October 27, 2010: Our Cemetery as the Enduring Centerpiece for Our Community

Dear Chevre (Friends):

After years of planning, the JCOGS cemetery project is moving into its final phase. In preparation for its consecration on Sunday, November 21, (see accompanying announcement) and in celebration of its completion thereafter, I am devoting several weekly columns to a discussion of relevant history, background and sources. I am proud of the informed and deliberate process through which the Cemetery Committee set ritual policy, respecting both Jewish traditions as well as the needs of our particular community. I would like to let you in on some of the important considerations we took into account.

As many of you know, historically, when a Jewish community established itself in a new location, its first priority was the requisition of land for the cemetery—even before the construction of a building for the synagogue. Why is that? Because Jews tended to be concerned more with their place in the eternal scheme than with their topical needs. They viewed themselves as a link in the chain of generations that extended far into the indefinite future. Someday, they themselves might disappear, but their markers would remain.

Although we of JCOGS did it backwards (by creating the building before the cemetery), we, too, think and care about our long-term future. Our motto ledor vador, “from generation to generation,” does not merely refer to the intergenerational composition of our existing congregation, which spans from toddlers in the religious school to the elderly. It also refers to members who will join us someday. By building this community, we are making our covenant “both with those who are standing here with us this day… and with those who are not with us here this day.” (Deuteronomy 29:11)

Indeed, our preoccupation with placing a permanent mark on the local landscape holds, if anything, even greater poignancy for us, because of our tarnished legacy from the past. Embedded in our cultural memory is the recollection that not too long ago, Jews were unwelcome in Stowe. In contrast, much of our pride today derives from the respect and appreciation we now garner within the wider community. Think of it! A hundred years from now, two hundred years from now, the Jewish cemetery with its weathered tombstones will proclaim in living testimony the existence of a proud and vibrant Jewish community in Stowe at the beginning of the twenty-first century, eclipsing and eviscerating the earlier memory of Jewish degradation. May it come to pass! For this reason alone, the completion of the cemetery will mark the completion of JCOGS.

(to be continued…)

Rabbi Brian
rabbi.brian.besser@gmail.com