Cemetery

The largest Jewish cemetery in Budapest was opened in 1891; It claims to be the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. Christian cemeteries (at least in Hungary) keep a grave for 20 years if no payments are made and then exhume what is left and sell the site again. In Jewish cemeteries the gravesite remains until the end of time.

Now very interestingly the Budapest Jewish Cemetery survived the holocaust pretty much with no damage to it. But the damage done to the people is irreparable. Entire families perished and that meant that graves were left without any living member caring for it. This cemetery would not touch a grave unless care is paid for, and even then, their involvement was questionable.

There are sections there that are impossible to approach because lack of the decades of care created jungle like environment. Sadly, no living family members were around to care for this. Why do I know this? because my parents. my grandparents and other family members are resting there.

This lack of care created a class of entrepreneurs/gardeners who divided up cemetery among themselves for pay-for-care. I found a very nice gentlemen who took care of my father's grave whenever I asked him, And. then there was nice, not bashful Erzsi who took care of my mother's grave. I used to drive out there and she always, mysteriously appeared from the bushes to greet me. I used to telephone her maybe a month before my trip and asked her to fix up the gravesite. When it came to price, she was not too bashful, but she did good work.

Now, I have not been there for years, and I can not imagine what it must look like. The mother of a friend told me that she paid for a grave's maintenance to the Budapest Jewish Organization who is responsible for this cemetery but besides taking her money nothing else happened. Thus, the entrepreneurs. My wife visited my parents' graves and told me about the positive changes they were making there.

A few years ago, some group called the Friends of Budapest Jewish Cemetery, based in New York came to life. Their purpose is to restore the cemetery as much as possible. They keep sending me newsletters and photos and I have to admit they do remarkable work. Clearing jungles and restoring old, damaged monuments. They take donations and I guess they have enough to do this work. I am happy that finally somebody took the reins to take care of this very sensitive issue. The bad thig is that it had to come from afar because the local Jewish group couldn't care about it!