21 October 2014

Tombstone Tuesday: Hillel ben Tuvya, Labun Jewish 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.
This is a natural stone into which an epitaph was carved. It is difficult to read, but I believe (starting with line 2) it says:

Hillel son of Tuvya
Died 24 Iyar

I do not see any remnants of a year listed. The month of Iyar may start as early as about 11 April and end as late as 11 May. 

3 comments:

  1. I see this the way you do, Emily, though I wonder about the date. There is alot of empty space there on either side of the kaf-dalet and one would think that they would have put them closer together leaving room for the year on the same line.

    The top line definitely says "ish" and the word following seems to start with a het (hacham?).

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  2. Thanks for your comment, Israel. I agree. Ish" is definitely on the first line, but I could not make out the second word. Of course "ish" (a man) goes along with the fact that we're dealing with a male. I suppose it's possible that a year had once been written below the last visible line, but I don't see it. One wild hair thought: perhaps this was put up long after burial and the year was unknown.

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