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Reading Hebrew Tombstones

Jewish tombstones with Hebrew inscriptions have an added value to
genealogists, in that they not only show the date of death and sometimes
the age or date of birth, but they also include the given name of the
deceased's father.  This permits you to go back one more
generation.

Here are a few helpful pointers if you cannot read Hebrew.

At the top of most Jewish tombstones is the abbreviation , which stands for po nikbar or po nitman, meaning
"here lies".

At the end of many Hebrew tombstone inscriptions you will find the
abbreviation , which is an abbreviation of a verse from the Bible, the
first book of Samuel, 25:29, "May his soul be bound up in the bond of
eternal life".

If any Hebrew characters at all are written on a tombstone, they are
most likely to be the person's Hebrew name. A Hebrew name always includes
a patronymic, the person's father's given name. This is a unique feature
of Jewish tombstones, and a great boon to Jewish genealogy. The Hebrew
word , ben, means "son of", as in "Yaakov ben Yitzhak",
meaning "Yaakov the son of Yitzhak".   , bat, means "daughter of". On tombstones these words
will often appear as , an abbreviation for ben reb, meaning "son (or daughter)
of the worthy", followed by the father's given name. The word reb
is a simple honorific, a title of respect — it does not mean Rabbi.

The Jewish Calendar

Dates are written in Hebrew according to the Jewish calendar.
This calendar, which starts its "year one" with the Creation of the World,
was probably designed by the patriarch Hillel II in the fourth
century.  He calculated the age of the world by computing the literal
ages of biblical characters and other events in the Bible, and came up
with a calendar that begins 3760 years before the Christian calendar.

The letters of the Hebrew Alphabet each have a numerical value,
specified in the accompanying chart. When a Hebrew date is written, you
must figure out the numerical value of each letter and then add them up.
This is the date according to the Jewish calendar, not the calendar we use
in every day life, known as the Gregorian calendar (also referred to as
the Common Era, civil or Christian calendar). In September 1999, for
example, the Jewish year was 5759. Given a Hebrew date, you need to do
only a little bit of math to change the Hebrew year into a secular year.

Often a Hebrew date after the year 5000 on the Jewish calendar will
leave off five thousand. For example, the Hebrew year 5680 will be written
as 680 rather than 5680. To compute the civil (Gregorian) year, simply add
the number 1240 to the shortened Hebrew year.

Here's one example: If the year is written as , the letter is 400, the letter is 200, is 80, and is 3.   400 + 200 + 80 + 3 = 683.   The 5000 is
usually left off, so the actual year would be 5683.   By using our
formula, 683 plus 1240 is 1923. That is the civil year.

The Hebrew year begins on Rosh Hashanah, which occurs on the Gregorian
calendar in September or October. Therefore, the dates listed for the
months of Tishri, Heshvan, Kislev and sometimes Tevet must be read as
applying to the preceding year of the civil calendar.

The complete transposition of a Hebrew date to a Gregorian date uses a
very complex formula. It is easiest to simply refer to one of the
published or online reference works, such as: The Comprehensive Hebrew
Calendar, 5703-5860, 1943-2100 by Arthur Spier (Jerusalem, New York:
Feldheim Publishers, 1981); or 150 Year Calendar by Rabbi Moses
Greenfield (Brooklyn: Hotsaat Ateret, 1987). Most synagogues and Jewish
libraries possess one of these works. Another alternative is to use one of
several computer programs: CALCONV, JCAL, LUACH (shareware); Zmanim,
HaYom, Itim (http://www.davka.com/);
or JewishGen's online JOS calculator (http://www.jewishgen.org/jos/).
These programs can convert Hebrew to Gregorian dates and vice versa, as
well as display calendars and Yahrzeit dates for any year.

For more information about the Jewish calendar, see the JewishGen
InfoFile Introduction to the
Jewish Calendar.

Some Hebrew Phrases

In addition to names and dates, here are the common Hebrew words which
appear on tombstones:

Here lies

po nikbar

Son of

ben

Daughter of

bat

Title, i.e. "Mr."

reb, rav

Son/Daughter of the honored

ben reb

The Levite

ha-levi

The Cohen

ha-kohen

The Rabbi

ha-rav

Dear, Beloved (masc.)

ha-yakar

Dear, Beloved (fem.)

ha-y'karah

Father

av

My father

avi

Our father

avinu

Mother

eem

My mother

eemi

Our mother

emanu

My husband

baali

My wife

ishti

Brother

akh

My brother

akhi

Our brother

akhinu

Sister

akhot

Aunt

dodah

Uncle

dod

Man

ish

Woman

ishah

Woman (unmarried)

b'tulah

Woman (married) = "Mrs."

marat

Old (masc., fem.)

zakain, z'kaina

Child (masc., fem.)

yeled, yaldah

Young man/woman

bakhur, bakhurah

Died (masc., fem.)

niftar, nifterah

Born (masc., fem.)

nolad, noldah

Year, Years

shanah, shanim

Day, Days

yom, yamim

Month

khodesh

First of the month

rosh khodesh

Hebrew Abbreviations on Tombstones:

There are many many different Hebrew abbreviations that are found in
tombstone inscriptions and Hebrew literature. Abbreviations are usually
indicated by a quote mark or an apostrophe. Often, the apostrophe is used
to abbreviate a single word, whereas the quote mark indicates an
abbreviated phrase. For more information, see the following works:

"Hebrew Abbreviations for Genealogists", by Edmund U. Cohler, Ph.D.,
in Mass-Pocha (Newsletter of the Jewish Genealogical Society of
Greater Boston). Part I: IV,1 (Winter 1994/95), pages 4-7.   Part
II: IV,2 (Spring 1995), pages 14-18.   Part III: IV, 3 (Summer
1995), pages 16-17.

Hüttenmeister, Frowald Gil. Abkurzungsverzeichnis hebraischer
Grabinschriften. (Frankfurt am Main: Gesellschaft zur Forderung
Judaistischer Studien in Frankfurt am Main [Society for Furthering
Judaic Studies in Frankfurt am Main], 1996). 349 pages. {Frankfurter
judaistische Studien, Volume 11. In Hebrew and German. Hebrew title:
Otsar rashe tevot ve-kitsurim be-matsvot bate ha-almin}.
ISBN #3-922056-08-3.

Symbols on Tombstones:

In addition to the inscription, symbols on the tombstone can be clues.
Two hands, with four fingers each divided into two sets of two fingers, is
the symbol of a priestly blessing — this signifies a Kohen, a descendant
of Aaron. A pitcher signifies a Levite — the Levites were responsible for
cleaning the hands of the Temple priest in ancient days. A candle or
candelabra often is used on the tombstone of a woman; and the six-pointed
Star of David on that of a man. A tombstone with the motif of a broken
branch or tree stump often signifies someone who died young.

Bibliography:

Kurzweil, Arthur. From Generation to Generation: How to Trace
Your Jewish Genealogy and Personal History. (New York:
HarperCollins, 1994). Chapter 9, pages 342-358.

DOROT, The Journal of the Jewish Genealogical Society (New
York):
- XI, 2 (Winter 1989-90), pp 2-3: "Getting the Most Out of
Your Cemetery Visit".
- XI, 4 (Summer 1990), pg 16; and XII, 1
(Autumn 1990), pg 8: "Tools of the Trade".

Krajewska, Monika. A Tribe of Stones: Jewish Cemeteries in
Poland. (Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishers, 1993). 242 pages,
mostly illustrations.

Rath, Gideon. "Hebrew Tombstone Inscriptions and Dates", in
Chronicles (Newsletter of the Jewish Genealogical Society of
Philadelphia), Vol. 5, No. 1 (Spring 1986), pages 1-4.

Schafer, Louis. Tombstones of Your Ancestors. (Heritage
Books, 1991). {160 pages, paperback. Doesn't deal specifically with
Jewish tombstones}.

Schwartzman, Arnold. Graven images: Graphic Motifs of the Jewish
Gravestone. (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1993). 144 pages.

Strangstad, Lynette. A Graveyard Preservation Primer.
(Nashville, Tenn.: Association for Gravestone Studies, 1988, 1995).
126 pages.

Association for Gravestone Studies, 278 Main Street, Suite 207,
Greenfield, MA 01301.   (413) 772-0836.   Produces a quarterly
newsletter, Markers, and access to a lending library.   http://www.gravestonestudies.org/.

Caplan, Judith Shulamit Langer-Surnamer. "Tombstone Translation
Topics: How to Decipher and Read a Hebrew Tombstone". In: 19th Annual
Conference on Jewish Genealogy: Syllabus. (New York: Jewish
Genealogical Society, 1999), pages 217-221.   Also In Jewish
Genealogy Yearbook 2000 (20th International Conference on Jewish
Genealogy, Salt Lake City, IAJGS, 2000), Section 1, pages 80-84.

Links:

International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS)
Cemetery Project: http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/.

JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR): http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/.

Jewish Cemeteries in the New York Metropolitan Area (JGSNY): List of Cemeteries, Directions, Burial Societies.

Copyright ©1996, 2001 by Warren
Blatt.

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