|
|
What is the Old Jewish Cemetery's
significance to modern society?
To Historians
To historians, the Old Jewish Cemetery provides study material that offers insight into the way of life experienced by Jewish immigrant societies in the 19th century United States. John Bodnar, prominent immigration scholar and Chairman of the history department at Indiana University, states it this way,
This is a site not only significant for the Chambersburg area but one that represents graphically how old world traditions were brought to America and allowed newcomers to find ways to feel at home in a strange land. In this case a Jewish burial society served as a comforting outpost in an environment that often appeared hostile to newly arrived immigrants.
To the Jewish Community
The Old Jewish Cemetery is an important link to the past for all descendants of those interred there. This Web site contains a roster of as many of them as can now be recognized from its monuments, as well as a list of Israelite Benevolent Society members that has been derived from a book of minutes discovered in the 20th century. We encourage you to examine the lists, as you may have an ancestor buried in the cemetery. In fact, three years ago, we were visited by Rabbi Henry Skirball who came all the way from Israel, seeking the grave site of an ancestor named Arnold, who died, he thought, in 1873 and was buried here.
To the Chambersburg Community
Located in the center of the 300 block of East Washington Street, the cemetery is bounded on the west by a popular bicycle shop and on the east by a Civil War era home. With its double gated Edwardian fencing spanning its frontal width, it is, indeed, an element of curiosity in the neighborhood. Prior to restoration, all of the large headstones lay face down. The property had no identification anywhere on its perimeter, and its gates had been locked for as long as anyone could remember. Most people knew it only as a run-down vacant lot. Since the restoration effort began, many neighborhood residents have begun to take notice. Chambersburg and Hagerstown newspapers followed the story with several prominently featured articles. Volunteers appeared from local community and several neighborhood residents were contracted to complete some important tasks. The Greater Chambersburg Area Chamber of Commerce is interested in developing a tour of the site, and application has been made for a Pennsylvania Historical Marker. The cemetery master plan calls for the creation of a small park and memorial garden on the site, open to all as a place of which the neighborhood can be proud, an integral part of the community. We are in the process of enlisting the neighborhood's two borough council members in this effort.
To the Community of Man
It has been said that knowing both who we are and where we came from provides the hope for what we can be. We can learn many lessons from the study of an earlier society about faith, survival, and adaptation to a new environment. Important questions about how we deal with these same phenomena exist today. We can look to how our forefathers confronted them for guidance in making the best possible decisions for today. In turn, our children will need to make these decisions, too. Jews face the challenge of connecting the thread of cultural customs and religious practices to the next generation. For other fellow Americans, there is a need to carry forward the ethical and logical tradition as well as a survival instinct that has existed through the numerous waves of immigration to the generations that follow them. Study of these aspects of American culture yields lessons for the present and the future. With such knowledge there is hope for all of our children.