Explore Jewish Culture at the Detroit Institute of Arts: "The Jewish Cemetery"

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

"The Jewish Cemetery" (1770) by Jacob Isaaksz van Ruisdael

MICHIGAN---"The Jewish Cemetery" (1770) by Jacob Isaaksz van Ruisdael was donated to the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1926 by Julius H. Haass and is today part of the museum's European Collection.  A Jewish cemetery is a cemetery where members of the Jewish faith are buried in keeping with Jewish tradition. Known in Hebrew as "house of eternity," the land of the cemetery is considered holy and a special consecration ceremony takes place on its inauguration. Cremation is not acceptable for religious Jews. Burial allows the body to decompose naturally, and therefore embalming is also forbidden which means that burial must take place in as short an interval of time after death as possible. The Irwin I. Cohn Michigan Jewish Cemetery Index provides burial information for over 64,000 Jews who died in Detroit between the mid-1800′s and 1999.