Exploring A New Religion And Culture

As our class walked down the party filled coming street we passed a large white wall that without close observation you could just pass right by. After a few steps we gathered around a small cast iron gate and entered the Hebrew cemetery or Coming street cemetery.

Not a church or flower in sight!

Once inside we saw two women both dressed in white one was Anita Rosenberg and the other was Randi Serrins. Rosenberg looked at us as said "Stand anywhere I'm sure they won't mind." She laughed slightly and began to spout knowledge like a fountain.

Standing there I began to notice many differences between this Hebrew cemetery and mine back home. For starters the church is not connected to the cemetery. Rosenberg stated, "When this cemetery was built Jewish priests considered themselves to be unholy if they entered a church next to a cemetery." I was astounded at this information then as we were walking around I noticed there were no flowers!

After talking about the many stories of ghosts and disaster that had happened in the area and to the cemetery it became clear how much pride both of these women had in their cemetery and I understood why. Three hundred years of history in one place and friends and relatives buried there.

The Star of David as seen here
was found everywhere in the
Cemetery.

While walking through the cemetery I saw two main symbols one familiar and the other new. The Star of David I was familiar with and knew the relevance it had to the Jewish culture. The other however I was not so familiar with, the Rabenic blessing. These two symbols were everywhere throughout the cemetery.

After seeing the cemetery and talking to both of our guides I felt a lot more knowledgeable about the Jewish religion just from seeing their cemetery. Anita and Randi knew what they were talking about and near the time we left Randi said, "This cemetery has been here through disease, hurricanes, and several wars." And as good as they are taking care of it this cemetery will be here for many more years.

Rabinic blessings were a
common symbol.