A Vigil at Hebrew Cemetery

A Vigil at Hebrew Cemetery

At Jewish Newport

Tuesday, March 26,2019

by Aaron Ginsburg

also on facebook

Here are more details about the desecration at the nearby Fall River Hebrew Cemetery.

Initially, I shrugged this off as very bad. Then I learned the the stone of my great-uncle, Israel Pokross, and his second wife Lillie (Goldstein) was defaced. This hit me and members of our extended Pokross hard, especially their grand-children. 

Although this happened a week ago Saturday, and was discovered the next day,  a list of names on the defaced stones did not go online until late Friday afternoon.

Earlier Friday, I called the Fall River Police. An officer in the major crimes unit told me that the stones of Esther (Gabinsky) Pokross, and of Jacob and Sarah (Karnowsky) Pokross were also defaced. Pictures were not available. I proceeded to Fall River. Pictures are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/easqEWzwN3s86yDY7 

A vigil organized by Rabbi Mark Elber of Temple, Jeffrey L Weissman of the Hebrew Cemetery and ADL New England was held Tuesday evening. At least 400 people attended, including Touro Synagogue’s Rabbi Marc Mandel. Four of my cousins and their spouses were there. The vigil was low key and quiet, reflecting the mood of the attendees. Cantor Shoshannah Brown led us in the 23rd Psalm. Watch a short video. 

My good friend and college roommate, recently retired Fall River attorney Clem Brown and his wife Helen were present. Clem was the town attorney for Swansea, Massachusetts for many years. Clem’s dad, the late James Paul Brown, used to write editorials for the Providence Journal before moving on to the New York Times. The Journal did not like an editorial he wrote saying that it was OK for Martin Luther King to speak out about his opposition to the Vietnam War. 

The Browns lived in Newport for a while, in the large house on Thames Street opposite Bridge Street. Clem’s mother Trudy recounted volunteering in the Thompson Library, where she met Eleanor Davis. She remembered Eleanor!  Later in life the Brown's moved to Camden Maine, Mr. Brown edited Down East magazine. Read more about James Paul Brown

Also present were several people I knew from Temple Israel in Sharon, Massachusetts and at least one other Sharon shul, from Temple Emanuel in Newton, and from Temple Torat Yisrael in East Greenwich, RI.

I created a facebook group for Jewish Fall River to give people a place to share their feelings and their memories. I also wrote on behalf of my family to express our reaction. If I had been a speaker at the vigil, this is what I would have said.

≈Antisemitism is an abstraction until you are directly affected. The Hebrew Cemetery in Fall River was targeted by antisemites, probably on March 16, 2019. Fifty-nine headstones were either defaced with antisemitic graffiti or toppled over. This included graffiti on three stones of the Pokross family, of Israel and Lillie, of my grandparents Jacob and Sarah (Karnowsky), and of Esther M. (Gabinsky) Pokross, and of Barney Pritzker. They were all immigrants to this country. At least nineteen Pokross family members are buried there. 

The Pokross family settled in Fall River, New York and New Jersey over 100 years ago from Gorodishche, now in Cherkassy Oblast, Ukraine. The Karnowsky/Kaye family from Hnativka, Ukraine, near Kiev, and settled in settled in  Greater Pawtucket, RI. Both are large extended families. The Pritzker family settled in Fall River and NJ.

We are in pain. We feel that we have been personally attacked. Although we hope that we can learn something from this attack, the wound is still raw.

Heinrich Heine said, “First they burn books, then they burn people.”  A headstone is a short book. Ever present in our minds is the Holocaust, when many relatives were murdered, some by bullets, some by gas, and, yes, some by fire. 

If you go today to Hnativka, the Jewish cemetery is a field, rapidly turning into a neighborhood of suburban Kiev. Sometime after the Jewish community, which was 90% of the population, left after a 1921 pogrom, the cemetery was plowed under as were most of the houses.

In the Gorodishche Jewish cemetery, hundreds of fragments of headstones litter the ground. During Soviet times, a road was built over part of the cemetery. 

The damage to the stones reflects the damage to our hearts. Both will be repaired. But both the stones and our hearts will remember.

“My grandparents’ grave was one of the defaced stones. My heart was broken before I knew theirs was amongst those defaced with a marker. Now the pain is even deeper. Thank you Fall River police for taking this seriously.” Syrel Dawson, granddaughter of Israel and Lillie

“Would you be angry if this happened to your Family? Pokross & Pritzker are my Grandparents family. My Grandmother Anna Pokross Pritzker was born in Fall River. I was named after Esther Pokross.” Judy Wien, great great-grand-daughter of Esther Gabinsky Pokross and great niece of Barney Pritzker, both stones defaced.

“I am of mixed feelings whether it would be better to remove the defacing or to leave it as a reminder of this mindless act. Israel [Pokross] was my grandfather.” Jay Leavitt

On behalf of Jay Leavitt, James Leavitt, Lois Kimelman, Judy Wien, Diane Knopf, Susan Stone, Syrel Dawson, Alan Flam and Judy Seminoff, Ellen Semonoff, Karen Pokross, David Fisher, Marcia Haber, Jay Lasky, Sarah Cline, Rebecca Kislak, Josh Posner, Linda Silverstein, Marjorie K. and Remmie Brown, Laura and David Kerstein, Amy Perry and 100s of other Pokross, Pritzker, and Karnowsky family members

with cousins, trying to return to normal

links:

Jewish Fall River Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/jewishfallriver/

list of desecrated stones www.frtemplebethel.org/Desecrated-Gravestones-Fall-River.pdf  #55 last name is Pokross, some are not in alphabetical order.

photos of  at Hebrew Cemetery by Aaron Ginsburghttps://photos.app.goo.gl/easqEWzwN3s86yDY7

Photos of defaced Pokross, Karnowsky and Pritzker stones. https://photos.app.goo.gl/X9ZftQFQTfB1tQNy5