Jewish Cemetery
A Jewish cemetery ( Hebrew בית-עלמין or. בית-עולם, Pronunciation : [ beɪt ʌl'mɪn ] or [ beɪt o'lʌm ], German "House of Eternity" according to Kohelet 12.8 EU orבית קברות[ beɪt kvʌ'rot ], "House of Graves") is a cemetery with peculiarities that result from the laws of Judaism . So burial is mandatory. The permanent rest of the dead is considered binding and opposes a limited rest period . Instead of flowers, visitors usually place small gray stones on the grave. With reference to its life-affirming character and the expectation of the Messiah , the Jewish cemetery is also called a “good place”, according to a Yiddish expression.
history
While the Ashkenazim (Jews of German origin and Eastern European) placed upright stones at their graves, the Sephardim (Portuguese and Spanish Jews) buried their dead under flat grave slabs or tent graves. In Central and Eastern Europe, Ashkenazi burial types are predominantly common. Occasionally there are also Jewish cemeteries which, in addition to an Ashkenazi part, also contain a Sephardic part, such as the Jewish cemetery in Hamburg-Altona . Initially, the dead were directed towards Jerusalem ; this tradition has not been enforced since the 18th century.
In particular, the gravestones ( Mazevot ) were not only inscribed in Hebrew from the time of the Haskala , but also in the respective national language. The latter usually happened on the back of the tombstone. Another peculiarity was that on the side of the tombstone inscribed in Hebrew, not only the name of the deceased himself was mentioned, but also the name of his father. Today this represents an inestimable value for genealogical research . In the time of the Haskala family graves with elaborately designed tombstones and even mausoleums for families were built based on the Christian tradition .
In the past it sometimes happened that donkeys roaming free were kept in Jewish cemeteries. Since believing Jews have to trigger the first birth of a donkey, unlike other farm animals, if they later intend to use this donkey for their own use, they have to pay a fee for the animal in good time. However, this was sometimes neglected, so the donkey was not allowed to be used for any work and spent its life in the cemetery.
The holy sand in Worms is considered to be the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe with a tombstone from 1058/1059 .
It was during the Nazi Jewish cemeteries vandalized in large numbers.
particularities
Because all people are equal in death, tombstones of the same shape were found until the middle of the 18th century. Only with the Haskala , the progressive Jewish emancipation and assimilation , did the Jews begin to erect splendid tombs, as is also known from Christian cemeteries of that time.
"One of the most fundamental Israelite beliefs, the inviolability of the rest of the dead, led to the fact that graves and tombs are preserved for centuries, that the Jewish cemeteries" grow "over generations, while in other cemeteries again and again - after the expiry of rest periods - individual graves or entire grave fields are cleared [...] "
The Jewish grave is not leveled by the communities and the stone remains. If there is not enough space, a layer of earth is placed over a grave and one dead is buried on top of the other. This can be seen impressively at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague . This is related to the Jewish belief in the resurrection of the dead after the arrival of the Messiah .
A special feature of many Jewish cemeteries are the couple graves : Since the peace of the dead must not be disturbed, the later deceased spouse receives their own grave with their own mazewa next to their predeceased husband.
Flower decorations are not common in the Jewish tradition, instead small stones are placed on the grave slabs. The graves are left overgrown with ivy and grass. After visiting the cemetery, people wash their hands because the proximity of the dead makes them cultically unclean. In Germany, the Jewish cemeteries are usually closed on the Sabbath . The Halacha does not allow to bury the dead on the Sabbath or to work there.
Non-Jewish men are also asked to cover their heads in a Jewish cemetery out of respect for Jewish customs.
Association cemetery
The cemetery is usually owned by the Jewish community. On the other hand, there is an association cemetery owned by several kehillot (municipalities). The merger to form a cemetery association made it possible to jointly finance a cemetery. This affected both the new construction and the costs incurred for maintaining the cemetery. Jewish communities or Jewish families who did not buy into the union cemetery could bury their dead there, but often had to pay higher fees.
One of the largest and oldest surviving Jewish association cemeteries in Germany is the Jewish cemetery in Heinsheim near Bad Rappenau in Kraichgau , Baden-Württemberg .
Large Jewish cemeteries in Europe
Since the area and the number of graves do not correspond, it is difficult to organize cemeteries according to size. The Ohlsdorf cemetery is the largest in Central Europe in terms of area, while the Vienna Central Cemetery and its Jewish section are the larger in terms of the number of graves, 80,000, of which 6000 were destroyed in the Second World War. Thessaloniki had the largest Jewish cemetery in Southeastern Europe with supposedly 500,000 graves. It was destroyed after the Balkan campaign (1941) in cooperation with the Wehrmacht and the Greek authorities.
In Germany , Berlin , Breslau and Königsberg i. Pr. The largest Jewish communities. Among the preserved cemeteries, the Berlin-Weißensee Jewish cemetery is the largest in Europe. There are around 115,000 graves on an area of 42 hectares . In the old Jewish cemetery in Wroclaw there are 12,000 graves on 5 hectares, on the new one 20,000 graves on 7 hectares. There are no figures for Königsberg.
In Eastern Europe , the New Jewish Cemetery in Łódź follows Weißensee with 40 hectares; he has 180,000 graves. The Jewish cemetery in Warsaw is the largest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe in terms of the number of graves. On an area of 33 hectares there are over 200,000 graves with gravestones, as well as mass graves of murdered residents of the Warsaw ghetto from the time of the German occupation.
In Ukraine , the Chernivtsi Jewish Cemetery, with 14.2 hectares and 50,000 graves , ranks far ahead of those in Lemberg and Brody . Only one of the three Jewish cemeteries in Lviv has survived. The destroyed cemetery in Brody with 6,000 gravestones was built over by a stadium after the war. The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague is well known, but it is the smallest of the known Jewish cemeteries. On just under a hectare there are 12,000 graves in which an estimated 100,000 people are buried.
In north-eastern Europe , Vilnius was a center of Judaism. Only one of the three Jewish cemeteries in Vilnius has survived; it contains 6500 graves.
Symbols on tombstones
- Levite jug also with hand in a pouring gesture: gravestone of a Levite who washes the priest's hands
- Blessing priest hands : grave of a Kohanim who speaks the priestly blessing
- three- or nine-armed candlesticks Hanukkah candlesticks with broken candles: often a woman's grave
- Lion supporting a stack of books
- a spread hand shows that the deceased was a Kohen (priest) and thus a descendant of the high priest Aharon
- broken tree trunk or tree trunk with a broken crown: often stands for the death of a young person
- Star of David
- Hand throwing a coin into a chest: Zedaka box
- Pair of birds: stands for a woman's grave
Desecration of Jewish cemeteries
The desecration of Jewish cemeteries is a particularly reprehensible expression of anti-Semitism , which wants to show that Jews should not have any peace even in death. With desecrations of the cemetery, the perpetrators want to destroy memory, erase the symbolic presence of Jewish life and violate the dignity of the defenseless deceased.
See also
literature
- Thomas Blisniewski : Changes in the Jewish Sepulchral Culture in the 19th Century. In: Claudia Denk, John Ziesemer (Ed.): The civil death. Urban burial culture from the Enlightenment to the early 20th century. International conference of the German National Committee of ICOMOS in cooperation with the Bavarian National Museum Munich, 11. – 13. November 2005. (= ICOMOS booklets of the German National Committee. 44). Regensburg 2007, pp. 14-23.
- Tina Walzer : Jewish cemeteries in European countries. Framework conditions and status pictures. In: David: Jewish culture magazine. Issue 82, 2009, p. 9. ( davidkultur.at ( Memento from April 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ))
- Falk Wiesemann : Sepulcra judaica: Bibliography on Jewish cemeteries and on dying, burial and mourning among Jews from the Hellenistic period to the present. Klartext Verlagsgesellschaft, Essen 2004, ISBN 3-89861-422-0 .
- Herbert Liedel, Helmut Dolhopf: House of Life. Jewish cemeteries. Stürtz, Würzburg 1985, ISBN 3-8003-0251-9 .
- Alfred Udo Theobald (ed.): The Jewish cemetery. Witness to history - witness to culture. Badenia, Karlsruhe 1984, ISBN 3-7617-0228-0 .
- Ulrich Knufinke: Buildings of Jewish cemeteries in Germany. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-206-2 .
- Claudia Theune , Tina Walzer (eds.): Jewish cemeteries - place of worship, place of remembrance, memorial. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2011, ISBN 978-3-205-78477-7 .
Web links
- Digital edition of more than 22,000 Jewish grave inscriptions
- Jewish cemeteries near alemannia-judaica
- Graves of personalities & cemeteries worldwide
- Searching for traces - Jewish cemeteries in Germany - An introduction for students and teachers.
- Jewish cemeteries in Bavaria (House of Bavarian History)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Simon Philip de Vries : Jewish rites and symbols (= rororo . Volume 18758 ). 11th edition. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-499-18758-2 , p. 213 .
- ^ Alfred Udo Theobald: The Jewish cemetery . Karlsruhe 1984.
- ^ Jewish cemeteries Vienna, accessed on May 1, 2016 ( Memento from August 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Wassilis Aswestopoulos: Ten million for 500,000 graves. In: Jüdische Allgemeine. April 14, 2011.
- ^ Report on a historians' conference in Thessaloniki on the Jewish history of the city with figures ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Disappeared from memory. The forgotten Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki (Deutschlandfunk, 2010) ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Foundation Jewish Monuments in Lodz ( Memento from April 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Cemetery Brody (Deutschlandradio, 2012)
- ↑ Nathanja Hüttenmeister, Rolf Verleger (ed.): House of Eternity. The Stockelsdorf Jewish cemetery. 1st edition. Solivagus-Verlag, Kiel 2019, ISBN 978-3-947064-05-2 .