I'd appreciate some help deciphering a couple words on my great-grandfather's gravestone.  What I've made out so far is:

Here Lies
Our Beloved Father
xxx Rav Ari Leib son of
Shalom HaCohen xxx
Kashkin
Died 11 MarHeshvon 5683
(2 Nov 1922)

What I'm having trouble with are the 
first word on the third line:  מוה
last word on the fourth line: שוב (acronym?)
Not even sure I'm reading the letters correctly.

I've tried everything I could think of but haven't found anything that made sense.

Thanks,

Lee Jaffe
Koshkin, Joroff, Weinblatt, Schwartz, Jaffe

Both are abbreviations of:
- our teacher, the Rabbi מורנו הרב
- ritual slaughterer and inspector שוחט ובודק

Valentin Lupu
ISRAEL

Hi Lee, 

I'd like to add another detail which is important when reading Yiddish in general and transliteration of names (persons or places) in Yiddish. 

The letter aleph renders in many cases the voyel o. So you read Koshkin in English and the Yiddish transliteration is Koshkin as well, and not Kashkin. 

Best regards  

Laurent Kassel 
Moreshet, Israel 

Thanks for all the responses, here and privately, to my question.  With this help, this is now my reading of the inscription:

A couple of other things:

מו"ה was that one time written on virtually every male's gravestone. It does not actually indicate a rabbi.

The title Reverend was commonly given to a Shochet in the first half of the 20th century and even later.

Shlomo Katz

As long as Aryeh Leib's mother was Jewish, then he would automatically be a Cohen.  It is standard practice to put "haCohen" only after the father's name.

I BELIEVE, but am not 100% sure, that the "Shochet u'Vodek" refers to his father.

As to the title "Rev", meaning "Reverend".  This is a title that my own father -- who was also a Shochet -- had, as did the other Shochtim [that's the plural] in the town.  It means that the person is a religious functionary in the community, but not a rabbi.  It was a title that was also used, for example, by cantors.
--
Fredel Fruhman
Brooklyn, New York, USA

On Sat, Dec 26, 2020 at 11:04 AM, Lee Jaffe wrote:

) If Ari Leib's father is a kohein, wouldn't that make Ari Leib a kohein?   If so, wouldn't that be included in Ari Leib's "title"?  Or was it considered implied?

2) Does the designation shochet vbodeck refer to Shalom or Ari Leib?  I assume it belongs to Shalom but I'm unclear about the syntax of the inscription.

Both HaCohen and the occupation refer to the son (although that does mean that the father is also a Kohen).  "Son of" and the father's name are considered part of the son's name.  It's not Ari Leib, the son of
Shalom-the-Cohen-Slaughterer-and-Inspector.  It's Ari-Leib-son-of-Shalom, the Cohen, slaughter, and inspector.
--
Stephen Weinstein
Camarillo, California, USA
stephenweinstein@...

Hello
I amjoining late in this conversation, but I have translated hundreds of graves and I can say with certainty the teh letter 'ר צקשמד means Rabbi but is written on every grave. As other have mentioned, the letters שו''ב refer to the occupation of the deceased and not of his father. Of course both the deceased and his father were Kohanim, but here "Hacohen" refers to the deceased. In general, on Jewish graves the father is only mentioned by name, any other descriptor refers to the deceased. On male graves it is common to find not only the letter R but also other descriptors, in this case    מו''ה. These are usually added as a sign of respect for the dead. So here the reish is not "reverend," it is "rev", which is a descriptor similar to Mr. in English. What is unusual on this stone is that the name  Koshkin is written in Hebrew. In Eastern Europe all that would be written in Hebrew would be the first name of the deceased and of his/her father.  To summarize, the deceased was a Cohen (and of course his father would be as well) and a kosher butcher. All other descriptors are words of praise. On women's grave one would often find similar words of praise such Important, charitable, respectable, etc. The letter M (for "marat") is common on women's graves.

Rafael Manory, PhD
Translating from hebrew and Romanian

When the poster asked about "Rev", he was not referring to the Hebrew (such as a Resh before a person's name).  He was asking about the English "Rev" in city directories of New Haven (see his second "follow up" question).
--
Fredel Fruhman
Brooklyn, New York, USA

Can anyone recommend photo editing software to make it easier to read a tombstone? I understand that such software exists.--
Mark Roseman

You should be able to us Gimp , a free open source image editor.  
https://www.gimp.org/
The most useful tools for tombstone photos are brightness adjustment and contrast enhancement.

David Rosen
Boston, MA