Glasgow Necropolis: the Jewish burial ground

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 15 Aug 2011

As explained in the item on the Image, the first burial within the Necropolis took place before it was formally opened. As explained by Susan Milligan in "The Merchants House of Glasgow (1605-2005)", "the first burial had already taken place, in September 1832, of a Jew, Joseph Levi ..., the Synagogue having purchased a small area of the park as a burial ground. ... This was the first Jewish cemetery in Glasgow: the tiny Jewish community had to go to Edinburgh to bury their dead before that date. The Merchants House paid for an ornamental gateway and pillar at the entrance for the Jews' burial ground". The pillar and ornamental gate are shown in the present photo. The Hebrew letters near the top of the pillar are מכבי (r-l: mem kaph beth yodh). I originally speculated that these might represent the name "Maccabi/Maccabee", though I did not know what the intended significance of that name would be in this particular context. However, later reading revealed to me that the letters instead stand for: מי כמכה באלם יהוה "Who is like you among the gods, O Jehovah?" (part of the text of Exodus 15:11) The following detailed account, which is the one that allowed me to determine the significance of the four Hebrew letters, is from the book "Strath-Clutha, or the Beauties of Clyde", by John M Leighton; the book bears no publication date, but it is clear that the edition I consulted was written in about 1838, as revealed by its comments on page 54 about the Government Census of Glasgow. The Biblical quotations in the inscriptions given below are from Jeremiah 49:11 ("Leave thy fatherless children ..."), Jeremiah 31:15-17 (the passage about Rachel weeping for her children) and (on the right post) Lamentations 2:1 and 3:31-33. [Jeremiah 31:15-17 applied originally to the Exile, but in Jewish religious belief it was also understood to allude to the resurrection hope (a return from the land of the enemy death), making its use in this setting appropriate. A similar application of the prophecy is implied from its use in the Gospel account of Matthew 2:16—18.] - - • - - (All that follows is quoted from "Strath-Clutha") As this place of sepulture is much admired for its taste and appropriate ornament, a short account of it must be interesting. The façade was designed by Mr John Bryce. On the left is an ornamented pillar in imitation of Absalom's pillar in the King's dale. On the front of this column, and immediately under its capital, as forming a piece of fret work, are the Hebrew letters representing the words "Who among the gods is like unto Jehovah?". On the shaft of the column are some beautiful stanzas from Byron's Hebrew melodies, terminating in the following: "Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast, Where shall ye flee away and be at rest: The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave, Mankind his country — Israel but the grave." On the lower part of the column is the following inscription: "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in me." On the other side of the gateway are engraved the following verses: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not." "Thus saith the Lord, Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy." "And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border." And on the opposite pillar is the following: "How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Sion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel, and removed not his footstool in the day of his anger." "But though he caused grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men."

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