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Presenter: Madeleine Isenberg

Did you know that not all Jewish tombstones display the same "formulaic layout" or content? I've spent 12 years mostly with Ashkenazi tombstones, expanding rashe tevot (acronyms/abbreviations), and deciphering hidden clues. I learned what to expect as "norms." In early 2014 I accidentally found a cemetery with both traditions, learning that Sephardi tombstones had many differences that changed my expectations. Derived from searching for and viewing mostly on-line images world-wide and accumulating my findings, this presentation will demonstrate some of the differences found between these traditions. Mostly, the data and representative tombstones will be for roughly the 100 year span (~1840s-1940s), after which time assimilation and integration of communities obscured the differences, thereby losing their uniqueness. I hope this presentation will assist others in deciphering Sephardic tombstones as well as pique interest for further research and discussion. Some basic knowledge of Hebrew would be helpful but not essential.