The Kasejovice (Czech Republic) Jewish Cemetery: Typical and Beautiful

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. Round-head gravestones in the older, lower part. These stones are typical of the 18th and early 19th century. These ones are quite austere, though the central stone is decorated with a Magen David, a symbol particularly popular in Bohemia due to its origins as a Jewish symbol in Renaissance Prague. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. The older, lower part, with original wall. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. The older, lower part, with original wall. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018

Kasejovice, Czech Republic. Jewish cemetery. The gravestone of Jakob Rudinger (d. 1889) is near the entrance and is one of the more elaborate markers. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

The Kasejovice (Czech Republic)  Jewish Cemetery: Typical and Beautiful

by Samuel D. Gruber

In addition to the preserved 18th-century synagogue in the Bohemian town of Kasjovice, about which I recently wrote, there is a beautiful Jewish cemetery on a hill a half kilometer northwest of town. It is well-preserved and maintained by the Jewish Community of Plzen. A farmhouse abuts the cemetery gate and wall, and presumably the farm residents provide a good deal of security to the site. 

When we visited, unannounced, the cemetery was open. After appreciating a sweeping view back to the town and over the surrounding countryside, one enters through a recently restored gatehouse with a double entryway. Explanatory historical signage in Czech is posted on the outer wooden gate. 

Overall, this cemetery is not too different from scores of others in Bohemia. Though typical, however, it should not be ignored. It is a beautiful place; a walled "garden of the living," and it is a good introduction to the generally good condition of Czech cemeteries. It was not always like this. When I organized a survey of Czech cemeteries in 1991, the late Jiri Fiedler and the survey team identified hundreds of cemeteries that needed help. Over the past 25 years the small but dedicated and marvelously creative, organized, and tenacious Czech Jewish community had been continually at work to protect and preserve the Jewish heritage and religious sites in the country. The Federation of Jewish Communities of the Czech Republic has its own administrative arm to care for cemeteries and also works closely with local municipalities.
 

Kasejovice, Czech Republic. Farmhouse at entrance to Jewish cemetery. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic. view to town from entrance to Jewish cemetery. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic. Outer gate to entrance to Jewish cemetery. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic. Historic signage at Jewish cemetery. Photo: Ruth Ellen Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic. Inner gate to entrance to Jewish cemetery. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic. Entrance to Jewish cemetery, looking back through both gates. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

The late Jiri Fiedler wrote that the Kasejovice cemetery was probably founded in 1701, and the oldest legible gravestone is from 1710. It was expanded a few times, and among the visible stones are representatives of several different types and styles common from the 18th through the early 20th centuries.

Like most Bohemian Jewish cemeteries the site is surrounded by a wall - this one partly of stone and partly of brick, perhaps reflecting different times of construction. The wall allows protection of the site and is an important tool in creating a separate and tranquil space for the dead - or those who visit them. There is also a structure at the entrance that would have served as a small pre-burial house. These usually had facilities for the preparation of the corpse for burial - but I do not know if this was the case at Kasejovice. There may have been a place for this in the town proper, the body being prepared prior to transport to the cemetery.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. The older, lower part, with brick wall probably from the 19th century.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. Part of an original stone wall, from the 18th or 19th centur.. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. A finely carved but worn stone with the blessing hands of the Cohanim.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

The new section of cemetery is on the flat ground near the cemetery entrance at the top of the hill. This section has perhaps a hundred intact grave markers, many in the neo-classical style popular in the 19th century. A common type is the pedestal style stone, made of cheaper limestone, with an inset engraved rectangular plaque of more expansive white or black marble.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. Newer section, second half 19th century. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. Newer section, late 19th-early 20th century. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. This may be a double grave, hence the division into two parts (husband and wife?). Carving it this way also recalls the Tablets of the Law. The stone is very worn so it is hard to read the inscription without raking light. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. This is a much newer version of a double grave marker - from the 1920s. It commemorates Adolph Steiner (d. 1921) and his wife Alzbeta (d. 1923). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

The gravestone of Jakob Rudinger (d. 1889) is near the entrance, and is one of the more elaborate markers. The grave marker consists of a tall stone decorated by carved Baroque-style architectural features, into which is set a large round-headed black marble tablet inscribed in gold lettering in Hebrew and German on the main section of the front.

An oval enameled portrait of the deceased set in the central space of the upper level. As I wrote about in my description of the Jewish cemetery in Southampton, England, enamel versions of formal portrait photos became popular in the second half of the 19th century. The method of fixing a photographic image on enamel or porcelain by firing it in a kiln was already patented in France by 1854. The practice spread across Europe and was being used regularly in cemeteries by the late 19th century as a cheaper alternative to statuary or longer inscriptions for the personalizing of the gravestone.

In many cases in this cemetery, and even more in others that I have visited, the inscribed black marble slabs  have been broken, or more often stolen to be flipped and used for other purposes - including new Christian tombstones. This was especially true in the decades following World War II when Jewish cemeteries in Communist Czechoslovakia were abandoned and neglected, and they were frequently "quarried" for precious stones. Sometimes, as in the second example the identifying plaque is gone but the enameled portrait remains. We see an elderly Jewish woman - anonymous - looking out at us, silent testimony to a life, a time, and an entire culture, gone by.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. The gravestone of Jakob Rudinger (d. 1889) is near the entrance, and is one of the more elaborate markers. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. Gravestone of an anonymous woman. She face remains, but not her name. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. Gravestone of an anonymous woman. She face remains, but not her name. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic. Jewish cemetery. The upper newer part with matzevot in pedestal and obelisk forms from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of these once had enamel or porcelain portraits of the deceased.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic. Jewish cemetery. The upper newer part with matzevot in pedestal and obelisk forms from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of these once had enamel pr porcelain portraits of the deceased.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

Kasejovice, Czech Republic.  Jewish cemetery. The older, lower part, with neo-classical matzevah set against original wall. The marble (?) inscribed plaque has been removed, but this stone probably once marked an early or mid-19th century grave.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.