Jerusalem: Mount of Olives tombstone index online

The Israel Genealogical Society (GS) has completed indexing of Helkat Mehokek, a Hebrew book published in 1913 by Asher Leib Brisk. It includes tombstone inscriptions from part of Jerusalem's Mount of Olives cemetery.

The bilingual (Hebrew-English) searchable database includes 8,092 tombstones, generally covering 1740-1906, although the earliest inscription dates from 1646. There are 1,500 graves of Sephardim and 6,592 of Ashkenazim.

Brisk's inscriptions cover graves from the top part of the cemetery, which was completely destroyed under Jordanian rule (1948-1967) to make room for a hotel and a road. Due to this destruction, the book the only source for
some of this information. Some information can also be found in records of
the various Hevra Kadishas in Jerusalem.

The IGS team suggests that readers first read the instructions before using the search engine.

For the English version, click here. For the Hebrew version, click here.

For more details, visit the IGS site.