Stories from the Mount Carmel Jewish Cemetery

We are sorry to report that this collecting project is still necessary, in light of recent damage to additional Jewish cemeteries. Yesterday’s desecration took place at a cemetery founded by Dutch Jews living in the Boston area in 1859. 

From the article in JTA.org:

Benjamin Mones entered the US from Olshana, Ukraine in 1902 via Quebec, Philadelphia being his destination. His wife Esther came in 1903 from the same place with daughter Golda (Catharine), sons Louis, Jacob (Jack--my father), and Meyer. A daughter Celia Mones Rudolph was born in the U.S. Benjamin was a tailor at John Wanamaker's until the sons and son-in-law formed a successful nonprescription drug manufacturing company. At the end of Benjamin's life, he lived with my family. As the younger of two daughters I was designated to bring him hot milk and honey every night. At this time, he had me count and say the alphabet in Yiddish for which I received a weekly allowance of 50 cents. An unforgettable bonding late in life.

Of note is the area of the cemetery where Benjamin, Esther, and some of her relatives are buried. There is a sign for the "Hordisher Lodge" which indicated the area in the Ukraine from which they had all come.

Beverly Mones Haas 

Golda Catharine (Kitty) Mones Meisel was a graduate of Girls High School and the Philadelphia Musical Academy. She was an accomplished pianist and a valued accompanist for singers and instrumentalists. Widowed at the age of 45, she attempted to carry on her husband Mike's business, and managed to guide her son Leonard through the University of Pennsylvania and on to a career with the U.S. Government. She lived to greet her first grandchild Michelle, but died before the birth of her second grandchild Catharine, and ultimately Amy. Her daughter Vivienne mourns her loss but celebrates her life. 

Florida Girl, 6, Sends Painted Rocks For Vandalized Headstones In Jewish Cemeteries

A 6-year-old Florida girl has sent hundreds of rocks that she painted to place on headstones vandalized in Jewish cemeteries in St. Louis and Philadelphia.

Ayel Morgenstern of Parkland took up the project after seeing a news report about the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in St. Louis and that one of the toppled headstones was that of her great-great-grandmother, Rebecca Pearl.

She reportedly sent more than 100 colorfully painted rocks to the cemetery in St. Louis, where Jewish day school students placed them on the gravestones. Another 150 rocks were sent to the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Ayel said she painted rocks with ladybugs for good luck and hearts for more love, the Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported. She is aware of the Jewish tradition of putting a small rock or stone on a gravestone that one visits to honor the deceased.

She also was planning to send rocks to the Waad Hakolel Cemetery, also known as the Stone Road Cemetery, in Rochester, New York, where several headstones were toppled.

Rose (nee Burd) 1868-1924 and Samuel Rudofker 1868-1917 

Our Great-grandparents immigrated to Philadelphia, PA  from Kiev, Russia in 1892 to escape the religious pogroms. They came with their first-born child---one year old Matthew (Max). They went on to have 5 more children, another boy and 4 girls. In 1904, Samuel started a small clothing business in their home. The business had to be sold when Sam became ill and the family moved to a farm in Eagleville, PA to hopefully improve his health. After he died four years later, the family moved back to Philadelphia and Sam and Rose's children started up the clothing business again, which evolved into the successful tuxedo line of After Six by Rudofker. The cemetery records show that there are also thirteen members of the Burd Family buried here as well.

By Paul P. Murphy, CNN Video by Sonia Moghe, CNN

Philadelphia (CNN), March 13, 2017 - When Aaron Mallin entered Mount Carmel Cemetery to pay his respects to his late father, he noticed right away that something was wrong.

A headstone near the entrance had been toppled."I walked in further, I noticed two over there. Three over there," he said. "I just couldn't believe it."  

Mallin was the first to discover that vandals had desecrated some 175 headstones in the Jewish cemetery here last month, an act being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Many of the fallen headstones are adorned with the Star of David and inscribed in Hebrew, offering tender glimpses into the lives buried there: beloved daughter, dear mother, loving father.

But what were they really like? CNN, collaborating with the National Museum of American Jewish History, is telling some of their stories.

An update to the family lore: Mary Sadoff, I think, was born in Baltimore and her family was from Kiev.  They were teenagers and eloped to Camden since Pop Pop's family was against the marriage of a German Jew to a Russian Jew.  They rode the ferry all night because they were afraid to go home.  They moved in with his family and Mary learned to speak German at home. 

My grandmother Mary died in 1949 when I was just seven. She, as you can see, was a very beautiful woman. And very sweet also. This picture was taken at their 45 anniversary. My grandfather Leo was a fun person and real character. He was a real “dapper Dan,” always dressing in high style. A great dancer also. They came from Germany. Last name Deitz (my maiden name). They became very Americanized. Their name was derived from Deutsch which may mean German. My grandfather was a salesman, so you can assume he had a very outgoing personality. Leo died in 1964. I visited the cemetery. I was drawn there to see the desecration. My cousin described where to find my grandparents’ headstone. At first I couldn’t locate it, plus I was searching for my great aunt. Their names were, Leo and Mary Deitz and Martha Walter. I went back today and located BOTH! I placed stones atop both to tell them I was there. These relatives were paternal. 

Dora and Henry Cohn are my grandparents. Wolf and Ricker Kirshtein are my great grandparents. Ernestine and Nathan Grasheim are my great, great grandparents.

Mother would come from Florida every summer and we would always go to see the family at Mt Carmel. My mother, Johanna Cohn Goldberg, died in 1997 and her grave is in Bridgeton, NJ with her husband Joseph and my brother Max. I now continue the Mt. Carmel tradition and visit my family graves every summer with my daughter Dore. Dore was named for [my grandmother] Dora. Hopefully my daughters will continue the tradition.

My grandmother was a young widow and ran her husband’s dress manufacturing company until she retired. I was in college when Grandmother died. 

In 1910, Max Winitsky left Russia for America in search of a better life for his family and himself. Since Max was a skilled tailor, surely within a few years, he would be able to send for his wife, Bertha, and their four children: Abe, Reba, Louis, and Esther.

Before he could save enough money for five tickets, however, World War I erupted, followed by the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War, pogroms, typhus, and famine, world events and village catastrophes that kept his family stuck in Russia.

Finally in 1922, Bertha and their now-grown children escaped into Poland.  After a year of waiting for visas – and after thirteen years of separation – they reunited with Max in Philadelphia in 1923.

Max died in 1936, thirteen years after he and his family were reunited. It was as if he had to make up those thirteen lost years before he could die in peace. Ironically, on his death certificate, Max’s age is listed as thirteen years younger than he actually was.

[Left:] In 1923, Max sent a photo of himself to his family so they would recognize him after thirteen years.

[Right:] Bertha and the four children – Esther, Reba, Abe, and Louis – circa 1910 in Korsun, Russia.  Each member of the family wears a button with a photo of Max as a sign of respect and remembrance for the father and husband who was no longer part of their daily lives.

Miryam (Miriam) Kratzenstein (1844-1923) immigrated to the United States from Bavaria in 1866 when she was 22 years old. Five years later in Philadelphia she married Samuel Wiesenthal (1845-1914), who had also recently emigrated. Miryam and Samuel had 4 children: Myer, Jennie, Lena and Abraham. In 1891 Lena (who some say I’m named after) married Joseph Schwartz, who had emigrated from Hungary in 1888. Lena and Joseph had 4 children, one of whom was my grandfather. One of my grandfather's sisters, Clara, died at age 5, and was buried in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery years before my grandfather was born. I’ve only seen one photograph of Clara, standing with her parents and sister; she's the girl on the left side of the image. When Samuel and Miryam died, they too were buried in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery. I have no photographs of either, although I do have Samuel’s signature in an 1885 prayer book.

Simon Knebel (1872-1929) was a leatherworker by trade. His native tongue was German but he learned to read and write English quite well. He was a naturalized United States citizen. He became a union organizer and was a member of and held office in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW.) He even ran for PA State Senate, 8th District as a Socialist in 1910. His membership in the IWW led him to become involved in activities related to the [1912] Great Lawrence Textile (aka Bread and Roses) strike.... The strike grew to more than twenty thousand primarily female workers from many different nationalities and involved nearly every mill in Lawrence.... They employed the IWW’s signature move, sending hundreds of the strikers' hungry children to sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont. The move drew widespread sympathy, especially after police stopped a further exodus, leading to violence at the Lawrence train station. Simon Knebel...witnessed the police brutality at the station and was arrested.... He was released on $10 bail. 

Congressional hearings followed shortly thereafter, resulting in exposure of shocking conditions in the Lawrence mills and calls for investigation of the "wool trust." Simon’s riveting congressional testimony about the events of that day and the police brutality that he witnessed can be read in the US Congressional Serial Set Issue 6320 (The Strike at Lawrence Mass—Hearings before the Committee on Rules of the House of Representatives, pages 206-226). His testimony was followed by that of Margaret Sanger who was also at the station that day. The police action caught the attention of First Lady Helen Taft who attended the hearings [see above]. Simon continued his union activities throughout the 1910’s and 1920’s....

While I wait to hear if my grandmother’s was one of the headstones violated at the Mount Carmel Jewish Cemetery, I reflect upon her long beautiful life. In 1920, my grandmother, Elaine Hartman-Brown, came from Hungary to the United States with her mother and her many brothers and sisters. She married and settled in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She had one child, a son, my father. Her family was the center of her world. Her life was filled with many joys. She lived long enough to dance at both of her grandchildren’s weddings, and to bounce two of her great-grandchildren on her knee. She never met a stranger, and was loved by many. She is greatly missed. I pray for peace and restoration. This horrible act will never over shadow the blessing that her memory brings.

Charles Grossman Esq. married to Marion Hano Grossman

My Grandmother and Grandfather, as well as my aunt and uncle are resting near one another in Mount Carmel.

My Grandfather Jacob Wolodar (whom I am named after) died a very young man. My father, whom recently passed away, was only twelve at the time of his fathers death. He was a dental mechanic working for his brother Joe Wolodar. My Grandmother, Mania (May) Wolodar/Walder became a single parent and was out of work, having to travel to NYC to find a job, leaving behind my father with many different family members for long periods of time.

Finally Mania found work as a seamstress and was able to bring my father with her and settled in the Bronx near her sisters and families. I have vivid memories of going to her apartment on Walton Ave, walking into the dark lobby entering the small elevator and getting off on the second floor, smelling the different foods being cooked. Her apt was small but very organized. I loved her Borsh—this was a Russian cold beet soup and the sour cream floating on top like whipped cream. At least that was what she would tell my sister and I.

My Grandmother was a big woman and her sisters were also towering. They would talk and laugh with my sister and I, try to teach us Russian and take us out shopping on the Grand Concourse. I was ten when she passed away. I remember looking out the window of the waiting room of NYU when my mother came out and explained that Grandma Mania went to sleep.

She was a fun lady, I miss them terribly to this day. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity one last time before my fathers passing, to take my dad and my son to Mt Carmel for him to say Kaddish for his mother and father and show my son where his Great Grandparents and uncle and aunt were. My dad was very pleased to see that they were being taken care of. It was a bitter sweet moment for all of us.