For centuries, traditional Jews referred to Jewish cemeteries by the euphemistic Hebrew phrases Beit Hayyim (House of Life) or Beit Olam (House of Eternity). The use of these terms is not rooted, as some believe, in a superstitious denial of death or its inevitability, but rather in the longstanding eschatological belief that mortal existence on earth is only a precursor to a separate eternal existence in a world to come. More recently, Jews have referred to cemeteries as Beit Kevarot, whose nearly literal translation in English would be "graveyard." Regardless of the name they are called, cemeteries remain a vital part of the tapestry of Jewish experience. In the case of Europe, they testify to the changing circumstances, emerging rituals, intense persecution and the repeated revitalization of the Jewish people.

In this exhibition, the Bernard Museum of Judaica presents a photographic view of a series of Jewish burial grounds across Europe spanning more than 2,000 years. The images depict an array of topographical realities confronting those faced with the responsibility of building a Beit Hayyim. They also serve as witness to the variety of funerary customs and design aesthetics among the Jewish people during the past two millennia. Perhaps most important, these images bring the viewer a pictorial record of the cemeteries and burial grounds that have enshrined the cultural and spiritual values of those who now lie within their gates, beneath the communities where once they lived.

This small but representative sample will guide you on a journey that mirrors the peregrinations of the Jewish Diaspora across the European continent from ancient times to the present. This virtual voyage across Jewish history begins in the catacombs of Ancient Rome, the site of the first major settlement of Jews in Europe, and wends its way to the cemeteries of the Middle Ages in Worms, Mainz, Venice and Prague. From there we proceed to the Renaissance and Baroque cemeteries of the Sephardim and Ashkenazim, including the communities of Amsterdam, Berlin, Krakow and Istanbul. We enter the modern era by visiting the cemeteries of the Emancipated Jews in Paris, Budapest and Berlin among others, and finally we arrive at the present era, where the dynamics that have had an impact on the creation and preservation of Jewish burial grounds since the Holocaust are undergoing a continuing evolution. This exhibition ends with images of the new cemetery of the Liberal community of Amsterdam, where the sometimes divergent paths of modernity and tradition have been beautifully merged.