Tombstone Tuesday: Etta bat Shemaya, Labun Cemetery

In June of 2013 I had the pleasure of visiting Ukraine and Labun (now Yurovshchina; once called Lubin in Yiddish), my paternal grandparents' community. We were able to visit the old Jewish cemetery, which I discussed in an earlier post. Over the next several Tuesdays I will post photos and translations (as I am able to decipher) of tombstones from that cemetery. Most do not feature surnames.

A woman tender in years*

Etta daughter of

Shemaya Died

14 Nisan 5673

May her soul be bound in everlasting life

Some of the letters are worn off by the elements. I suspect a Hebrew speaker may be able to determine the last word on the second line: "bish?m." [*I initially thought that the phase included the word rabah רבﬣ (great). In comments (below) Lara Diamond and Israel Pickholtz provided the next word bashanim. And Israel noted that the word that Lara and I both thought was rabah is actually racca רכﬣ (meaning tender). The letter in the middle of the word is caf (ﬤ) rather than bet (ב). This, of course, completely changes the message on the tombstone from a woman of great age to a woman of tender years. Sheesh! I have changed the translation, above.]

With the Jewish Calendar Conversion application from the Steve Morse One-Step website, the 14th day of the month Nisan in the year 5673 would correlate with 21 April 1913 in our (Gregorian calendar) and 8 April 1913 in the Julian calendar, which was in effect at the time of Etta's death.