He wrote a beloved prayer book. But his gravestone misspelled his name.
Philip Birnbaum, who died in 1988, was a man careful with language, yet a stone of eight words had three errors
Cemeteries
The Latest
-
Culture -
Opinion California Jews, enough with your green, grassy Jewish cemeteries
In a megadrought, there's better choices than lawn-covered graves
-
News They lost pregnancies or infants. Now, Israeli parents want access to burials that have long been secret
JERUSALEM – Ten years ago, Aliza and Netanel Fenichel and their young children were in a car accident. Aliza, who was 25 weeks pregnant and badly injured, underwent an emergency cesarean section to save her life, and her unborn son’s. The boy weighed about a pound and a half and died the same day. “When…
-
News In Boston, a memorial rises to COVID-19 victims and ‘last responders’
How will America memorialize the victims of COVID-19? Two stone benches and a granite memorial placed in the middle of a Jewish cemetery outside Boston provide one possible answer. The markers, placed by the the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts and dedicated last July, are among the country’s very first memorial’s to the pandemic’s victims…
-
News A high-school student is leading an effort to preserve Vermont’s oldest Jewish cemetery
(JTA) — EAST POULTNEY, Vt. (Bennington Banner via JTA) — The autumn leaves crunched underfoot as Netanel Crispe walked uphill toward the northwest corner of the small cemetery. He stopped and examined a toppled headstone. “The last time I was here this was standing up,” he said, regarding the weathered, gray stone. “At least it…
-
Community A Jewish cemetery in Hungary, restored by a Christian
I found the Tállya cemetery, located kilometers away from the village of Tállya, in northeastern Hungary, by chance. I am a Christian scholar researching Jewish culture, and I have been photographing Hasidic pilgrimages in nearby Kerestir, Olaszliszka and Sátoraljaújhely and elsewhere for years. I often visit the area, and discovered the cemetery thanks to a…
-
Fast Forward Couple sues Jewish funeral home after learning their stillborn child was buried in mass grave
A Jewish couple in Philadelphia is suing a New Jersey funeral home after learning that their stillborn child was likely buried in a mass grave, without any markings, and without their consent. Julia Gross was in the 35th week of her pregnancy when her son’s heart stopped beating, according to a report in the Philadelphia…
-
News Burial society organization suggests new rituals; Brooklyn funeral home overwhelmed
An Orthodox funeral home in Brooklyn, where a video shows nine shrouded bodies stacked on the floor, is so overwhelmed that on Tuesday it called for volunteers with minivans and SUVs to ferry the dead to cemeteries for burial. In a message circulated via What’s App, Menachem A. Bloom, who works at the funeral home,…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Expelled Oberlin Chabad rabbi says he ‘made a mistake’ with explicit social media chats
- 2
Culture Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary on the manosphere takes a detour into antisemitism
- 3
Fast Forward Illinois primary pits Jewish candidate with deep Israel ties against AIPAC spending
- 4
Opinion Trump has forced an impossible choice on American synagogues amid antisemitic attacks
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Through missile strikes and sleepless nights, the persistent hope of being an Iranian Jew in Israel
-
News Meet the TikToker trying to revive Judeo-Arabic, the nearly extinct language Jews once spoke across the Arab world
-
Fast Forward ‘Buffer zones’ come to California, as a lawmaker proposes limiting protests near houses of worship
-
Fast Forward The first and second Jewish mayors of Providence, Rhode Island, just had a shared bar mitzvah
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
