Csernus Lukács - Triff Zsigmond: The Cemeteries of Budapest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)

Vault of the Tószegi-Frecind family (Emil Vidor)

be rented in the latter for twenty-five years now, while the rules of the Jewish religion forbid disturbing the dead, so the buried are allowed to remain in their graves indefinitely. The strict and traditional rules of this religion, regarding the place of a tomb and the size of the tombstone over it, obviously determine the appearance of a cemetery. There are not only signs, but also symbolic reliefs on a tombstone which may refer to the family, the surname, the occupation and various characteristics of the deceased, but to avoid idolatry, the Jewish religion forbids the depiction of human figures. In spite of this, statues and other kinds of funerary monuments borrowed from Christian cemeteries made their appearance in Jewish cemeteries, too, from the middle of the 19th century. The location of a tomb was determined by the inner hierarchy of a community; therefore, members of the families of rabbis and religious leaders were buried in a separate section at the very front. After the turn of the century, a similar location in a cemetery was provided for members of the wealthy financial and business elite, and for the politicians who rose to high ranks in the life of the country after the emancipation of the Jews. In the Salgótarjáni út Cemetery and the Kozma utca Jewish Cemetery, opened in Rákoskeresztúr in 1891 as a response to the rapidly shrinking territory available in the former, a large number of such personages were buried. They were given tombstones whose value and size reflected their successful careers on earth.

The gate at the entrance of the Salgótarjáni út Cemetery and the ceremonial hall behind it were designed in 1908 by Béla Lajta, a leading personality of the art and ar32