceptance notification by February 28, 2009. Program co-chairs are the well-known Mark Halpern and Mark Heckman.

Proposals are welcomed on all relevant topics, including workshops and panel discussions, and new presentations (not offered at the past three annual conferences). The committee is particularly interested in the following topics:

Research sources/methodology for beginning genealogists
Research sources/Jewish history: Philadelphia area
Genealogical research: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware
Research resources/methodology: Ukraine, Eastern/Central Europe
Sephardim
Mizrahim
Israel
US/Canada
South/Central America
Western Europe
Other locales (Australia, China, South Africa, India, etc.)
Jewish immigration/migration
Jewish surname adoption/naming patterns
Holocaust research
Genetics/DNA research Jewish history/culture
Jewish music/theater
Jewish food
Photographic/document preservation
Technology/Internet resources
Computer training workshops
Other training workshops (e.g. photo identification, document preservation)

Encouraged are presentations and workshops providing practical research methodologies that will help conference participants in their research. Highly original topics will be given special consideration.

Presentations and panel discussions are 75 minutes including 15 minutes Q&A; workshops are 2 hours long. Speakers may submit any number of proposals.

Sole speakers with at least one accepted proposal will receive complimentary conference registration. Speakers sharing accepted proposals will receive partial registration fee waivers.

All proposals must be submitted using the Conference website by clicking on the “Begin Submission” button. Proposals submitted by other means (e-mail or regular mail, etc.) will not be accepted. Before submitting online, prepare the following items:

Presenter/s full name, mail address, email and phone
Brief biographical sketch
Summary of recent presentation experience
Title of presentation
Program type (presentation, workshop, panel)
Brief description of the presentation
Audience skill level (beginner, intermediate, advanced)

Speakers are required to provide handout material for each presentation to be included in the syllabus distributed to all Conference registrants. All materials must be uploaded using the Conference website. Letters of acceptance will provide more details.

Ok, genners, time to get cracking on readying your programs.

Spain: Toledo cemetery photographs

The Jewish Graveyard Rabbit recently posted about the ancient Jewish Cemetery in Toledo, Spain that was threatened by a school expansion project.

Rabbit has learned that a demonstration was called today in Tel Aviv, Israel in front of the Embassy of Spain at 5 Dubnow Street.

Rabbit also received photographs of the Toledo site, which appear here. For more information, click here for the Zakhor Center of Studies in Barcelona which is spearheading the fight to save the site.

Late in September the expansion of a school in Toledo caused the excavation of the ancient Jewish cemetery prior construction starts. This school and the residential complex built in the 80's, already destroyed a great part of the cemetery.

Today, besides two synagogues (of the 10 that existed at the time) which can be visited today as Museums, the ancient cemetery is the only other landmark which remains of the Jewish community which once lived there.

This community certainly deserves respect for their tradition and beliefs.