Cemeteries: Tombstones

Material, Shape, & Size

Although many Latin American Jews imported sedimentary stone and marble for their tombstones, most grave markers were wood due to financial limitations.1 Tombstones were regularly rectangular, and ohalim (prism-shaped stones) were reserved for rabbis and community leaders. Children typically received smaller headstones. Some tombstones, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, had square or rectangular pockets cut into them to place soil from Israel in. Additionally, many Sephardic Jews in parts of Latin America like Suriname and the Barbados lay their tombstones flat, whereas Ashkenazi Jews lay their tombstones vertically.2

Ohalim in Zwi Migdal cemetery (Avellaneda, Argentina) [Image courtesy of Google]

A wooden tombstone, indicating lower social & economic class (Cassipora, Suriname)3

Example of vertical tombstones of the Ashkenazim from Cementerio Israelita de La Tablada (Buenos Aires, Argentina) [Image courtesy of Google]

Example of horizontal tombstones of the Sephardim in the Beth Heim Cemetery (Willemstad, Curaçao) [Image courtesy of Google]

Iconography

Tombstones serve as a reminder of the deceased to their loved ones, so the iconography that Jews use on their gravestones expresses a lot about their cultural and religious values. In Europe, specifically the Iberian Peninsula, Jews tended to use plain gravestones before their expulsion because they used other art forms like synagogue wall paintings, ritual objects, and book illustrations.4 

However, once they came to Latin America, they adopted some of the national customs and began to carve more elaborate tombstones. Additionally, more languages appeared on their gravestones, indicating the combination of Jewish, homeland, and Latin American identities. Common languages on Jewish gravestones include Hebrew, Aramaic, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch.

Multiple languages recorded on a Jewish tombstone (Cassipora, Suriname)5

Religion & Culture

Of the symbols recorded in various Jewish Latin American cemeteries, many can be traced back to Jewish customs from the European, Middle Eastern, and African heritage of the Sephardim and Ashkenazim. Although other symbols originate from Christian influences found in Latin America, new ones also became prominent that are more unique to Latin American Jewish diasporas.

Jewish European/Middle Eastern Symbols

Before immigrating to Latin America, common Jewish symbols that appeared in burial customs include the menorah, the ram’s horn, the olive branch, the citron, the palm branch, the oil lamp, the sacred arc, and the grape cluster.6 Many of these still appeared in Latin American cemeteries, though not all of them. In Suriname’s oldest Jewish cemeteries, the only one of these symbols that appeared was the grape cluster.

However, several symbols still transferred to Latin America consistently. Hands were a large theme, the most popular in Sephardic cemeteries being an image of hands with palms pressed together and the fingers outstretched. This symbol originates from the Hebrew bible.

Another popular theme that Jews brought to Latin America was the Tree of Life. This Jewish symbol represents the “promise of immortality and everlasting youth,” and floral motifs all over Jewish Latin American cemeteries are likely derived from it. Accordingly, flora iconography  is extremely common in Jewish cemeteries. Scholars have categorized many different species of plants on Sephardic tombstones in Buenos Aires, Argentina, including acanthus, palm, ivy, oak, olive, laurel, rose, lily, poppy, thistle, fleur de lis, lotus, sunflower and pomegranate.7 These plants generally symbolize glory and spirituality in addition to their decorative nature. In particular, poppy and ivy are often associated with funeral use. 

Coats of arms were more prominent in European Jewish cemeteries, because some were bestowed upon Jews from Christians. Only 2 were recorded in all of Suriname’s burial grounds, found in the Sephardic Paramaribo cemetery. Featuring a castle and angels bearing trumpets, they indicate strong cultural ties to the Iberian Peninsula.8

While there are many pictographs featuring biblical narratives and liturgical documents in Curaçao diasporas, they are rare in other Jewish Latin American cemeteries. It is likely that Jews focused on more secular iconography to strengthen their connection to the Iberian Peninsula. The skull and crossbones and winged hourglass, symbols of mortality, were adopted by both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews during the Renaissance and continued to be used in Latin America.9

Example of grape cluster symbol [Image courtesy of Pixabay]

Tree of Life iconography [Image courtesy of Pixabay]

Floral motif, derivative of Tree of Life symbol [Image courtesy of Pixabay]

Example of angels holding an hourglass in Suriname cemetery10

Example of biblical figures from the Beth Heim Cemetery (Willemstad, Curaçao)11

Example of liturgical document iconography [Image courtesy of Dreamstime]

Christian Latin American Symbols

Example of a winged hourglass, lyre, and biblical figures from a gravestone in the Beth Heim Cemetery (Willemstad, Curaçao)12

Latin America had (and continues to have) a strong connection to Christianity, which inevitably seeped into Jewish Latin American diasporas. Although imagery of paganism or Christian afterlife was often rebuked by European Jews and the Sephardim, it was more accepted in Latin America and not seen as heretical. Trumpets and cherubim (angels) are acceptable to both Christianity and Judaism, so their presence in Latin American Jewish cemeteries was likely a way for former Crypto-Jews to add Jewish meaning to familiar Christian iconography.13 Trumpets, flutes, and lyres have Messianic overtones, which was one of the largest early currents in Sephardic communities in Brazil and the Caribbean.

Another symbol with both Christian and Jewish ties is the willow tree, representing fertility and mourning. In Paramaribo, Suriname, willow trees were used to allude to the Garden of Eden, thereby transforming the symbol into a promise of Paradise.14

Jewish Latin American Symbols

Some Jewish symbols gained popularity in Latin America as Jews formed a new culture that incorporated their diasporic identities. Shew bread, a kind of Jewish offering, and was featured in pictographs across Latin America.15 Similarly, ewers (wide-mouthed basins) are specifically Jewish symbols, and appeared prominently throughout Jewish Latin American cemeteries.

 The handclasp was not specific to Latin American Jews, but bore important meaning to them. When the thumbs of the clasping hands were visible, it symbolized freemasonry, which clearly indicated prestige in Suriname where Jews founded their own freemason lodge.

One of the most common pictographs found was a felled tree. Of 137 carved gravestones recorded in Suriname, almost half of them depicted a felled tree, usually by a heavenly arm or angel wielding an axe. This symbol represents divine power and untimely death to Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews. Because of the symbol’s meaning, it is only found on the graves of people younger than 50 years old.

Heavenly hands or arms (i.e. protruding from clouds or ‘heaven’) symbolize the afterlife or a “continuation of being.” They mostly appear in Sephardic cemeteries and are the closest symbol to a portrayal of God, although the hands and arms could belong to angels as well.

Many depictions of death in childbirth appeared in Jewish cemeteries in Curaçao, but are less frequently and graphically portrayed in mid-18th century Ashkenazi cemeteries in Suriname. Curaçao also features several deathbed scenes of both genders on tombstones, but only female deathbed scenes, which sought to dignify the dead and are free from excessive gore, are present in Suriname. These are the only pictographs of death found in Jewish Latin American cemeteries, as the rest of the iconography focuses on life.

Example of ewer iconography [Image courtesy of Dreamstime]

Sephardic tombstone featuring iconography of cherubim holding an hourglass, shew bread, an angel felling a willow tree, and a skull and crossbones (Jodensavanne, Suriname)16

Example of an intricate death-in-childbirth tableau from the Beth Heim Cemetery (Willemstad, Curaçao)17

The Jewish Cultural Historical Museum within the Mikve Israel Emanuel Synagogue recreated several elaborate tombstones from the Beth Heim Cemetery. Iconography depicted includes a skull and crossbones, a tree felled by a heavenly hand, religious figures, a ship, and a biblical narrative (Willemstad, Curaçao) [Image courtesy of Trip Advisor]

Another example of a heavenly hand felling a tree in a Suriname cemetery18

Example of heavenly figures (top) and a deathbed scene (bottom) on gravestone in the Beth Heim Cemetery (Willemstad, Curaçao)19

More recently, Stars of David, candles, menorahs, and other ‘classically’ Jewish symbols appear on contemporary Jewish graves, with text-focused epitaphs having replaced more elaborate iconography. Additionally, many contemporary  Latin American Jewish gravestones feature a photographic portrait of the deceased.

Example of a contemporary gravestone featuring menorahs, candles, and liturgical documents from the Beth Heim Cemetery (Willemstad, Curaçao) [Image courtesy of Google]

Example of modern graves with photographic portraits and Stars of David from La Tablada Cemetery (Buenos Aires, Argentina) [Image courtesy of Google]

Occupation & Tribe

Symbols also conveyed biographical information that was sometimes omitted from epitaphs, like the deceased’s occupation and tribal affiliation.20 For example, these icons included hand symbols of tribal descent only found on a father’s tombstone, which reveals the deceased’s role in the family. 

Some hand symbols communicated the family’s place within the general community. For example, iconography of hands with the index and middle finger separated from the ring and pinky finger with the thumbs touching symbolized affiliation with the Cohanim (Kohen), or Jewish priesthood, indicating the deceased’s prominent religious role.

Other occupation markers involved pictographs of the deceased’s profession. This practice only became common in Europe in the mid-19th century, but began in Suriname in the early to mid-18th century in both Sephardic and Ashkenazi cemeteries. However, while European tombstones might depict a less prestigious occupation like sewing, Jewish Latin American gravestones only showed higher-class occupations, including the mohel (ritual circumciser), planter, and musician.

Hands depicting the Cohen (priest) affiliation [Image courtesy of Pixabay]

Example of Cohanim hands in Cassipora, Suriname21

Status

Money was the primary barrier for most people who did not receive iconography on their tombstones, so the intricacy of a gravestone reveals information about the deceased’s economic class.

In terms of gender, a study was conducted in Suriname to compare the amount of iconography that men and women received on their graves. The results were inconclusive, but indicate that there was not a large disparity based on gender. Epitaphs, synagogue architecture, and communal archives suggest that women had some degree of status in Suriname, and that separate services for women were led by other women in the community such as cantors, midwives, and more.22

Children, however, receive far less illustrative tombstones on average, presumably because of their lower social status. 4 cemeteries in Suriname reflect the percentage of tombstone iconography patterns based on age and gender:

Cassipora Sephardi cemetery:

    • 0% depict children
    • 33% depict women

Jodensavanne Sephardi cemetery:

    • 11% depict children
    • 52% depict women

​

Paramaribo Sephardi cemetery:

    • 18% depict children
    • 32% depict women

Paramaribo Ashkenazi cemetery:

    • 5% depict children
    • 37% depict women

​

Works Cited

  1. Ben-Ur, Aviva. “Still Life: Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and West African Art and Form in Suriname’s Jewish Cemeteries.” American Jewish History, vol. 92, no. 1, 2004, pp. 31–79.
  2. Ibid, 37.
  3. “Jodensavanne, Cassipora & Creole Cemetery.” Jodensavanne, Cassipora & Creole cemetery – Joods Cultureel Kwartier. Accessed March 11, 2020. https://jck.nl/en/longread/jodensavanne-cassipora-creole-cemetery.
  4. Aviva Ben-Ur, “Still Life,” pp. 50.
  5. “Jodensavanne, Cassipora & Creole Cemetery.” https://jck.nl/en/longread/jodensavanne-cassipora-creole-cemetery.
  6. Aviva Ben-Ur, “Still Life,” pp. 55.
  7. Bejarano, Margalit. “Patrimonio Cultural En Cementerios y Rituales De La Muerte.” Temas De Patrimonio Cultural 1, no. 13 (November 28, 2005), pp. 297. https://www.folkloretradiciones.com.ar/literatura/temas_13I.pdf.
  8. Aviva Ben-Ur, “Still Life,” pp. 66.
  9. Ibid, 72.
  10. “Jodensavanne, Cassipora & Creole Cemetery.” https://jck.nl/en/longread/jodensavanne-cassipora-creole-cemetery.
  11. Weinstein, Rochelle. “Stones of Memory: Revelations from a Cemetery in Curacao.” In Sephardim in the Americas, 81–140. American Jewish Archives, 1992.
  12. Ibid.
  13. Aviva Ben-Ur, “Still Life,” pp. 54.
  14. Ibid.
  15. Ibid, 53.
  16. “Historic Suriname Jewish Cemetaries.” Suriname Jewish Life. Accessed March 11, 2020. https://www.surinamejewishcommunity.com/cemetaries.
  17. Rochelle Weinstein. “Stones of Memory.”
  18. “Jodensavanne, Cassipora & Creole Cemetery.” https://jck.nl/en/longread/jodensavanne-cassipora-creole-cemetery.
  19. Rochelle Weinstein. “Stones of Memory.”
  20. Aviva Ben-Ur, “Still Life,” pp. 58-9.
  21. “Jodensavanne, Cassipora & Creole Cemetery.” https://jck.nl/en/longread/jodensavanne-cassipora-creole-cemetery.
  22. Aviva Ben-Ur, “Still Life,” pp. 64.