The Old Jewish Cemetery

Old Jews nickname it “a garden of the dead”. Where did the strange name come from? Well, at their times, there was lack of space for living here in the Jewish quarter. And so they basically could not afford to have even the smallest garden next to their houses or somewhere near. The Old Jewish Cemetery was the only one place where some grass, trees, flowers, or simply whatever green could grow up. Twelve thousand gravestones, which have been leashed for hundred of years by a wind and disfavor of weather; gusts of rain pushed against them, washed them, crumbled their sandstone structure and smoothed out their marble. The gravestones have changed their position during the years – they leaned, some of them pulled up. However, they are still here and resemble thorns of a mythical creature bristling and displaying its thorns on all sides. Since the foundation of the Old Jewish Cemetery (in 13th century), there were, in layers one over another, buried over 80 000 Jews. The lack of space here did not allow to burry corpses in separate graves. Jews stopped to use this cemetery since 1787. The oldest gravestone you could find here is the one belonging to rabbi and writer Avigdor Kar. The date which is inscribed there refers to 15th century.

Rich and important Jews had many prerogatives in building posthumous memorials. Those memorials were more than just common graves; they were called “tomby” and looked like small houses made of stone. A few of them (almost 20) remained in this cemetery and they differ so much from others graves that the visitor’s eye cannot miss them.

If you look carefully, you can notice small stones lying on edges of some graves. Jews place them there instead of flowers. It is a good example of how is their culture different. Most of the little stones can be found on a grave of rabbi Löw. He was very popular and sought-after man. It is also proved by a fact, that all of 33 devoted apprentices of rabbi Löw let themselves buried in the closeness of his grave after theirs death so as they could be with their mentor even in the posthumous life.

Somewhere in the “wood of the gravestones” there is said to be a gravestone of Handel Šmiles. You may now wonder what is so exciting about this gravestone. Especially, if you compare it to the gravestone of famous rabbi Löw. Well, this gravestone is astonishing mainly thanks to a crest which is composed of three parts. The middle part includes three stars and in the other two outside parts there are lions. Legends tell that this is the place where is allegedly buried a polish queen who was expelled by her husband from her country. Jews gave her a shelter but they could not confess in public that they sheltered her. They were scared of disclosure, anger and pursuing. Therefore, Jews concealed her real name indicating the origin and real identity of the queen and used this fictitious name instead.

The ornamentation of Jewish gravestones differs. On some of them, there are embossments of animals and things having some relationship with the life of the dead. Some of them are clear and stark.

• Hands with outspreaded fingers express blessing and say that there is buried a “kohen” – a descendant of the first Jewish high priest Aron. Those having a name Kohen or Kohn are both descendants of “kohens”.
• Lion, the king of all animals symbolizes a power.
• Lion holding a lancet (a medical tool) indicates a medical profession.
• Deer or fish symbolizes a name of the dead – Hirsch (deer), Fisher or Karpeles (fish)/
• Scissors indicates a tailor.
• Axe symbolizes a butcher, etc.