symbols on gravestones

[Lesley Robertson]

This is not actually a genealogical question, but it strikes me that genealogists are the best people to ask. Can anyone give me the url of a reliable website covering the symbols to be found on 19th and early 20th century European Jewish gravestones?
A friend and I are photographing the Hague's historic burial grounds and yesterday we visited the old Jewish Cemetery. I'd like to understand what I saw - for example, there are a lot of stones showing two hands, but the positions of the thumbs and fingers vary. Are the variations significant (eg fingers spread, fingers together in pairs (cf Mr Spock's salute), thumbs completely together, or only the tips), or just the whim of the mason of the time?

Hopefully...

[phillip]

Lesley
See Cemetery Scribes website Blog "Meaning behind Tombstone Symbols" July 24 2106 with a chart containing some of the main symbols and explanations. The symbols are important and not the whim of a mason.
Phillip

[Lesley Robertson]

Thank you, it sounds as though it’s exactly what I need.
I realise that the symbols are important, it was the variations in any given symbol (eg the positions of the fingers) that I was curious about... I’m accustomed to Scottish stones, where local variations can have the same meaning...

[phillip]

See JewishGen Reading Hebrew Tombstones (you have to join the site which is free)- I have used this specific site for my ancestors tombstones- see also wikimedia online Symbols on Jewish Gravestones
The Cemetery Scribes blog date should be 2016- my error typing.
If you have photos of tombstones you might like to let Angela Shire and Gaby Laws Cemetery and Synagogue Scribes co owners know to see if they are interested in adding them to Cemetery Scribes site.
Phillip

[thewideeyedowl]

Hi Lesley

While I was searching, Philip the Expert was posting.

Anyway, searches turned up two quite interesting sites. This one contains a lot of photos and explanations: https://bloodandfrogs.com/2011/04/je...e-symbols.html.

And this is from the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts: https://www.jcam.org/Pages/Foundatio...erysymbols.htm.

Am on fiddly phone screen, so forgive any mistakes here.

Owl

[kevininlondon]

We even have the infamous skull and crossbones on some graves, and no they were not pirates.. in Hamburg the sephardi tombstones bring a whole new meaning to the word... Ashkenazim stones are uprght, Sephardi flat

[Lesley Robertson]

Thank you all, this has been very useful.

[Lesley Robertson]

In response to Phillip #4, I took quite a lot of photos, but few of them show legible inscriptions. However, if anyone thinks that they may have family there, the organisation that cares for the cemetery has a website HERE which includes a pdf of the register of graves made between 1986-88 when a lot of restoration work was done.