Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)

Glosar de termeni

- The recurrence of the frequent forms of tombstones, especially of the types: I.A.l.a., with the subgroups included, I.A.l.a.a., I.A.l.a.b., but also I.A.2.a.a., I.A.2.a.b, I.A.2.b. The shape of these stones occurs on wide geographic areas and in very large periods of time.- The existence of a relatively small number of frequent forms that can be found in all cemeteries, but of which their uncountable variations disseminates, determined by the usage and combining of the architectural elements with decorative function, of the material or symbols from the field of decorative work.- The writing in Hebrew language of the epitaph, this itself becoming a doublefunctioning element: one of cohesion in the Jewish cemetery, and one of individualizing as against the other monotheisms.- The Hebrew writing also has a double function: of expressing of epitaph but in the same time a decorative one, frequently used, sometimes as a unique decorative motif.- We assume the existence of some plans after which the cemeteries developed in the permitted spaces, usually in the chronological order of the deceases.

To these characteristic elements of all the cemeteries is added some pretty frequently met, but not in all cases. Such an element is the locust tree hedges, remark seen on the field, during the research. Another frequent element is the presence of the funeral chapels of the Rabbis in the urban Jewish cemeteries, placed always in central, visible places, right after the entrance in the cemetery.

The study of the Jewish cemeteries represents in fact the accessing of a database as long as the documents and archives of the communities have been, sometimes totally, destroyed. The funeral monuments offer exact information from diverse fields: demography, linguistics, anthroponomy, religion, sociology and not least, they represent the support of a precious artistic speech.

Worth to be mentioned is the fact that the ecclesiastic architecture that was constrained for centuries to withdraw in closed spaces, the manifestation forms of the cemetery was less restricted: dozens of Central-Eastern-European albums and catalogues with Jewish cemeteries prove the world that beside the synagogue it has been a powerful and constant artistic manifestation form of the Jews. On these modest tombstones did the Jews write and rewrite their memoirs and memoirs of the memoirs, about the Promised Land out of which they were chased away by the history. Then they remained only with their cemeteries, memoirs and prejudices. The Jewish cemetery was a historical day written in stone, as long as the peoples could endure. If the great architects of the world that alongside the Jews contributed in the defining of a complete way of expression of the synagogal architecture, but the same thing cannot be said about the cemetery configurations. This was a space in which the artistic spirit of the Jews manifested for a long time only in the limits of their own identity. Rich or poor, they did not give up this spiritual heritage, becoming now a universal one. These forms of temple type were the last gifts offered by the living, in the house of the living, the sign of the hope of rebuilding.

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