Similarities and Differences between Metropolitan Jewish Cemeteries in the Balkans in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Similarities and Differences of Metropolitan Jewish Cemeteries on the Balkans in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Metropolitan cemeteries in Europe came into being during the Gründerzeit as a product of rush urbanisation and Jewish acculturation. Jewish traditions regarding funerary culture changed in almost all aspects: segregation (gender, social), layout (geometry, size, proportions), the architecture of ceremonial buildings and other edifices, gravestone typology, inscriptions, landscaping, etc.

This paper shall concentrate on the impact of Jewish funerary culture of major European centres on large urban cemeteries on the Balkans. Special attention will be paid to the interaction on Sephardi and Ashkenazi traditions as well as local gentile influences.

The paper will deal with the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Cemeteries in Belgrade and Bucharest, the Jewish sections of the central municipal cemeteries in Sophia and Zagreb, as well as the Sephardi/Ashkenazi cemetery in Sarajevo.

Rudolf Klein