Exhibitions
”AT OUR ANCESTOR’s SIDE”
March 2nd – August 31st 2003

Aronsberg and Kronoberg

The cemeteries of Aronsberg and Kronoberg came to be used basically during the first 100 years of Jewish life in Stockholm. This was a period of dynamic change in the country, as well as among the Jews themselves. When the Jews began coming here, their civil rights were extremely limited, as well as the places where they were allowed to reside. When these cemeteries ceased to be used, the Jews had gradually gained their full civil rights. In spite of their small numbers, some 800 souls in 1870, the Jewish community built The Great Synagogue, and bought land for a new cemetery. The Jews had made their mark in Swedish society, within the fields of industry, commerce, craftsmanship and culture.

Photogapher and copyright: Urban Orzolek

 

According to Jewish tradition, a cemetery is eternal. This means that graves and cemeteries should always be maintained. A grave should not be used for more than one person.

The cemeteries are a significant monument for surviving relatives, the Jewish Community as well as for the historical culture of Stockholm and Sweden as a whole. These cemeteries and gravestones make up the oldest Jewish tradition in our country - a tradition that is now being assessed and documented. This research is based upon earlier sources, such as the work of people like Moses Fried in 1910, which was eventually published in 1927, under the title "The Old Jewish Cemeteries in Stockholm". The county of Stockholm has been supporting and participating in this work for the last several years.

TThe maintenance of Jewish gravestones is of Jewish-Swedish importance. The preservation of the stones should be of the highest quality. The most important part of the stones is the context and design of the texts. A primary concern is to protect, preserve and document as much of the texts as possible.

There are several contributing factors to the decaying of the gravestones, not least of which is the climate here, with its extreme temperature changes above and below freezing, as well as the inferior quality of the raw materials.

 

An inventory of all of the remaining gravestones has been made and proper measures have been specified as to how to slow down their decaying, and how to maintain them in the future. The inventory contains a short introduction to a description of the cultural history as appears in the report entitled "Plan of Action". The designs of the gravestones have been preliminarily analysed with regards to their period of origin. The plan of action has been made a priority, with regards to such things as the types of damage, the value of the texts and the proportion of the remaining texts.

Most of the stones are lacking in human figures or figures in general, but have Hebrew texts that pay tribute to the deceased by use of quotes from the Bible and figurative language. The use of acrostics, i.e. each verse beginning with a letter from the name of the deceased, is a Jewish tradition that is found on a number of the gravestones. Typeface varies from stone to stone, at times being playful, and often beautifully done. Certain typefaces reoccur on several stones. The craftsmen who chiselled the stones are still unknown. The contexts of the texts have been done on the face of the stones, with a feeling for balance and order. Most of the texts chiselled on limestones are very difficult to read. They have been re-painted in order to highlight the texts better.