Cemetery Questionnaire
Please make your answers as personal as possible, since it’s stories like yours that will take this project from the abstract to vital reality for many readers. Please use names, dates and relationships wherever possible, and make your answers as detailed as needed in order to be as compelling as possible.
Note — you may not have personal stories or connections in answer to some of the questions, but your general answers will still be valuable. (Example: some may answer “my great grandfather Richard …” while others answer “So many of the families …”)
1) WHO is buried in the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Trenton?
2) When was the last time you visited the cemeteries? Why did you visit? What did you observe on your visit?
3) Why is it important to you/your family that the cemeteries be restored and maintained?
4) Why is it important to the Community that the cemeteries be restored and maintained.?
PLEASE REPLY ASAP — THIS WEEK.
Send to Paul Schindel
paul@three bears.com
Arthur Finkle
1. Parents, grandparents, & great aunts & uncles buried in Workmen's Circle Cemetery on Pittman Ave.
ReplyDelete2. I visited the cemetery about 3 wks ago.
3. The cemetery should be maintained to honor the deceased.
4. Not restoring and maintaining all the cemeteries is a disgrace and a poor reflection of the Trenton Area Jewish Community. So sad.
Pam and I have parents, aunts and uncles and visit every time we come north....the Fountain Lawn cemetery is a disgrace which is just the opposite of the Knights of Pythias cemetery which is perpetually maintained on a regular basis...not maintaining the cemeteries reflects poorly on the Jewish community and their departed loved ones...please keep us in the loop as to what is happening
ReplyDeleteThank you
Pam and Mitch Ginsburg
P.S. my correct e-mail address is medicinman62@aol.com
1) Personally, I have many ancestors in over 6 Greater Trenton cemeteries - parents, grandparents, great grandparents, great aunts & uncles, second cousins, up to a great-great grandfather (circa 1890s). Merchants, teachers, doctors, professionals. Beyond relations, the Greater Trenton cemeteries tell a story of the Jewish people that came here, built a prosperous community, and became part of the fabric of America.
ReplyDelete2) I generally visit once a year around the High Holidays, making a tour of the cemeteries, but also sometimes visit when just happening to be in the area. I visit to feel close to my parents, to maintain a tradition that they taught me, and to feel closer to my community and heritage.
In visiting, it is clear that some of our cemeteries are maintained and some are in great need. Some graves are recognizable and others are overgrown and fading to oblivion. One can also observe the evolving customs of our people, their differing philosophies, maybe even trends in fashion? One thing is clear - the importance on which our ancestors placed on communal burial and community.
3) To me, it is important that we restore and maintain the cemeteries to honor the sacrifice, achievements, and community-mindedness of our ancestors. It is important to have a place to visit and contemplate our origins.
4) Thinking historically, in a span of only a few decades, the Jewish community of Trenton sprang forth, grew, flourished, propagated out, and withered. The stores, homes, synagogues, schools, even the streets, on which are people lived are largely gone. All that remains is the cemeteries. Preserving them helps preserve the story of our people.
Michael Keats
I visit twice a year to the cemetery way at the end of the street where the monuments office is. I believe it is Workmen's Circle. I REGULARLY weed, and place white stones there on the graves of my paternal grandparents, my great aunt and uncle, and my mother which are all together at that location. Arthur Frank
ReplyDelete