GUANABACOA: | Cuba | International Jewish Cemetery Project

Macabbeus Cemetery: One of two cemeteries built by Azhkenazim, the 1911 Macabbeus Cemetery is located a smooth steep hill in an old town near Havana. The beautiful series of tombstones (matzevot), ohels, and sarcophagi show different burial traditions. Inscriptions are in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Spanish. Memorial artwork includes universal Jewish symbols like the Menorah, candle-stick, Star of David, and Lion of Judah. Inscribed names and birthplaces are of people from Eastern and Central Europe, not that of Sephardim, dominant in Cuba. The general layout holds to univerisal Jewish tradition. A room for washing the deceased is located at the entrance of the cemetery with a working faucet to allow the participants to wash their hands departing. The cemetery is still active. Pollution, corrosion, vandalism, and a lack of maintenance and funds seriously threaten the marble, limestone and bronze memorial art. Owned by the Jewish community, the site is part of a research program by ICOMOS Cuba, about Cuban Jewish heritage. The seriously damaged site is irreplaceable to the almost 2000 Jews living in Cuba and their many relatives elsewhere. Source: Anonymous [February 2002]