Originally, Jewish cemeteries did not commonly feature statues, and they only appeared in Sephardic and Ashkenazi cemeteries in Paramaribo, Suriname in the late 19th century as Jews began to embrace more of the Latin American culture.⁵ Unlike Christian cemeteries in Latin America, however, Jewish cemeteries did not feature sultry statues of men or women. Sexually suggestive statues are used in Christian burial grounds to instill the image of death with life, but interestingly, there are no symbols of mourners of any kind in Suriname’s Jewish cemeteries.⁶ In modern times, statues are much more common in Jewish cemeteries. Unsurprisingly, they also appear with more contemporary designs, as demonstrated in Cemitério Israelita de La Tablada and Cemitério Comunal Israelita de Rio de Janeiro. While some Jewish communities are becoming more flexible about statues, most still abide by the Jewish custom to leave cemeteries as simple as possible. Jewish culture views simplicity as a sign of respect for the dead by not letting frivolous ostentation pull focus from the burial and mourning. As such, flowers and ornate coffins are very rare and frowned upon in traditional Jewish cemeteries in Latin America to this day.

Jewish Latin American cemeteries occasionally feature stelae, which are upright slabs of stone that act as grave markers.⁷ They typically feature epitaphs and iconography. Several were recorded in Paramaribo cemeteries, but most people could not afford them.

The bier, a frame on which coffins rest when being carried to the grave, is also used on occasion, like in the Sephardic cemetery of Jodensavanne, Suriname. In Latin America, the bier is not elevated like it is in Europe, but rather flat and table-like.