Exploring a Jewish Cemetery

Hey everyone - and Happy Friday!

I thought I'd write this blog post on the monument analysis project two other members and myself worked on at the Jewish Cemetery in our lovely city of Victoria, BC. In all honesty, I was initially a bit concerned that the project would be dull; 'data', and data analysis, are not two things I might consider my favourite. Subconsciously, I suppose, I also find myself glorifying death and funerary practices of different and distant cultures than that of my own.

The assumption that I may not get a whole lot of this project did quickly change once I got to the cemetery. First off - I realized I rarely spend time in cemeteries at all. Just the surrounding feeling, in an area where so many people have lived, shared moments, and been buried soon after death, is pretty overwhelming in and of itself. The fact that we have the capacity to look into the lives of such individuals and see their connections to others clearly and meaningfully displayed is a pretty powerful thing. In a more general sense, it is also pretty incredible to be able to view the more broad patterns that can be seen and understood in a cemetery.

We explored obelisks and columns as our focus in the area. It seemed clear to us that such grand and 'beautiful' monuments might mark individuals of high status or of considerable importance in their community. When looking up a few individuals, it became more clear that some of the individuals there were either considered to be of much importance, or they were the family members of one such individual. The Oppenheimer family, for example, was mostly found represented by one obelisk (5 individuals were represented here), and were in relation to the second mayor of Vancouver, David Oppenheimer. Handsome, clever-looking fellow, buried in Vancouver.

His wife was buried in the cemetery we studied, in a beautifully extravagant (potentially the fanciest grave marker in the cemetery), next to her husband's brother and their family. Why wasn't she buried with her husband, in Vancouver? This struck me as an interesting difference than what you might typically expect to see, and also led me to think more about the definition of the family and the importance of the individual. Although this cemetery is home to bodies of primarily those who had inhabited Victoria, 'different' practices can be seen.

There were also a number of individuals who were classified as 'married' in their inscriptions, but not buried with their husbands and wives (who were surely also deceased). Are siblings and blood-family frequently considered more important in death than marriage ties? Perhaps something to look into at some point.

Anywho - in the end, I found the monument analysis project to be pretty revealing and enlightening. I'll probably be visiting cemeteries on a more regular basis now.....well, as much as one person can be expected to go.

Thanks, Kelsey