South Africa SIG #SouthAfrica Re: Cemeteries in Cape Town #southafrica
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Beryl. B <balden@...>
You are correct re Synagogues, which in South Africa
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should have the Aron Kodesh facing North East. However my question re Pinelands Cemetery is more in line with "why are the Tombstones back to back" which means that one row of Tombstones is not facing the correct direction. I have tried to put this question as simple as possible, taking into account that Pinelands Cemetery in Cape Town was first opened in the 1940's when most Eastern European immigrants had been settled in South African for quite some while and it was not the first Jewish Cemetery opened in Cape Town but is the only cemetery that has its Tombstones back to back and not in one line! The facing Jerusalem of the Aron Kodesh in Synagogues is world wide - so each country has a different direction, depending on which direction Jerusalem lies >from a particular country. >from South Africa Jerusalem is North East. Beryl Baleson Israel. balden@zahav.net.il.
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From: "Ev and Col Plen" <evancol@iafrica.com> To: "South Africa SIG" <safrica@lyris.jewishgen.org> Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 8:07 AM Subject: [safrica] Cemeteries in Cape Town When the first Jews came to South Africa, to the best of my knowledge, the belief was still to design houses of prayer to face towards Jerusalem, as they had prayed in der heim, so their houses of prayer faced East or South, as they would have in Europe. Only later did they take into account that Jerusalem is North >from South Africa and shuls were built accordingly thereafter. Maybe this has something to do with the way the graves faced? Colin Plen
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