Darty in the Graveyard!

On Saturday the 28th of september we took a fun field trip to visit Coming Street (Hebrew) Cemeraty to meet with the lovely Anita Rosenberg and Randi Serrins, both of who were very reputable sorcies and knowlagebale about this partucilar cementary. The link for the Jewish Cemetary is here and it was very intrugeing to hear and see the story of a cemetary that is not christian, as all of the ones we have previously seen are christian. All of these gravestones I'm about to talk about are from the Coming Street cemetary.

This gravestone is one of the last ones I saw, as it had quite a few carvings on it to talk about. Sadly, I am unable to read any of the words on the gravestone, but the carvings are very intriguing in themselves. The hand pointing up usually symbolizes the soul ascending into heaven, and the wreath usually symbolizes remembrance or holiness in the person buried here. the obelisk was quite a popular trend in the victorian era, so it is safe to assume this gravestone is from that era.









This gravestone was interesting for many reasons. The first is because it was so new, it looked diffrent from the others. It also had part of carvings writen in Hebrew, which is diffrent from christian cemetaries for odvious reasons. Lastly, it seems that on the left is burried the remains of Ira Rosenberg who was born March 11th 1937 and died just recently on January 21st 2017. On the other side, however, is writen the name Anita Moise Rosefield Rosenberg, and it had no birth and death date. This seems to be Ira's wife, and it appears that she is still alive today.









This tomb to the right is gorgeously crafted in almost gothic medieval-style architecture and, from what Anita and Randi say, was build as a giant diss to the original Jewish cemetery. According to the story, this Jewish man's wife who never converted to judicial died giving birth to his child. The synagogue didn't allow her or her infant child to be buried in the synagogue because neither had converted before they died. (Idk how they expected this three-day-old infant to convert to Judaism but whatever). Enraged by this, the husband bought a sliver of land next to the Jewish cemetery and build the most elaborate tomb for his wife and child in the whole cemetery. According to Anita, "The walls on the inside show traces that they were originally painted baby blue" and she also said, regarding the architecture, that "It looks almost like a medieval castle-like there should be banners flying from the top". I think this is truly a fascinating story and I am glad that the husband got to have the last laugh in the end.


This gravestone is one of the older ones in the cemetery, dating from the 18th century, and what is interesting is the carving of the hands on the stone. The hands are making the "Live long and prosper" gesture that Mr. Spock used on Star Trek. Leonard Nimoy is Jewish, so that's where he got it from. It is a form of a Jewish blessing used by the priestly caste to represent luck and good fortune. Sadly I am unable to read the carvings, but I believe that this gravestone is for an American revolutionary solder.









This stone was very simple but very elegent in my opinion. Acording to the story that was told to us by our tour guides, this is the only gravestone in the whole cemetary that is written in French. Unfortuntally, this means I cannot read what is written, ledgable or not, but from what they said this is the headstone of a little girl. The depiction of the lily ususally symbolizes innocence, purity, and resurrection. It often is associated with the Virgin Mary and resurrection and is usually used on women's graves. 






This particular gravestone was very intresting. It is in near perfect condition and it hasent been touched since it was made in the early 1800's. compared to the other headstones surrounding it, all made around the same time, it looks practicly brand new. Why does it look almost new? Its made out of zinc! It's completly hollow! I thought that was so cool because it's held up so well over the years. Acording to our guides, this is the headstone of the young wife of a sailor with a lot of money. As you can see on the stone, it depicts an ancor hinting at the sefairing trade. Also, zinc was super expensive so that tells us that the sailor was quite well off.

 This gravestone isnt quite as dramatic or elegent as many of the others, but it is just as interesting. Similar to quite a few of the gravestone in this cemetary, they have the decriptions inscribed in both hebrew and engligh. This is unique only to this cemetary compared to any of the others in the city of charleston, as they were all some denomination of christianity. This gravestone also has a small plaque under it stating that the man burried here, Sampson Simons 1750-1811, was a solder who fought in the american revolution.









Finally, a gravestone I could read! This one says MIRIAM L. Daughter of J.L & R.J Moses. Born Jany. 24th, 1866. Died Dec. 15, 1881. This would have made Miriam around 15 years old when she died. This gravestone has held up bvery well over time and is a great example of the victorian era gravestone with its style and carving. It also has a carving of a lily which, as I mentiond before, ususally symbolizes innocence, purity, the Virgin Mary, and is usually used on women's graves. 

This gravestone is intrersting in many ways. For one, what I could make out, it says "in memory of our darling son JOSH(IA). J . F (ALES) September 24th 1855 Aged 1 year and 7 days." This grave is quite small as was customary for young children who died, and irt shows a sleeping child holding a wreith surronded by what looks like flowers? The sleeping child was commen for child deaths and the wreith is used to symolize remberence. This grave is unique however due to its sickly blue color seeming to come from inside the headstone itself. Our tour guides explained that when gravemakers would attach the headstones to the base part, if they happend to accadently use copper nails, over time the nails would rust and turn the headstone a slightlhy teal color. This would explain the







This gravestone is packed with victorian symbolisim. It says "In memory of  SELINA DAVECA the beloved wife of HERMAN LEIDLOFF Died Nov. 7, 1886" This is beautiful carving of an alter of sorts covered with fabric. On top of it sit the caving of a closed book. This may represent a prechers pulpit and the holy book of the bible, but the fact that it is closed is ususally used to represent that the person's life has ended.