The Jewish Cemetery and the Soul of America

A Memory for Memorial Day

In February, 2017 the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was desecrated with over 100 tomb stones toppled and smashed. I was born in south Philadelphia and raised across the river in Camden, New Jersey. The desecration to the cemetery upset me. When antisemitism rises to destroying burial sites, as the Nazis did, it is a time for great worry. The Philadelphia cemetery is mostly filled with the graves of immigrants from Russia, those who came to America in the late 19th and early 20th century, precisely when my family arrived in the same area (most of them came through Gloucester, New Jersey on the Delaware river).

Antisemitism is on the rise once again in the United States. It is easy to forget the immense contributions made by Jewish Americans, including serving in America’s wars.

Memorial Day is March 29. I salute all our great heroes. American Jews, like all patriots, served their country with honor.

Here is my essay.

February, 2017

In the United States, protection of a cemetery is regulated under municipal and state law.  Not all states have explicit protections against deliberate desecration of burial places, although some like New York not only have them, but New York is in the process of strengthening its laws.  More needs to be done to make the perpetrators of these crimes pay dearly for what they have done, because they have vandalized and harmed the soul of America.

A cemetery is more than the final resting place of loved ones.  The cemetery represents the history of a community and sometimes the history of the United States.

Jewish cemeteries are particularly poignant reminders of community and history.  I can give an example from personal experience.

My parents and my brother, both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles and the families of friends I grew up with are all buried in an active cemetery near Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  My great grandparents, at least on my father’s side, are buried in an older cemetery in Camden New Jersey now under restoration.  None of the burial places in the active cemetery have been disturbed; and the older burial place suffered from neglect and some destruction, although the causes are not clear.  In that cemetery are the remains of Civil war heroes, so restoration is important to recall the history of our country.

Desecration at Philadelphia Jewish Cemetery

About 15 miles from the active cemetery there is a military cemetery at Beverly, New Jersey. My uncle Lou Bryen, who served in World War I and was a poison gas victim, is there.  He was in the 311th infantry battalion, part of the 78th Division. During the summer and fall of 1918, the division was the “point of the wedge” of the final offensive which knocked out Germany.  Lou’s brother Sam, who served in the US Army Air Force in World War II is also buried at Beverly.’

British troops blinded by poison gas during the Battle of Estaires in 1918.

At many Jewish cemeteries reminders of World Wars I and II are everywhere.  My family, thanks to the Jewish War veterans, those who served are remembered each Memorial Day by posting American flags on their graves.

Which reminds me of my wife’s father’s 90th Birthday celebration (he died at the age of 95 and is buried in the same cemetery).  At his birthday party, we presented my wife’s father–Bernie– with a letter from the Deputy Secretary of Defense, celebrating his service to the United States.  He came home from the Second World War as a commander of a tank destroyer with two purple hearts, and a bronze star. Acting alone, he captured three senior German Army officers in a small town near the German border.  He was in the 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, fought in North Africa, Anzio and from there through Italy, France and Germany.

When my wife and I were vacationing in Sorrento, Italy she called Bernie back home to see if all was well. In the conversation she told Bernie that she was reading Rick Atkinson’s book, Day of Battle: the War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. We were not far from Anzio she said. Bernie said to her, “Oh yes, I was there, stuck on the beach for five months.” It was where Bernie got his first purple heart. American losses were high: 7,000 killed and 36,000 wounded or missing.

A Sherman tank disembarking at Anzio

At our little ceremony at Bernie’s birthday party where I read the letter from the Deputy Secretary of Defense and presented his personal medal to Bernie, I called everyone in the room to attention to arms, which is how they do it in the military. Most of the men in the room –mainly in their late 80’s or early 90’s, managed to stand up, even if it took them a few moments to straighten their bodies.  All of them served in World War II, as did the men in my family too.

There are countless memories and stories that even the tombstones alone don’t tell exactly, but you can feel them strongly when you are in that place.  You can sense the hardship of the past years, suffering from pogroms at the hands of Cossacks in Russia, the holocaust and loss of family, friends and culture, struggling to feed their families and survive in a strange land; you can even feel the great pride when their grandchildren became doctors, lawyers, scientists, teachers, writers, artists, merchants, industrialists, social workers and professionals in sundry fields of endeavor.  Imagine the fulfillment, the gift of hard work, struggle, and the tolerance of a great country.  There is a wonderful Jewish word, nachas –the feeling of pride and fulfillment that fills the heart and is overpowering in emotion.

When vandals and anti-Semites turn over and smash the tombstones in a cemetery, they are not only doing injury to the Jewish community, but to America.  The damage to the soul of our country is hard to fix because it strikes at the sense of security and fulfillment that is the core idea of the American dream.