Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience

11. That Is the Pillar of Rachel's Grave Unto This Day: An Ethnoarchaeological Comparison of Two Jewish Cemeteries in Lincoln, Nebraska

11 That Is the Pillar of Rachel's Grave unto This Day: An Ethnoarchaeological Comparison of Two Jewish Cemeteries in Lincoln, Nebraska David Mayer Gradwohl Hanna Rosenberg Gradwohl Lincoln, Nebraska is the smallest Jewish community and the one furthest from major metropolitan centers considered in this volume. David and Hanna Gradwohl apply archaeological, ethnological, and historical methods in showing how the Jewish graves and cemeteries reveal the varying cultural orientations of the Jews of West and Central European origins on the one hand and the East European Jews on the other in that Midwestern city. The respective outward-looking and inward-looking stances of these two groups are parallel to Heilman's conclusions regarding the ownership of Jewish objets d'art. Still it is noteworthy that the more "conservative" Jews of Lincoln probably resemble the "less observant" consumers of Judaica in New York City. Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath-the same is Bethlehem. And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. (Genesis 35: 19-20) Since biblical times and, indeed, farther back according to archaeological evidence, gravestones have been one way of marking the burial places and honoring the memory of the deceased. In their form and manner of embellishment, gravestones are material symbols of personal identities. Cemeteries thus provide a basis for studying not only cultural traditions through time but also the manner in which individuals identify themselves within the groups of which they are members. 223 224 That Is the Pillar of Rachel's Grave Unto This Day The essential proposition we are exploring is whether or not the cemeteries of a Reform Jewish temple and a Conservative/Orthodox Jewish synagogue in a midwestern city of the United States parallel the different theological orientations and historical origins from which the members of those two institutions came. In one case, we have a group deriving largely from Western Europe. The seeds of their liberal religious beliefs and practices were germinated in the Old World and brought to speedy florescence in North America via the Pittsburgh Platform upon whose codified principles the Reform Jews founded their temple. In the other case, we have a group which came mostly from Eastern Europe. These people established a synagogue whose minhagim or customs followed much more strictly the tenets of Orthodox Judaism. Their traditional beliefs and practices, less subject to change, were deeply rooted in the authority of the Torah and its rabbinical interpretations such as the Talmud and the Mishnah. If one were able to walk into the Reform temple in 1900 (or, for that matter, even today), one would hear a somewhat different liturgy and see some contrasting material forms than one would observe in the Conservative/Orthodox synagogue. One might hypothesize that similar distinctions exist in the burial grounds of these two institutions. Given this background information, one can ask several questions: Is there any relationship between the non-material or cognitive domains of the institutions involved and the material cultural remains in the cemeteries? Are there separate material cultural associations in the cemeteries which can be correlated with the temple as distinguished from the synagogue? Are there material representations on specific gravestones which reflect individual and differing personal Judaic identities? The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare the two Jewish cemeteries in Lincoln, Nebraska, using the techniques of ethnoarchaeology.l Mount Carmel Cemetery and Mount Lebanon Cemetery were established during the late nineteenth century (Figure 1). Mount Carmel Cemetery, originally known as the Chebra S'nai Jehuda Cemetery,2 has served as the burial ground for Orthodox and Conservative Jews whose families live in and around Lincoln (Figure 2). Historically these Jews have been primarily affiliated with the Tifereth Israel Synagogue in Lincoln, although the Mount Carmel Cemetery Association is a separate legal entity and the graveyard is available, at least theoretically, to any Jew who is a member of that Association, regardless of other affiliations. On the other hand, the Mount Lebanon Cemetery has been the location of interments for Reform Jews whose families live in the vicinity of Lincoln (Figure 3). Historically and legally the Mount Lebanon Cemetery has been II. Arenas of Jewish Life 225 linked to the Temple B'nai Jeshurun. The geographic settings of Lincoln's two Jewish cemeteries and the nature of the gravestones within these two mortuary areas reflect, we...