Har HaMenuchot

Har HaMenuchot (Ashkenazi pronunciation, Har HaMenuchos, lit. "Mount of Those who are Resting", also known as Givat Shaul Cemetery) is the largest cemetery in Jerusalem. The hilltop burial ground lies at the western edge of the city adjacent to the neighborhood of Givat Shaul, with commanding views of Mevaseret Zion to the north, Motza to the west, and Har Nof to the south. Opened in 1951 on of land, it has continually expanded into new sections on the northern and western slopes of the hill. As of 2008, the cemetery encompasses in which over 150,000 people are buried.
History
Until 1948, Jewish burials in Jerusalem were conducted in the millennia-old Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. In 1948, the Arab siege of Jerusalem cut off access to the Mount of Olives, and this remained the status quo after the 1949 Armistice Agreements. In 1948 several temporary cemeteries opened to handle wartime deaths in Jerusalem, including the Sanhedria cemetery, Sheikh Badr Cemetery, and the Shaare Zedek Cemetery (on the grounds of the old Shaare Zedek Hospital on Jaffa Road). After the establishment of the state, however, these were deemed inadequate for the needs of a growing city.
In late summer 1948, developers identified a hilltop located between Givat Shaul and Motza and overlooking Highway 1. It was outside the boundaries of Jerusalem at that time, yet accessible to the city, and it had soft rock for grave-digging. They calculated that each dunam would accommodate 200 graves and estimated a need for 1,000 graves per year. At the time, the city of Jerusalem had 150,000 Jewish residents with a mortality rate of 1,000 annually; at that rate, the new cemetery was expected to suffice for the next 40 years.
The developers received permission to build the cemetery a month later, but disagreements between the various burial societies delayed the first burial until the fall of 1951. With the opening of the new cemetery, civilian graves were transferred here from the temporary cemeteries at Sheikh Badr and the old Shaare Zedek Hospital.
In 1951 a new cemetery was established at Mount Herzl, dedicated by government decision as Israel's national cemetery, where national leaders and fallen soldiers would be interred.
By 1988 Har HaMenuchot had about 50,000 graves. In the 1990s developers began expanding the cemetery onto the northern and western slopes of the hill. By 2008 the cemetery spanned in which more than 150,000 people are interred.
In November 2012 the Jerusalem municipality approved a plan to shield the view of the cemetery from Highway 1, the main entryway to Jerusalem, by planting cypress trees and erecting a stone wall. The plan would allow for continued expansion of the cemetery to the north and west.
Operation
The graves on Har HaMenuchot are divided into sections operated by various chevrei kadisha (burial societies). The Kehillat Yerushalayim burial society was allotted more than 50% of the land when the cemetery opened. Other sections were apportioned to burial societies serving the Ashkenazim (also known as Perushim), Sephardim, and Hasidic communities of Jerusalem. In the late 1990s other chevrei kadisha opened, serving the Kurdish, Georgian, Yemenite, and Bukharan Jewish communities. The Kehillat Yerushalayim burial society also operates a special section reserved for those whose Jewish identity is questionable, such as non-Jewish immigrants and atheists. (Bona fide Christians and Muslims are not buried here, but rather in their own cemeteries.) Both the Kehillat Yerushalayim and the Sephardi burial societies maintain an on-site funeral parlor.
As the official municipal burial ground, Har HaMenuchot accommodates free burials for Israeli citizens and tourists who die while in Israel; the cost of the plot and funeral services is paid for by Bituah Leumi, the National Insurance Institute. However, the choice of plot is left to the burial society, and if a spouse wishes to be buried in the adjacent plot, he or she must pay for the second plot. According to the law, the burial society must reserve the plots on both sides of a newly dug grave for 90 days in order to give the spouse and relatives of the deceased the option to purchase them. According to the Kehillat Yerushalayim burial society, 90 percent of the burials at Har HaMenuchot involve couples. Stone monuments must be paid for by the family of the deceased. The burial societies recoup their development costs and make their profit on the sale of plots to Jews living abroad, with the price of the plot, burial costs, and transportation of the body by airline exceeding US$11,000. Burials from abroad constitute an estimated one-fifth to one-third of all burials.
Description
Like other Jewish cemeteries in Jerusalem, the plots on Har HaMenuchot consist of an underground grave topped by a rectangular platform of poured concrete, faced with stone tiles, that rises or more above-ground. The name, date and praises of the deceased are inscribed on the top panel and occasionally on the sides. The writing is either engraved and filled in with black lead, or simply painted on. In some cases, names of family members of the deceased who were murdered in the Holocaust are engraved on the sides of the gravestone. Many graves include a small cavity hollowed out of the box, where memorial candles are placed. The graves are generally positioned less than apart.
The sections run by the Kehillat Yerushalayim and Perushim burial societies differ in appearance. The former is divided into color-coded sections that are easily reached by roadways, and has trees and bushes planted alongside the sections to provide shade for visitors on hot summer days. The Perushim section, on the other hand, abides by customs maintained in Jewish cemeteries for centuries, including the complete absence of trees or vegetation near the graves or even bordering the road.
Kohanim are interred in a separate section just outside the main entrance, so that their family members who are not allowed to enter cemeteries to avoid tumas meis (ritual impurity caused by the dead) may stand by the side of the road and pray at their ancestors' graves.
The cemetery contains a genizah (sacred texts repository) where kvitlach (prayer notes) from the Western Wall are buried.
In addition to visitor parking, the cemetery is serviced twice an hour by Egged bus number 54, which has its terminus at the Har Hotzvim terminal passes the Jerusalem Central Bus Station and Rav-Shefa Mall, and Kanfei Nesharim Street.
Points of interest
Near the main entrance lies the original Chelkat Harabbonim ("Rabbis' Section") operated by the Ashkenazi (Perushim) burial society, which includes the graves of many gedolim of the past 60 years from around the world. The largest grave in this section is that of Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, the fourth Belzer Rebbe, which has become a shrine for thousands of visitors annually. An area of dalet amos (four cubits) surrounds this grave. An iron parapet constructed nearby allows Kohanim to pray near the rabbinical graves without exposing themselves to tumah (ritual impurity). Another Chelkas Harabbonim is located on the north slope of the hill; this is the resting place for Rabbis Shlomo Wolbe, Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, and Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, among others.
A grave known as a segula (propitious remedy) for childless women is that of Miriam ha-Koveset (Miriam the Laundress), who only worked in the homes of Torah scholars, including Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and the Zvhiller Rebbe, Rabbi Shlomo Goldman. Once Miriam asked the Zvhiller Rebbe for a blessing for children, but he blessed her that in her merit, others would merit to have children. Twenty-nine years after her death in 1964, one of her neighbors had a dream in which Miriam appeared to her, told her of the Zvhiller Rebbe's promise, and gave her directions to her grave. On her yahrzeit that year, busloads of women came to pray at the grave while a Torah scholar recited prayers for the elevation of her soul. There were 32 known cases of women who prayed at Miriam's grave and gave birth to children that year. Since then, her grave, located near the main parking lot, has been renovated and enlarged to accommodate women year-round.
Notable rabbis buried at Har HaMenuchot
Yehezkel Abramsky, Av Beit Din of London
Yaakov Ades, Sephardic gadol and member of the Jerusalem beth din
Yehuda Amital, founder of Yeshivat Har Etzion, Meimad movement
Baruch Ashlag, kabbalist
Yehuda Ashlag, the Baal HaSulam
Ezra Attiya, rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef Yeshiva, Jerusalem
Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach, rosh yeshiva of Shaar Hashamayim Yeshiva
Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Jerusalem posek
Baruch Ben Haim, assistant chief rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York
Zelig Reuven Bengis, rosh av beit din of Jerusalem
Amram Blau, one of the founders of Neturei Karta
Abraham Yochanan Blumenthal, founder of Zion Blumenthal Orphanage
Nachman Bulman, rabbi in the United States and Israel
Shlomo Carlebach, rabbi-songwriter
Reb Chaim Daskal, Reb Chaim of Yerushalayim
Akiva Ehrenfeld, Jerusalem rabbi
Shmuel Ehrenfeld, the Mattersdorfer Rav
Mordechai Eliyahu, former Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel
Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Lithuanian Orthodox gadol and posek
Pesach Eliyahu Falk, Gateshead, Posek Hador
Moshe Feinstein, American gadol and posek
Binyomin Beinush Finkel, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir, Jerusalem
Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir, Belarus and Jerusalem
Eliyahu Boruch Finkel, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir, Jerusalem
Nosson Tzvi Finkel, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir, Jerusalem
Tzvi Pesach Frank, chief rabbi of Jerusalem
Yozef Friedlander, Lisker Rebbe
Yaakov Yosef Herman, Orthodox Jewish pioneer in the United States in the early 20th century.
Yitzhak Kaduri, Sephardi kabbalist
Meir Kahane, Kach party founder
Jacob S. Kassin, chief rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York
Chaim Mordechai Katz, rosh yeshiva of Telz-Cleveland
Aharon Kotler, founder and rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey
Shneur Kotler, rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha
Chaim Kreiswirth, av beit din of Antwerp
Zundel Kroizer, Haredi Israeli rabbi and author of Ohr Hachamah
Aaron Aryeh Leifer, Nadvorna Rebbe
Avraham Abba Leifer, Pittsburger Rebbe
Zion Levy, chief rabbi of Panama
Aharon Lichtenstein, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut
Gershon Liebman, rosh yeshiva of the Novardok Yeshiva network in France
Aryeh Leib Malin, rosh yeshiva of Beth Hatalmud Rabbinical College
Isser Zalman Meltzer, rosh yeshiva of Slutsk and Etz Chaim, Jerusalem
Yisroel Ber Odesser, Breslov rabbi
Chanoch Dov Padwa, av beit din of London
Menachem Porush, legislator, educator, journalist
Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, chief rabbi of South Africa and deputy mayor of Jerusalem
Bezalel Rakow, Gateshead Rav
Aharon Rokeach, Belzer Rebbe
Tibor Rosenbaum, Hungarian-born Swiss rabbi and businessman
Shulem Safrin, Komarno Rebbe
Chaim Shmuelevitz, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Mir, Jerusalem
Yochanan Sofer, leader of the Erlau (Eger) dynasty.
Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, rosh yeshiva of Brisk
Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, Brisker Rav
Baruch Sorotzkin, Rosh Yeshivas Telz-Cleveland
Zalman Sorotzkin, av beit din of Lutsk
Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, mashgiach ruchani, Beth Medrash Govoha
Eliezer Waldenberg, medical halakhist and member of the Jerusalem beit din
Chaim Walkin, rabbi and lecturer
Simcha Wasserman, Jerusalem rabbi
Dov Berish Weidenfeld, av beit din of Tchebin (Trzebinia)
Noah Weinberg, founder and rosh yeshiva of Aish HaTorah
Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, Orthodox rabbi, posek ("decisor" of Jewish law) and rosh yeshiva
Shlomo Wolbe, mashgiach, Be'er Yaakov yeshiva
Avraham Yoffen, rosh yeshiva of Beis Yosef Novardok
Mordechai Leib Kaminetzky, Jerusalem rabbi
Yitzhak Kaduri, Mekubal / kabbalist
Mordechai Sharabi, Mekubal / kabbalist and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Nahar Shalom
Notable rabbis reinterred at Har HaMenuchot
Chaim Joseph David Azulai, the Chida
Yosef Yozel Horwitz, the Alter of Novardok
Meir Shapiro, Rav of Lublin
Menachem Ziemba, Rav of Warsaw
Zionist personalities buried at Har HaMenuchot
Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
Naftali Herz Imber
Other notable people buried at Har Hamenuchot
Tuvia Bielski, leader of the Bielski partisans
Dora Bloch, killed by Idi Amin after Operation Entebbe
Udi, Ruth, Yoav, Elad, and Hadas Fogel, victims of the 2011 Itamar attack
Yossef Kurt Gutfreund, one of the eleven victims of the Munich massacre 1972
Yaakov Yosef Herman, American Orthodox pioneer
Menachem Elon, former Deputy Chief Israeli Supreme Court
Barno Itzhakova, Bukharian Jewish singer
George Mantello, Hungarian Orthodox Jew. As First Secretary of El Salvador in Switzerland, he saved large number of Jews during the Holocaust by providing them with protection papers. He also publicized the Auschwitz Protocols.
Miriam Monsonego, victim of the 2012 Toulouse and Montauban shootings
Itzhak Nener, jurist and Vice President of Liberal International
Paul Reichmann, Canadian businessman and member of the Reichmann family
Yonatan, Arieh, and Gabriel Sandler, victims of the 2012 Toulouse and Montauban shootings
Yona Bogale, first leader of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel
The 7 Sassoon children killed in a Shabbat fire in Brooklyn NY
Jacques Lipchitz, modernist sculptor
Mordechai Omer, director of Tel Aviv Art Museum
Peretz Smolenskin, writer of the Haskalah movement
See also
Bereavement in Judaism
References
External links
Burial in Jerusalem: The Har HaMenuchot Cemetery
Kiddush Chelka Ceremony at Har HaMenuchos by the Belz Community
1951 establishments in Israel
Jewish cemeteries in Jerusalem
Geography of Jerusalem
Hills of Israel
Landforms of Jerusalem District
Cemeteries established in the 1950s