243. Auburn: Worcester Hebrew Cemetery

Let me just say this about the Jews...

Oo, dangerous way to start a paragraph. But let me say this: they like their tombstones tall, if the cemetery in Auburn is at all reflective of the rest of the culture.

And they like to laugh. My favorite marker was for a woman who had died at 98 years old with the epitath "An Untimely Demise." How's that for going out with a bang?! And I say this all with true respect and admiration for my Jewish friends. I grew up in a town with a strong Jewish community, and have always been amazed by their commitment to their faith, and to the strength of their own community.

That said, the cemetery tells more than jokes. Among the Katz, Cohen, Silverman, Levy and Feldman stones are many more that I will probably never be able to read. They're in Hebrew, and only Hebrew, names, dates and I don't know what else. I've seen a few around the state in French, but not much more than that in foreign languages. They probably date back to the earliest immigrants fleeing the pogroms at the beginning of the twentieth century, but I can't tell you for sure.

What I can tell you is that the cemetery is surrounded by some excellent wildlife habitat, thickets full of catbirds, a nearby pond, a powerline crossing a railroad track.

When I die I want my family to look at it like the family of Rose Pelletz Cohen. Get one last laugh out of the story of my life! Perhaps, if I outlive the average American male's life expectancy, we can go with "A Timely Demise."