1998-03-27 Book Burial |
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By Donald H. Harrison San Diego, CA (special) -- Congregation Beth Israel conducted the kind of funeral last week at which both the buriers and the buried had something good to say.
"We are grateful for the precious words which these books contain and for the opportunities we had to use these ritual objects," the reading continued. "Each shemot deserves kavod, our respect and honor." Students participated in covering the boxes of books and objects with dirt, but they did not completely fill the grave which is located under a pepper tree. A few days later, 12 more boxes of books and objects were buried at another ceremony attended by students from Beth Israel's supplemental religious school. Following the burial ceremony, Ralph Levy and Joan Jacobs, members of the congregation's cemetery and mausoleum association, showed the students around the cemetery, pausing in front of the gravestones of such San Diego pioneers as Louis Rose, who became the first Jew to settle in San Diego in 1850. Students were asked to look for the person who was oldest and the person
who was youngest at the time of their respective deaths, and to copy down
interesting epitaphs.
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