San Francisco: California Jewish cemeteries, May 1

Robinn Magid will speak on "California Jewish Cemeteries: From the Gold Rush to the Roszgolds," on Sunday, May 1, at the next meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.

The program begins at 1.30pm, at Congregation Beth Israel-Judea, 625 Brotherhood Way, in San Francisco (next to Brandeis Hillel Day School). There is no admission fee.

Ever wonder who is buried in California Jewish cemeteries and what we remember about them?

Curious how someone could be buried FOUR times?

Studying the history and matzevot (tombstones) in California's 86+ Jewish cemeteries, we can find butchers, bakers, beggermen, thieves, doctors, and lawyers, but did we find the proverbial Indian chief?

Come take a virtual whirlwind tour of California's Jewish cemeteries and find out what people said about some of the interesting people buried there (from the "horse's mouth"). The tombstones and epitaphs demonstrate our unique California lifestyle and fascinating local history even if your ancestors aren't buried here in the Golden State!

Magid is a long-time SFBAJGS member, a JRI-Poland board member and a compulsive genealogist since her 1991 retirement from management consulting with an international CPA firm.

In 2001, she realized her childhood dream of visiting Poland and “walking a mile in her grandmother’s moccasins.” She has four children, a loving husband, and a UCLA bachelor’s degree in economics. Her personal research includes Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and Galicia.

For directions and more information, click here.

Latvia: 100 tombstones desecrated

Latvia's president condemned an attack on a Riga cemetery Wednesday.

President Vadis Zalters urged police to find the perpetrators - who desecrated some 100 tombstones with Nazi symbols - quickly, according to the European Jewish Press website. Other officials, including the prime minister and foreign minister, also blasted the attack.

Earlier Wednesday, state police spokeswoman Ieva Reksna told AFP that police officers had found around 100 tombstones spattered with white-paint swastikas.
   

A guard at the cemetery -- the only working Jewish burial ground in Riga -- spotted the defiled tombstones on Wednesday morning, Reksna said.  

Officials from Riga city council headed to the cemetery after news of the attack emerged, and mayor Nils Usakovs, who is on a visit to Russia, issued a statement condemning it.
   

Municipal police have now been ordered to boost patrols at the site.

The cemetery was also attacked in September 2003, following which five teens were sentenced to prison terms of from six months to three years.
   

Today, the Latvian Jewish community numbers less than 10,000 individuals in the general population of 2.2 million.

Prior to WWII, some 85,000 Jews lived there; 70,000 were murdered in Latvia or perished after deportation to concentration camps.     

Cleveland: Fir Street Cemetery renovation, Nov. 3

The renovation of one of Cleveland's oldest Jewish cemeteries will be discussed at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland on Wednesday, November 3.

The program will begin at 7.30pm at Menorah Park in Beachwood.

The speakers will be Cleveland Municipal Housing Court Judge Ray Pianka, and the chair of the "Lorain to Fir Block Club" Jonathon Holody. The topic is "Community Building and the Fir Street Cemetery.

The two men spearheaded the neighborhood project to successfully renovate one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the city.

There is no charge.

For more information and directions, click here.

New York: Slovakia's Jewish Heritage Route, Nov. 1

Dr. Maroš Borský launched, in 2007, the Slovak Jewish Heritage Route.

It links 24 important Jewish heritage sites around Slovakia, including synagogues, Museum of Jewish culture branches, historic Jewish cemeteries, Holocaust memorials and Jewish history.

He will speak about the current project at 2pm, on Monday, November 1, at the Center for Jewish History, 15 W. 16th Street, New York, NY.

Learn more about the Slovak Jewish Heritage Route and see the interactive map for more information.

The project is complex, and includes research, educational and promotional activities, all aimed at preservation of Jewish heritage in Slovakia. Activities are based on results of the Synagoga Slovaca documentation project of synagogues (2001-2006). This survey (including architectural plans, photographs, descriptions) was used to create an audience for Jewish culture in Slovakia, shape cultural policies and contribute towards better management of Jewish heritage sites.

There is an extensive section on Jewish history of the area, including the following:

... While evidence exists of Jewish migration to the territory of today's Slovakia from Bohemia, Austria, and Germany in the 11th century, and of the founding of the first Jewish community in Bratislava (Pressburg, Pozsony) in the late 13th century, the migrations and settlements of the 17th and 18th centuries had the most significant impact on the subsequent development of the Jewish community. Encouraged by the Hungarian aristocracy, Jews migrating to northern Hungary from Moravia, Galicia and Bukovina, and Lower Austria tended to settle near the borders of the states from which they had come, and to maintain religious, communal, and linguistic ties with Jewish communities across the borders. ...

Admission is free, but reservations are required.

Jewish genealogy: Opportunities on the horizon?

A JTA blog provides food for thought as to how Jewish family history might gain more of a foothold in the larger Jewish world.

The Fundermentalist's Jacob Berkman provides weekly interesting tidbits on Jewish philanthropy in diverse areas.

How about this possibility for family history at Jewish clubs in public schools?

The blog reported that The Jim Joseph Foundation has given the Jack E. and Rachel Gindi Jewish Student Union a $1.476 million grant to be paid out over the next three years to replicate in Westchester, N.Y. and southern Connecticut a pilot project in Chicago public high schools. The grant has been matched by the Wolfson Family of New York. The JSU will establish Jewish clubs at public schools in the area that will provide Jewish programming to students.

Or in conjunction with Jewish-focused museums:

The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust is set to open next week, according to the LA Jewish Journal.

Or cemetery projects: A new nonprofit in Berkeley protects Jewish cemeteries, reports Jweekly.com

Stephen Kinsey knows a lot about Jewish tradition, including the dictum that cemeteries matter more than synagogues.

And how about the first-ever Jewish Futures Conference which will focus on Jewish Education? Is anyone presenting Jewish family history at this event as a wonderful way to connect and maintain Jewish identity?

The Jewish Federations of North America's General Assembly will host the first Jewish Futures Conference in New Orleans on November 8. The conference, which will focus on re-imagining Jewish education, will be sponsored by the JFNA, JESNA, The Lippman Kanfer Institute, BJENY-SALES and the Covenant Foundation.

These and similar opportunities might provide an entry to present Jewish genealogy to a much wider - and younger - audience.

Who's up for the challenge?

Israel: 21st-century cemetery technology

If you've ever visited an Israeli cemetery, be prepared for an experience of a different kind.

Graves are crowded with barely a semblance of space to put down a foot between or around the headstones. At a recent burial outside of Tel Aviv, elderly and mobility-challenged relatives and friends could not reach the grave site.

Will they ever find that grave site again? I don't think I could.

However, help is on the way!

The Chevra Kadisha, Israel's burial society with branches in each town and city, is now embracing 21st century technology.

One new project - still in the idea stage - in the Greater Tel Aviv area is a Facebook-type "Genealogy Tree."

When the project is implemented, says the society, nearly each of the nearly 500,000 people buried in the area will have a computerized family tree, providing information about the deceased, his or her relatives, a family tree, a profile picture, and where news and video clips could be posted. The system will also suggest whom to add as relatives.

[CAVEAT: The last sounds like a great idea for those with uncommon names, but Tracing the Tribe would hate to try to decide which of several thousand Avraham Cohens would be the right one to add to a certain tree.]

YNetNews carried the story (English) about how the organization is upgrading its services via technology to help those looking for a relative or friend's resting place more easily.

"In the last couple of months we have developed an SMS grave-locator system," Yossi Zrock, head of Chevra Kadisha IT Services, told Yedioth Ahronoth.

"If, for example, you've arrived at a cemetery and you don't know where the gravestone is, text the name of the deceased to *4664 and directions will be sent to you within seconds."

Chevra Kadisha, he added, is currently developing a GPS grave-locater system for mobile phones. "Such technologies are required for the bigger cemeteries, like the one in Holon, which has over 220,000 graves. People can get lost."

Visitors will be able to rent a PDA - the system might also work on personal smartphones - for NIS 20 (about $5.30), which will lead them to the gravestone, view photos of the deceased, read about his or her life and access appropriate prayers. Future plans include subscribing to grave maintenance and other services via the PDA.

The Tel Aviv society recently launched a website (also in English) which allows families to host commemoration pages, a reminder system for death anniversaries a week prior to the date. The website is not accessible on holidays or Shabbat. Tracing the Tribe is not sure which of the new services will be available in English or only in Hebrew.

Information stations in cemeteries will provide commemoration page details, according to Chevra Kadisha Tel Aviv director Rabbi Avraham Manlah. The pilot project in the Holon Cemetery allows visitors to light a cyber-candle for the dead, or place a cyber-stone or wreath on the grave, noted on the commemoration page.

The society will also offer live Internet feeds of funeral services. According to the article, many Israeli cemeteries already have cameras, allowing those unable to attend a service in person to view it online. Fees to broadcast a funeral are about $53-80, with a CD available for $13.

Read the complete story at the link above.

Poland: Nowy Dwor Jewish Cemetery, Memorial Project

Ze'ev Shaked has provided an update for descendants and friends of the Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki Project.

At left, a broken tombstone excavated in 2009.

For more information and photos, click here.

-- Fence and gate construction is ongoing and will be completed next month. Rabbi Michael Schudrich (chief rabbi of Poland) and his assistant are working with the construction company to ensure work is conducted according to Jewish law and tradition. Photos are on the website above. http://www.nowydworjewishmemorial.com/

-- Ze'ev will be in Nowy Dwor in mid-October to view the completed fence and gates and distribute final payment.


-- During his visit, he'll meet with the contractor to discuss the scope and preliminary cost estimate for the memorial, meet with the mayor and the city of Nowy Dwor to discuss the project's second phase; additional tombstones will be excavated before and during his visit; and he will spend a day at the archives to look at more names and certificates. An idea for the memorial's design was received from an Israeli retired architect, and logistics and cost will also be discussed.

-- Beginning in October 2010, organizing committee members in Israel and the US will initiate a major fundraising campaign for the memorial and completion of the entire project.

-- The dedication ceremony in 2011 will be either Tuesday, July 26, or Wednesday, July 27. Ceremony details and other events will be discussed with Nowy Dwor's mayor. The plan is to commemorate the Jewish cemetery's restoration and the memorial, but to celebrate the town's Jewish heritage. Events being considered: Jewish pre-war klezmer music concert, a Sholom Aleichem play or "Fiddler on the Roof" (the play) in Polish/Yiddish performed by local high school students, guided tour to Modlin, boat sailing on the Narew, and other events. By next year, the town will have at least 200 rooms for visitors.

-- The committee plans to invite Polish government dignitaries, the Israeli Ambassador to Poland and possibly dignitaries from Israel, as well Jewish representatives in the US Congress. Some families to include to visit Auschwitz after the events. Ze'ev would like to see the participation of Israeli high school students.

-- The project was recently covered by two Jewish papers in the US; the articles are on the project website. Project members who reside in towns and cities with Jewish publications are asked to work with them to publish a similar article.

-- US Congressman Barney Frank sent a letter of support to Nowy Dwor's mayor.

For more information, to donate, to assist in some way, see surnames associated with the town, see the project website at the link above, and contact information with project leaders. Visit the project on Facebook.

UK: Restoring Bankroft Road Cemetery

Activists, community leaders and politicans are supporting restoration efforts at one of Europe's oldest Jewish cemeteries, which was bombed in 1944.

The story includes details of the plans.

Architect and amateur historian Susie Clapham, alongside fellow activists at the Jewish East End Celebration Society, is trying to raise the estimated tens of thousands of pounds required to restore graves at Bankroft Road cemetery, located in Mile End.

She has also submitted plans to the Board of Deputies (BoD) - which has owned the cemetery since its closure in 1928 - for a memorial to some of the UK's first Ashkenazi immigrants.
Among those buried there are 19th century authoress Charlotte Montefiore, the sister of Sir Moses.

Clapham says the campaign has become a quest to put right 80 years of neglect.

Founded in 1811, there are 500 graves on the derelict site. The Board of Deputies has approved funds to build a pavilion on the site for education purposes.

"This will mark Bankroft Road being back in its rightful place as an important part of Jewish history and culture - and a yahrzeit to all 500 souls who lie silently buried in its overgrown grounds."

A fundraising campaign will be necessary, according to others quoted in the story.

Read all the details at the link above.

UK: Cemetery to add 6,500 spaces

One of the largest British Jewish cemeteries - Edgwarebury Lane Cemetery, Edgware - will add 6,500 new burial spaces, after winning an appeal for expansion, which will cost some 1.5 million GBP.


According to TotallyJewish.com, the original request for permission to expand was rejected by Barnet Council and the appeal was granted following a recent four-day inquiry.

Owners of the cemetery are Belsize Square Synagogue, Liberal Judaism, Spanish Portuguese and Reform Judaism. The three-hectare expansion also provides parking for staff and visitors.

The four groups will pay for the extension together and will share the new spaces equally divided among them.


To read more details of the story, click on the link above.

Israel: Birthright brings 18 from Suriname

The smallest country in South America just sent 18 Jewish young people to participate in the Birthright Israel program.

The participants come from Parimaribo, Suriname.

The Kulanu press release indicated that they hoped it will help the young Jews of Suriname, isolated for generations, to strengthen their Jewish roots and ensure Jewish continuity in their country. The trip, envisioned for many years and finally a reality, is expected to have a profound impact on the lives of the young people and on their community.

Most of the young people are descendants of Jews who traveled to the jungles of Suriname some 380 years ago from Spain and Portugal to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Others are descended from Jewish immigrants from Holland, Germany and Poland who arrived later and joined the community. Family names, such as
Abarbanel, Beuno de Mesquita, Robles de Medina, De Costa, Duym and Fernandes, echo the history of Iberian ancestors and their proud struggle and determination to survive and flourish in a far away land.

Despite a jungle climate, economic and political upheaval over the centuries, the community has survived. It is the oldest continuing Jewish community - with some 150 people today, who speak Dutch - in the Western Hemisphere. Suriname's Jews worship at the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Parimaribo, the capital.

For more than 40 years, they had no permanent rabbi or Jewish educator until California Rabi Haim Beliak spent three months there last winter.

During their visit to Israel, the young people will visit the newly restored Zedek v’Shalom Synagogue, originally located in Suriname, which has been rebuilt in the Israel Museum. The synagogue served the Portuguese Sephardic community in Parimeribo until 1999. Today the Jewish community worships together at the Neve Shalom Synagogue.

The Birthright Israel trip for these young people is being supported through various organizations: Kulanu, Good People Fund, World Union for Progressive Judaism and the Union for Reform Judaism in North America.

In 2008, a Kulanu volunteer spent six weeks in the community, initiating a Hebrew teaching program for children ages 6-12. Since then, Kulanu board member (and Suriname coordinator) Jacob Steinberg has raised funds for diverse projects. These include fencing the historic cemetery, renovating the 150-year old mikvah, renovating the old rabbi’s house, developing a Suriname Jewish community website, and buying mezuzot for homes and community buildings.

In 2010, Kulanu helped pay for matzot and kosher wine sent from New York for the community’s Passover seder.

For more information, see Kulanu's Suriname Page and the Suriname Jewish Community website.

Reunion: Dokshitsy diaspora, August 20-22

Are you a descendant of Dokshitsy?

Your destination this summer should be the Dokshitsy Diaspora Reunion, August 20-22, in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Aaron Ginsburg has been planning this for some time, and people are coming from Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.

It's a chance to meet other descendants.

Speakers will include Eva Fogelman, who will speak on the psychology of remembering your Dokshitsy roots. A National Archives speaker is anticipated.

Also coming will be Joel Alpert. He created the Dokshity website and coordinated placing the Yizkor book English translation online. Another participant was born in the town.

The reunion will be held at the Radisson Providence Airport Hotel, with special rates for Dokshitsy descendants.

Visit the Dokshitsy Facebook Page here for more information or visit JewishDokshitsy.org for much more, including gravestone photos.

New York: Oldest congregation preserves cemetery

The oldest Jewish congregation in North America - New York's Shearith Israel in New York City - has presented the first preservation phase of its cemetery on West 21st Street, in use from 1829-51.

The burial site has more than 250 graves of former members of the congregation. Many are unmarked, and were only recently discovered via a ground-penetrating radar survey.

The oldest known grave (1708) is that of Sarah Bueno de Mesquita.

The congregation was founded in 1654 by 23 Sephardic Jews. It houses archival material and artifacts dating back to colonial days and covering American Jewish life since then. It is planning an archive and museum center.

Members of the congregation paid important roles in the American Revolution. It was the only synagogue in New York until 1825, providing all community needs for more than 170 years.

Some famous members included: Reverend Gershom Mendes Seixas, patriot American religious leader during the American Revolution; Benjamin Mendes Seixas, Ephraim Hart and Alexander Zuntz, founders of the New York Stock Exchange; Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy, first Jewish flag officer in the US Navy; Emma Lazarus, distinguished American poet; Alice Menken, pioneer in social welfare work; Justice Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, US Supreme Court Justice; Judge Edgar J. Nathan Jr., borough president of Manhattan and New York State Supreme Court Justice; Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes, Rabbi of the congregation, founder of the Orthodox Union, Montefiore Hospital and the Lexington School for the Deaf; Reverend Dr. David de Sola Pool, Minister of the congregation, 20th century American Jewish life leading figure.

The cemetery site, about 80 by 120 feet, is also known as the Third Cemetery. There are 67 graves from before 1787; they were moved from the Chatham Square cemetery, the second oldest existing Manhattan cemetery, in use 1682-1831. The 11th Street Cemetery - between Sixth and Seventh Avenues - was used 1805-1830.

The initial phase included conservation and cleaning of tombstones, a ground-penetrating radar study to find unmarked graves, historically sensitive landscaping and new access pathways. Later work will focus on historic metalwork restoration and other items.

Funding for the first phase came from the El Ad Group and 21 LLC Corp. Future phases will cost about $1 million.

Click here and here for more information.

Poland: Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki, new names revealed

Researchers with roots in Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki should be aware of the project led by Ze'ev Shaked and Alan Knecht.

They visited the cemetery on June 7, unearthed numerous gravestones and added the names to their lists.

The Jewish community and cemetery date from the 17th century. During the Holocaust, Jewish gravestones (matzevot) were removed and used in road construction and other works, squatters had set up homes in the cemetery amid graves that had been opened and desecrated.

The men excavated the following matzevot (Jewish gravestones). Abraham Schul, who was born and lived in the town corrected the original list of names, copied below. I also discovered a few more corrections:

Gitel SEGALOWICZ
Sara Mindel Etke SEGAL
Asher MELMAN
Etke Lea RACHIMOWSKI
Szmuel Itzchak PERELMUTER
Bluma GRABMAN
Szmuel Baruch WAINSZTOK
Hana Lea GERSZWANE
Hana FINKELSZTEJN
Lea ZILBERTHAL
Hana Zelda ACKERMAN
Abraham Baruch BERNSZTEJN
Fajga Rivka KRONENBERG
Miriam Gitel KARCOWICZ
Hana Edel MAGID
Itzchak Baruch GRYNER
Hersz BRONSZTEJN or BORNSZTEJN
Perla HAIDELBERG
Miriam Yente SZKLANKA
Briandel ROTSZTEJN
Ruchama Rachel DOMB

There are a few additional stones (1880s-1930s), but the names are illegible.

Alan Knecht has posted pictures of some of these on the project's Facebook page (Nowy Dwor Jewish Cemetery Memorial), and has added additional information wherever possible. More will soon be posted.

Readers are invited to look at the images and see if they can add more information or make corrections to the transliterations.

There's another photo that the group is wondering about. Here it is:

Do you know any of the people in the image? If so, let the project know.

The project is dedicated to the desire to make sure that the Jewish cemetery in Nowy Dwor is secured and that the descendants of the Jewish community have a place at which to gather, remember and mourn.

The group's major accomplishment has been the start of the fence construction around the cemetery. They have raised $40,000 - with $10,000 from the Chief Rabbi of Warsaw.

Better news is that the city undertook - on its own - to dig up more stones while Ze'ev was there, which permitted more images to be photographed.

For more information, see the Nowy Dwor Jewish Memorial, where you can see a current list of names, a photo gallery, contact information and more.

Washington DC: Jewish chaplains monument

Plans are set for a memorial to Jewish chaplains at Arlington National Cemetery to be dedicated in October 2010, according to a story in the Washington Jewish Week.

Tracing the Tribe read about the memorial campaign in the DC Jewish History blog of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.

The Jewish Historical Society (JHSGW) has initiated a local fundraising campaign for the monument and for a booklet detailing the cemetery's Jewish sites and the chaplains' history. The goal is to raise a total of $10,000 from at least 100 area residents, to make it a true community project.

The new monument will memorialize nine Jewish chaplains who died in World War II, one in Korea and three who died during the Vietnam War era, according to Sol Moglen of Caldwell, N.J., who is spearheading the project with Ken Kraetzer of Westchester, N.Y.

The project has already raised $30,000 and the current campaign will fund publication of the 30-page booklet, including the Jewish chaplains' history, and to cover travel costs to the dedication for the nine chaplains' family members.

The booklet, in conjunction with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Washington, will also include information on other Jewish service members buried at the cemetery. For more information on the JGSGW's Arlington Cemetery project, click here. The 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy - DC 2011 - will be hosted by the JGSGW - August 14-19, 2011 - at the Grand Hyatt.

Readers who would like to help this project may click Contribute; make sure to put "Arlington Campaign" in the designation box.

For more information, see the complete article at the first link above.

California: Oldest known Jewish death, 1850

Today is the 160th anniversary of Samuel Harris Goldstein's tragic and untimely death. It is the oldest known Jewish death in California.

From cemetery project coordinator Bob Wascou - of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Sacramento - comes this information surrounding Goldstein's death.

In 1849, merchants Samuel Harris Goldstein and Moses Hyman came to California from New Orleans, Louisina.

Hyman settled in Sacramento, while Goldstein and his son, 14, were in Marysville, some 45 miles north of Sacramento. Goldstein's wife and other children were in New Orleans.

On May 30, 1850, Harris Goldstein, as he was known, took a steamer - the Governor Dana - to Sacramento, accompanied by his son.

Here is the Placer Times newspaper account of his tragic trip, published on Monday, June 1, 1850.

While no documentation exists, according to Wascou, he was likely buried in the old Sacramento City Cemetery by Moses Hyman, who was a religious man. Hyman had his own Torah scroll, conducted the first Sacramento high holiday services in 1849 or 1850, and was also a mohel (ritual circumciser), who traveled all over the Gold Rush territory.

Hyman donated the money he earned as a mohel to purchase the property for the Jewish cemetery in fall 1850.

On April 2, 1851, Hyman married Goldstein's widow, Rosina, and their son Kaufman was the first Jewish boy born in Sacramento in 1851.

Goldstein was re-interned in what is known as the old Jewish cemetery and again re-interned in the present day Jewish cemetery - Home of Peace - when all bodies were moved to the current Jewish cemetery.

[NOTE: The stone's inscription refers to Goldstein as a holy wise man and teacher. His Hebrew name appears to be Shemuel Zvi ben Ari Leib]

While the newspaper account is in a number of microfilms, Bob used the California Digital Newspaper Collection because it was the clearest.

Bob has been researching in the archives of B'nai Israel congregation - the first Sacramento synagogue. Hyman was instrumental in its founding. When founded, the cemetery was owned by the Hebrew Benevolent Society, and later by the congregation. Home of Peace Cemetery is owned today by the B'nai Israel and Mosaic Law congregations.

He has full access to the Home of Peace records, but they aren't complete and the old cemetery records no longer exist. At the time there was no superintendent for the Old City Cemetery, so there is no record of who was interned there.

Goldstein's son, Jacob, was adopted by Hyman and known as Jacob Hyman. According to Bob, he was born in Poland and naturalized on August 1, 1856, but Bob has not yet found the naturalization papers. In the October 14, 1850 census, Bob notes that a Jack Hyman listed with Moses could be Jacob but he's still researching that.

Jack learned watchmaking from Hyman and operated a jewelry store in Sacramento. As far as Bob knows, he did not marry. He died December 21, 1897, and is buried in Home of Peace cemetery. The Sacramento Bee carried his obituary on December 23, but Bob has not yet obtained it.

Thanks, Bob, for sharing such an interesting story with Tracing the Tribe.

Louisiana: Historic Jewish cemetery vandalized

In 1873, a Yellow Fever epidemic struck Shreveport, Louisiana.

In 2010, vandals struck the Jewish cemetery called Hebrew Rest where those Jewish epidemic victims and many other deceased individuals have been buried since.

According to an article in the Shreveport Times, the vandals could face hate crime charges resulting from the recent desecration of several historic graves in the Jewish section of Oakland Cemetery.

Nine headstones were overturned or broken.

Local historian Gary Joiner is working with a group of LSU-Shreveport students who are electronically cataloging the historic graveyard.

A student in the group called the desecration anti-Semitic, and said the cemetery was like a museum and the vandals destroyed history.

Fortunately, the group had already recorded those graves. A group of vandals is suspected, as the size of the stones would have made it difficult for one person to desecrate. Most of the stones date from the 1873 epidemic, which killed 25% of Shreveport's residents.

The police are working on the case. Those arrested will face a felony charge, and other penalties of up to a $5,000 fine, five years in prison or both.

For an exhaustive history of Jewish cemeteries in Shreveport, click here for the specific entry at the IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project. There are three Hebrew Rest sections (established 1858, 1886 and 1993). Earlier burials were in the non-sectarian Oakland Cemetery.

Lebanon: Ashkenazi, Sephardi Beirut burials online

Jeff Malka, creator of SephardicGen.com, informed Tracing the Tribe that Beirut Jewish Cemetery data is online now at his site.

In 1948, some 24,000 Jews lived in Lebanon. Most of them were in Beirut. Today, there only 30 seniors.

Jewish community symbols in Beirut today are the Magen Avraham synagogue and the Jewish cemetery (with 3,300 burials).

Tracing the Tribe has previously written about Beirut and its Jewish community.

 During the Lebanese civil war, the cemetery was the border of  the Christian Phalange forces. Although damaged by bombs, it was never desecrated.

A Lebanese Christian, Nagi Georges Zeidan, has memorialized the Jewish community of his country by researching its history and creating a database, using both cemetery and civil registrations, with 3,184 gravestone inscriptions
.
Both Ashkenazi and Sephardi burials are included in the searchable database.

Click here for the English database and here for the French version.

Do check out the many searchable databases covering numerous countries and topics at SephardicGen.com.

Shanghai: Saving the stones

As is too often the case, Jewish gravestones are used for other purposes by people who live where Jewish populations no longer care for and maintain cemeteries.

Israeli journalist Dvir Bar-Gal, who arrived in Shanghai nine years ago, is the Jewish tombstone collector of the city, according to a CNNGO.com story.

Scattered in cauliflower patches, or sunken, mud-covered, in riverbanks, or sometimes used as washing slabs by villagers around the city, are the gravestones of old Jewish settlers of Shanghai. During the Cultural Revolution, the gravestones were uprooted, smashed and scattered throughout the region. The cemeteries have long been paved over, with no recognition of the bodies buried underneath. The stones that remain are like historical islands, isolated and disconnected from their past.

For Israeli photo-journalist and documentary maker Dvir Bar-Gal, a first encounter with a headstone in a Shanghai antique store has become a decade-long quest to discover their origins. And what started as a journalistic project quickly turned into a personal mission. “I got more connected emotionally,” he says. “There’s a lot of energy involved every time we flip over the stones and read the mud-covered inscriptions.”

Bar-Gal's quest, now called the Shanghai Jewish Memorial Project, has seen him journey to numerous rural villages around Shanghai. There, he’d find old tombstones in fields, along rivers, or used as construction blocks for pathways and walls. His plan is to discover and restore as many stones he can and then display them, as a shrine to this nearly lost aspect of Shanghai's Jewish history.

Stones have been recovered by the Shanghai Jewish Memorial Project from bike path bridges, fields and riverbeds. Bar-Gal interviews local residents and tries to put the puzzle pieces together.

Bar-Gal says there may have been some 3,700 Jews buried in the city, but couldn't find gravestones or cemeteries other than the pieces he discovers. He's found some 85 stones over the past 10 years. He's contacted families of the deceased and asked architects to design a permanent home.

A few years ago, American Lily Klebanoff Blake joined Bar-Gal and they went to the rural location where he found her grandmother's stone in a riverbed.

“It was still covered in mud but I felt compelled to show my respect for my grandmother by washing the mud off the gravestone,” she says. “Touching the gravestone, I felt an uncanny connection to my grandmother, who died when I was four years old.”

The recovered stones remain in a few places: a storage space, a Buddhist cemetery and the journalist's own gallery.

He has a network of people who let him know when stones are found. In March, a neighbor told him some stones were found in a western suburb and he found two new ones.

His inspiration comes from days like that, and he's working on various projects: a documentary (not yet funded), a book about Shanghai's Jewish history, and as a tour guide and photographer.

Yanhua Zhang, research director for a non-profit heritage conservation group, believes that a permanent home for the stones can help people trace their family history, and would raise awareness of the former Jewish ghetto.

Read the complete story at the link above.

Vienna: Searching JASSNIGER

At the Bendigo Famiy History Expo, attendee Margaret Brown told me about her JASSNIGER relatives from Vienna, and even went home to bring me the birth and death certificates.

Click on each image to see them better. Each holds detailed information on various individuas, including maiden names of mother and grandmother, etc.





If you are researching Margaret's father's rare name, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with her. Some dozen burials are in Vienna; she knows there was a US branch but has not yet checked for it.

Hong Kong: The Shabbat experience

Although Tracing the Tribe is now in Melbourne, I wanted to report on my Shabbat in Hong Kong.

I attended Friday night services with Garry Stein (an old Jewish genealogy friend from Toronto) at the United Jewish Congregation (liberal). Melodies were a mix of old, new and nostalgic There were Jewish faces and Asian faces, but most of all, there were singers. This is a singing congregation.

UJC's premises were carved out of space in One Robinson Place (70 Robinson Road), which includes two tall residential towers, the multi-floored JCC and the original Ohel Leah historic synagogue.

Following services, we went up to the Sabra Coffee Shop in the JCC for Shabbat dinner. The large space was transformed into separate dining rooms for two groups. The food was excellent and the company - a real mix of individuals - even better. One Chinese woman who attended is studying ethnomusicology at Hong Kong University and focusing on Jewish music, another young man is Brazilian; there are Americans and other nationalities.

On Shabbat morning, Ohel Leah was my choice. This wonderfully restored synagogue is across the courtyard from the JCC's Garden Terrace function room. The courtyard also has a playground well-used by the young children.

As OHL is an Orthodox congregation, women sit upstairs; the mechitza is an openwork grill surrounding the three-sided balcony. The acoustics are excellent, and the Torah scrolls in their silver Sephardic cases (tik) are masterpieces. The congregation uses the ArtScroll siddur and Stone chumash.

Everyone who read or participated had beautiful voices - it was a pleasure to be part of this Shabbat service. A sit-down kiddush followed. Among the familiar faces of people I had spoken to all week wasa new one: Howard Elias, who is both the Jewish cemetery warden and Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival organizer. Tracing the Tribe bets you didn't know there was one!

Kiddush included baked salmon in a delicious sauce, Chinese cold noodles, dressed cucumber salad, tomato salad, even hummus and eggplant salad. The community's excellent challah is superb; dessert was a strudel-ly pastry. Howard said this was regular kiddush fare, adding that I should see it when there's a simcha!

Howard grew up in Toronto, was a USYer, and lived very close to my TALALAY cousins.

During the zemirot singing after the meal, visiting Rabbi Jackson - from Ireland - offered a melody for one popular song that sounded very much like the Mighty Mouse cartoon theme. I won't forget that one very soon.

Over the past week, I've received many private comments from readers who have visited Hong Kong but never knew about the Jewish community, the JCC or attended a Shabbat service.

If this destination is on your radar screen, do try to visit, attend a Shabbat service, check events and meet the community - I'm sure you'll enjoy the experience.

Don't forget the 11th Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival, set for November 13-21, 2010.

I am looking forward to my return trip March 21-25 to this diverse, welcoming and interesting community.