Judging by the similarities of these two headstones, they may have been put up at the time of the father's passing. Little information could be found, but there was a son, Kelly, who died in 2006.
It is interesting to note the common practice of including the Star of David
on the headstone of the man and the menorah on the headstone of the woman.
It is interesting to note the common practice of including the Star of David
on the headstone of the man and the menorah on the headstone of the woman.
for a Taphophile Tragics at Hess St Synagogue Cemetery
11 comments:
I've not heard of that "common" practice. Very interesting and there's got to be a reason for it. I'm going to check my sources to see if I can find out.
It is interesting to see the two different symbols, although I'm also not too familiar with this practice (and will want to find out more info). :)
Beautifully carved stones.
Beneath Thy Feet
Cool. I am guessing this is a Jewish cemetery.
There is one near my house that I want to visit. Maybe I will just have to do that later this week!
I did not know of this practice either, until I was wandering around the cemetery and noticed it. I couldn't find a reason, but am assuming it is part of the symbolism. the lighting of the menorah would be the responsibility of the females and maybe the six pointed star was chosen for the males because only males could be rabbis?
this was my first foray into a Jewish cemetery, so I was trying to note the differences (some of which were more obvious than others)
There's a lot of interesting symbolism on graves. I wrote about some of the symbolism while back after a tour at a local cemetery.
I hadn't heard about the star=male/menorah=female association before. But some other symbols you might see on a Jewish grave include:
- Kohanim hands = from the tribe of Aaron, the temple priests
- water pitcher = from the tribe of Levi, cleansed the hands of the priests
- pile of pebbles = by custom, a visitor leaves a stone to say they remember; dates back to use of cairns for graves
ah, yes - I was going to get to some of those ones in a later post :)
I rather like the use of symbolism on markers. and this one could be useful if one were not familiar with the names and unsure of the gender.
It's a touching photo - I didn't know about that either, and now I'm curious to find out more.
I am totally fascinated by funerary symbolism. Am totally fascinated when I can identify new examples. Small minds ...
I suppose the marker of the woman is stained darker over time by mould. Very handsome matching pair.
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