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College grad conducts study of old Jewish cemetery |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 20 August 2006 |
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By Daniel Remin
August 9, 2006
During her senior year at college, Lindsey Friedman spent many hours exploring a nearby Jewish cemetery. The anthropology major and recent graduate of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., conducted a study of Shaarai Shomayim cemetery, one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in North America.
Friedman examined the tombstones, noting the intricate designs and details on each one, including differences between what appeared on a man’s and woman’s headstone.
“One person told me the Magen David goes on a man’s tombstone and a chanukiyah goes on a woman’s,” Friedman said. “That’s because women light candles, and men study and are more prominent in synagogue. This was a very recent trend that started around the middle of the last century.”
For her project, titled “Jewish Identity and Concepts of Tradition: An Archaeological and Ethnographic Study in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,” Friedman not only studied the tombstones but also updated the cemetery’s census, conducted interviews with local Jews and wrote a thesis that won her honors in her department.
“I used the cemetery and interviews as a way to look at Jewish communities and traditions,” said Friedman, a native of South Windsor. “In the afterlife, everyone is the same. You’re supposed to be buried that way because someone who is not wealthy cannot have (a fancier tombstone). It would shame them. Because of that, most of the stones are similar. There are still some small differences. Locals have more traditions like an obelisk-shaped stone or something larger with more decorations. Some traditions that are more religious, such as the Sephardic tradition, you mark off the area around the grave. You can’t walk over it.”
One observation Friedman made was the use of Hebrew versus English. In fact, going back to 1747 when the cemetery first started being used, Hebrew letters were prominent, including some tombstones that were half-Hebrew, half-English. Then, that changed to all English, and it wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that Hebrew began to be used again, Friedman said. Congregation Shaarai Shomayim, a Reform synagogue in Lancaster, owns the cemetery.
For her project, Friedman spent time talking to members, many of whom have relatives buried at the cemetery. She also conducted a census, which hadn’t been done since the 1970s.
According to the congregation’s Web site, there are still five headstones from 1747 to 1804, including Joseph Simon’s, one of two people to whom the land for the cemetery was deeded. Some of Simon’s relatives are buried there as well.
“Nobody really knows of Lancaster Jews, but there’s such a long history,” Friedman said. “Joseph Simon was one of the wealthiest people there at the time. He owned a lot of property. There were other Jews just as prominent. When you think of the area, you think of the Amish. Lancaster isn’t a port city. It’s sort of off the radar.”
Today, three synagogues, a Reform, Conservative and Orthodox one, can be found in Lancaster. There’s also a Jewish community center.
Friedman, the daughter of Randi and Dr. Matthew Friedman of South Windsor, identifies herself as Conservative and attends Congregation B’nai Israel in Rockville. She attended Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford as well as Camp Eisner in the Berkshires. She grew up in a religious home, and Judaism has always been a significant part of her life. That is partly why she decided to undertake this project.
Despite Friedman’s strong Jewish background, some of what she discovered surprised her, such as the amount of time one waits to put up a headstone. According to Jewish custom, a year is standard, but Friedman found that this wasn’t always the case. In one instance, only three months passed before the unveiling.
“This surprised me,” she said. “It depends on how pure you are. There are purification rituals for the body before burial. There’s a whole spiritual aspect… There were a lot of things I was surprised about, wasn’t sure of or that bothered me a little bit because I’m a Conservative Jew.”
Yet even Friedman didn’t quite follow all the practices one should undertake when visiting or leaving a cemetery, and that led to a rather eerie occurrence.
“I walked the exact same path every day, and one time, I didn’t wash my hands after leaving,” she said. “The next day, I was working in the library shelving books in an archive room, and a really large book came off the shelf and hit me. My supervisor was standing nearby. An hour later, the same thing happened in another room. The book came flying at me. After that, I took a different path and made sure I washed my hands. If you take the same path, don’t wash your hands or step on a grave, (maybe) spirits can follow you out.”
Ultimately, though, the project was an enjoyable experience for Friedman, and one from which she learned a great deal.
“It gave me a new perspective on Judaism and my own background,” she said. “It helped me appreciate it more. It’s really important and does have a purpose. It’s a great thing to be a part of something. Judaism is ethnicity. When you sit in synagogue or sit in a cemetery like this one that’s really old, you really feel connected to Jews everywhere. That’s so powerful.”
Daniel Remin is a freelance writer for the Jewish Ledger.
http://www.jewishledger.com/articles/2006/08/09/news/news06.txt |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
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“Some can gaze and not be sick, But I could never learn the trick. There's this to say for blood and breath, They give a man a taste for death.” A.E. Housman
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