Restoring Mount Zion Cemetery

Published on May 8, 2013

The headstone of Isabel Janken’s father, Henry Morhar, lies flat on the ground at Mount Zion Cemetery, knocked from its ledger. It’s an elegant headstone, weighing more than 1,000 pounds. A few feet below, an engraved picture showing a handsome Morhar is inscribed in capital letters, “Gone But Not Forgotten.”

Stars of David ripped from Jewish tombstones in Milan

Published on April 15, 2013

More than a dozen tombstones at the Jewish section of Milan's main cemetery were vandalized.

Candlesticks on Stone

By Ruth Ellen Gruber
Published on August 28, 2012

Oxford medieval cemetery marked

Published on July 6, 2012

A Jewish heritage committee in Oxford marked a medieval Jewish cemetery in the university town.

Cemetery chief Herbert Klapper’s salary among highest in Jewish communal world

Published on June 11, 2012

Herbert Klapper, the president of a New Jersey not-for-profit cemetery, has one of the top salaries in the Jewish communal world.

‘60 Minutes’ Investigates Eden Cemetery Allegations

By Julie Gruenbaum Fax
Published on May 21, 2012

Jewish cemetery in Poland is vandalized

Published on March 19, 2012

Polish police are investigating the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in northeastern Poland.

Budapest Jewish cemetery being probed for corruption

Published on December 6, 2011

Police are investigating allegations of corruption relating to fees charged for interment and other funerary arrangements at Budapest’s main Jewish cemetery.

Kosovo Jewish cemetery desecrated

Published on December 1, 2011

Kosovo authorities are investigating the desecration Tuesday of a local Jewish cemetery. Swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans were sprayed on tombstones of this old cemetery which was restored less than six months ago.

Atlantic City Jewish cemetery vandalized

Published on June 1, 2011

Some 15 gravestones were toppled in a Jewish cemetery in Atlantic City, N.J. The attack on the Rodef Sholom Cemetery reportedly took place just before the Memorial Day holiday weekend, according to the Press of Atlantic City. Police believe that more than one vandal was involved because of the heaviness of the gravestones but have no suspects.

Holocaust victims reburied in Romanian Jewish cemetery

Published on April 6, 2011

The remains of dozens of Jews killed by Romanian troops during the Holocaust and found in a mass grave were reburied in a Jewish cemetery. The unidentified remains of at least 40 Jewish victims were reburied on Monday in the Jewish cemetery of Iasi in northeastern Romania.

Snow dumping topples headstones in Brooklyn cemetery

Published on January 5, 2011

New York City snow removal trucks dumped tons of snow from the area's recent blizzard into the city's largest Jewish cemetery, toppling 21 headstones. An iron fence around Brooklyn's Washington Cemetery also was damaged when crews from the Sanitation Department dumped the snow into the cemetery over New Year's weekend, the New York Post reported Wednesday. The damage was discovered Sunday. Family members of some relatives buried in the cemetery have visited in recent days to check on the graves. Several cars parked next to the cemetery also were buried; some were damaged.

In saving Jewish remnants in Galicia, an effort to enlist Ukrainians

Published on December 20, 2010

On a sloping green hill tucked between small farmsteads, the mottled graves of Jews buried here since the 1600s rise up like a forgotten forest.

German cemeteries vandalized

Published on August 11, 2010

The Germany city of Bremen will help the local Jewish community pay for repairs to the historic cemetery in Hastedt, which was damaged by unknown vandals.

The saviour of Sarajevo barred for being a Jew

Published on April 23, 2010

Jakob Finci's Jewishness was an asset in the Bosnian war – he was a neutral party who helped 3,000 people flee the country. But now his religion means he is barred from public office

Israeli pilot Assaf Ramon buried next to astronaut father

Published on September 14, 2009

Israeli pilot Assaf Ramon was buried next to his father, astronaut Ilan Ramon, a day after he was killed in a training accident.

Jewish gravestones vandalized at Argentina cemetery

Published on September 14, 2009

Some 58 gravestones were vandalized at a Jewish cemetery in Argentina's Buenos Aires province on Friday and Saturday, local news Web site Momento 24 reported.

Obituaries

Published on January 7, 2009

Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, Arthur Spiegelman

Published on December 31, 2008

Obituaries

Published on December 18, 2008

Protests over Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance spread

By Brad A. Greenberg
Published on December 11, 2008

Although the cemetery hasn't been used in at least 50 years and has long since been declared mundras -- no longer sacred -- by Muslim authorities, critics of the Center for Human Dignity have charged the Wiesenthal Center with being intolerant in its quest to build a Jerusalem version of its West. L.A. museum.

Obituaries

Published on November 26, 2008

Obituaries

Published on November 20, 2008

Obituaries

Published on November 13, 2008

Obituaries

Published on October 30, 2008

Obituaries

Published on October 16, 2008

Obituaries

Published on October 10, 2008

Obituaries

Published on September 25, 2008

Obituaries

Published on September 17, 2008

Obituaries

Published on September 11, 2008

Obituaries

Published on September 3, 2008

Obituaries

Published on August 28, 2008

Obituaries

Published on August 21, 2008

Mom’s final resting places—a cremation story

Published on August 7, 2008

If you are offended either by the idea of cremation or humor about the dead, you may want to stop reading. It's OK.

Obituaries

Published on August 7, 2008

The high cost of dying

By Jane Ulman
Published on August 7, 2008

A traditional Jewish funeral is simple and not ostentatious -- good news for people concerned about the high cost of dying. But while Jewish law doesn't require embalming, elaborate floral displays or 16-gauge metal caskets with tufted crepe interiors, it does require Jews to be buried in the ground. And that costs money.

Trendy, traditional and taboo:
An incomplete guide to Jewish funerals and burial

By Jane Ulman
Published on August 7, 2008

While not everyone is jumping on the 'I gotta be me' funeral bandwagon, a funny thing is happening on the way to the mortuary. When it comes to thinking about the end of life, be it in the business of funeral homes or in the minds of Jews everywhere, the world is changing.

Obituaries

Published on July 17, 2008

Obituaries

Published on July 10, 2008

Tehran cemetery Web site links local Persians to Iran

By Karmel Melamed
Published on March 1, 2007

Billboard mystery ends with interfaith twist

By Adam Wills
Published on November 16, 2006

The mysterious billboards went up across the Los Angeles area just after the High Holidays. Each used a variation on the same theme, juxtaposing illustrations: Latkes or fries? Bagels and lox or sushi? Yarmulke or cap?

We’d All Rather Be in Venice

By Ellen Switkes
Published on August 4, 2006

It's been two years this week since my mother, Betty Switkes, died, and we still haven't had the unveiling. Jewish custom dictates that you unveil the headstone a year after the person dies, but my father has not found the right stone or the right words to inscribe on that stone, so she rests in this unmarked grave. People who pass by this spot might suspect the person buried here is a forgotten soul, but nothing could be further from the truth. She is the focus of his obsession.

Kids Learn Burial Rites From Barney

By Naomi Glauberman
Published on May 4, 2006

Michael Sachs remembers that he had initially thought that a program on death wasn't really important for people in their 40s.

"But, in fact," he now says, "I learned things I assumed I wouldn't need to think about for many years. I thought the program dealt with potentially distressing material in a nonthreatening, matter-of-fact fashion," he said.

Obituaries

Published on March 16, 2006

Levia Pearl Abramowitz died Feb. 21. She is survived by her husband, Nathan; daughters Orit (Yitzchak) Cohen, Sharone and Judy; son, Harold (Lani); and grandchild, Harriet Theodore. Mount Sinai

Wiesenthal’s Project in Jerusalem on Hold Amid Dispute

By Tom Tugend
Published on February 23, 2006

Since its beginning in 1977, with one phone and a very long extension cord, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center has seemingly moved from one success to the next, with its shrewd, strategic planning and winning message of tolerance. Now it faces a daunting, unfamiliar and discomforting challenge.

Obituaries

Published on December 22, 2005

Rabbi Jacob Ott, who served for 34 years at Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, died of congestive heart failure on Saturday, Dec. 16. He was 86.

Visiting History

By Tom Teicholz
Published on October 28, 2004

I have always had a soft spot for Brazil. I spent the summer after high school graduation there, and my wife and I spent our honeymoon there.

Higher Learning

By Rob Eshman
Published on August 1, 2002

To begin to understand the "strategy" behind killing innocent college students, visit the part of Mt. Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem that one rabbi there calls, "the burial area for the nation's unborn victims."

California, Here They Come

By Tom Tugend
Published on June 20, 2002

Los Angeles, founded in 1781 as one of a string of Spanish settlements along the Pacific coast, was nearly 60 years old when Jacob Frankfort arrived, apparently the first Jewish resident.

Careless Undertaking

By Mike Levy
Published on January 10, 2002

A gruesome scandal at two Jewish cemeteries in Florida may have implications at a cemetery near you.

A class-action lawsuit alleges that Menorah Gardens oversold space at its Palm Beach County cemetery and at another cemetery in Broward County.

Looking for A Legend

By Larry Tritten
Published on March 1, 2001

Years ago I'd heard from someone or read somewhere that Wyatt Earp is buried in Colma, near San Francisco, a bit of provocative trivia whose truth I'd never been sure of. One day a while back I decided to check it out. I would have thought that one of the most famous figures in the history of the Old West would have ended up in the landscape of his legend. In the case of Wyatt Earp, this would mean Dodge City, Wichita, or more appropriately, Tombstone.

Community

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on August 27, 1998

Hollywood Memorial Park faces closure unless a buyercomes to the rescue

A Final Resting Place?

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 27, 1997

Hollywood Memorial Park is the cemetery of the stars, and rightnow it is starring in a cliffhanger of its own.

Westward Expansion

By Ruth Stroud
Published on March 20, 1997

It could have been a wedding or a bar mitzvah: A lively klezmer band played as several hundred people munched kosher turkey sandwiches and sipped fruit punch at tables scattered outside a giant white tent. This scene was set against a picturesque landscape of boulder-studded, tree-dotted green hills.