Note on stone-carving

By Ruth Ellen Gruber   Just an addendum to previous posts… In his detailed analysis of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Siret, Romania (in operation approx 1700-1840), Silviu Sanie notes that “shards and pieces” of “scrapped” tombstones were found during research  in the Old Cemetery, proving that there had been a stone-mason’s workshop “in the [...]

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A stone-carver’s thoughts on tradition and symbolism

By Ruth Ellen Gruber A few days ago, I posted this picture of a tombstone-carver, taken in Ukraine in 1916. Tombstone carver at work, 1916 (image from Bildarchiv, National Libraray, Vienna) The one finished tombstone that you can see is very simply carved, but clearly painted in at least three colors. It also appears that [...]

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More thoughts on candlestick typology

  By Ruth Ellen Gruber The basis of this project is the collection of photographs of candlesticks on Jewish tombstones that I myself have taken, in Romania, Ukraine, Poland and elsewhere. These images show a vast range of artistry, skill and invention in the portrayal of the candlestick motif in denoting Jewish women. But they [...]

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Pearl Gruber Kaplan, RIP

By Ruth Ellen Gruber My Aunt, Pearl Gruber Kaplan, passed away Friday in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 94. She was my father’s oldest sister; the oldest of my immigrant grandparents’ seven children; a military veteran; a mother; a grandmother and great-grandmother; a highly independent woman who lived her life on her own [...]

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Transmission of Tradition — A Cousin Considers

By Ruth Ellen Gruber As part of this project, I am examining — in an anecdotal way, to be sure — what I call the transmission of tradition. Specifically, I am looking at what happened between the generations of my (probably fairly religiously observant) women ancestors buried in the Jewish cemetery in Radauti, Romania and [...]

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Stone-carver picture: a master at work

By Ruth Ellen Gruber I’m posting this wonderful picture that Sergey Kravstov sent me of a tombstone carver in his shop in the town of Volodymyr-Volyn’skyi, Ukraine (known in Yiddish as Ludmir), in the Autumn of 1916 (the date is known from the date on the tombstone in the picture, which is assumed to have [...]

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When did candlesticks become standard shorthand for denoting a woman?

By Ruth Ellen Gruber Using candlesticks and candelabra to denote women on tombstones was very common by the mid to late 19th century in the parts of Eastern Europe where I have been focusing this study (northern Romania/Ukraine/Poland and surrounding territory). Indeed, by the late 19th century and early 20th century  this imagery was utilized [...]

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New Page on Candlestick Typology

I just want to attention anyone reading this blog to a new permanent page I have created called “Candle Types,” on the typology of candlesticks on tombstones. I have posted representative pictures of various types of candlesticks. They range from what I would call “classic” Shabbos candles — two matched candles in individual candle-holders — [...]

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Winged heads (soul effigy, angel or other)

By Ruth Ellen Gruber Yesterday I posted about my visit to Jewish cemeteries in Rhode Island — and I included a photo of the tombstone of a woman (Rebecca Polock) who died in 1764, aged 65. It bears the image of a winged head –  very similar to the images found in Christian tombstones on [...]

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