10/11/2006

The Forgotten...Buffalo and Toronto

First visited Beth Jacob Cemetery years ago. Wrote about it here, May 2005 and did a few follow-ups last summer after sitting down and speaking with officials from the Jewish Federation. Last July I actually counted the grave stones, 276 and found that only 74 had not been vandalized. NOthing has changed. Beth Jacob Cemetery is located at the end of Lansdale Place - right here.
DSCN5382 DSCN5380
click image to enlarge
In a recent conversation with Sean from the DK PhotoGroup in Toronto, we were thinking about heritage related issues and things that are valued, important things you know that reflect who we are in a world that's increasingly homogenized and antiseptic.

Sean sent me a link to a cemetery in Toronto, here in the strangest of places. Still nicely kept despite the rush and traffic.

Here some additional pics of the Richview Memorial Cemetery in Toronto.

This from an August 2006 post in a Toronto blog could apply to Beth Jacob Cemetery, too...
Presumably the inhabitants do not mind. And yet, the ensnarement of this particular plot of land is the result of a chain of decisions which imply certain things about our societal priorities and beg questions of our cultural motives.
__________________________________________________________________________
Artspace ArchiveAnnals of NeglectBAVPAWhere is Perrysburg?Broken Promises...
Writing the CityWoodlawn Row HousesTour dé Neglect - 2006faqmy flickr

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another application of "The Golden Rule", -- Them that has the gold, makes the rules.

Chip

fixBuffalo said...

chip,

then you'll love the post, two down... about fires, sidewalks...on two sides of Main Street

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that's the one that prompted my comment. I just applied it to the wrong location. Keep up the good work. The keyboard is mightier than the sword.

Chip

Anonymous said...

I find the wanton destruction of just about anything perplexing but the cretins who destroyed this cemetery leaves me totally outraged.

I realize that respect is as outdated as the Victorian homes that populate the City of Buffalo but I ask the perpetrators of this act; “how would you feel if your parents, grandparents, etc final resting place was decimated in this fashion?”

If this were an African-American burial site cries of discrimination would be screamed from every corner of the city and I am not even Jewish!

I can accept an older cemetery overgrown or even neglected but a victim of some rampage is inexcusable.

The only coarse of action is that the toppled stones be placed vertically on the ground since resetting them would only give opportunity for a repeat of this carnage.