THE MEMORY BOOK
OF THE ROSENWILLER JEWISH CEMETERY
vol I

Those interested will remember that the CGJ published in 2004 the Jewish cemetery register of Rosenwiller containing detailed information on 5,000 burials that have been practiced since 1753.

This cemetery is one of the important places in the history of Judaism in Alsace, particularly given the number of people who were buried and the reputation of some of them (Cerf Berr, "Leib Elsass," Israel Durkheim, Simon Horcheim among the most notable ...). From the mid-seventeenth century it seems that each of the graves was surmounted by a stone stele bearing an inscription in Hebrew. Many of these monuments has disappeared after the ravages of men time, and the latter process is currently accelerating.

Recording were conducted for a large number of Jewish cemeteries in France but, except the recent exception of Hégenheim, no one, to our knowledge, has been the subject of complete publication presenting all the graves that remain like, for example, of what has been done in Germany for Schmieheim or what is underway for Berlin-Weissensee. The pioneer work of Robert Weyl (1988) on Rosenwiller has only about 150 headstones...

That is why the registry, signed Abraham Malthête, formulated the wish that is made a Memorial Book wich, for each of the remaining headstones, his color photography, the transcript of the epitaph in Hebrew, its translation into French and information about the deceased and his relatives.

A campaign sustained by a major subsidy from the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust allowed a multidisciplinary team assembled by the CGJ to make a first volume of this book; it contains 12 headstones that remain for the period from 1653 to 1752 and then 364 for the period from 1753 to the end of 1808 (of 1775 deaths listed in the registry). This book was published in subscription among members of the CGJ in 2009, and now the sale is open to public at a price of 95 € + postage.

Subsequently, the proportion of remaining headstones over inventoried deaths in the registry is about 55%, a second volume (1809-1830) with a number close to 345 sheets is being prepared.