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The oldest Jewish cemetery in the United States is located in New York City; the grave of Cantor Gershom Mendes Seixas can be seen here in the burial grounds of Congregation Shearith Israel.
I was the one who began.
“Reb Arye-Leib,” I said to the old man. “Let’s talk about Benya Krik. Let’s talk about his lightning-quick beginning and his terrible end. Three shadows block the path of my…
[ . . . ] The eve of the Jewish Day of Atonement. In the morning, I wander down Gesia Street, a long thoroughfare. A few stores are still open, the majority are already closing. A tremendous human…
Not long after Sammy’s visit, my father died after a long illness. My mother’s sorrow and mine were compounded by the fact that there were not ten men who had known him in his life to stand by his…
Mordechai Meisel (1528–1601) was a court Jew, merchant, philanthropist and builder in Prague. Meisel became a member of the Prague Jewish Communal Council in 1576 and later served as its head. This is…
Tombstone of Hendl bat Eberl Geronim, wife of the Court Jew Jacob Bassevi von Treuenberg (1570–1634), in the Jewish cemetery in Prague. The Hebrew date on the top part of the stone indicates that she…
Tombstone of Shifra Tamari (d. 1565), Padua, Italy. In the early modern period, most Jewish tombstones in Italy were Italian Renaissance in style. Hebrew epitaph poems, like the one on this gravestone…
Samson Wertheimer (1658–1724) was the chief rabbi of Hungary and Moravia, a court Jew, and Habsburg financier. His grave in the Viennese Seegasse cemetery is marked with an elaborately decorated…
This illustration from a book of prayers for the Jewish Gravediggers Society depicts the cycle of life. Figures of men and women in pairs ascend and descend the staircase, progressing from youth to…
What shall the passive and lackluster do
if the pious and accomplished are swiftly felled by angels?
Quake, nations, and rich and poor fear ye the judgment day.
When the…