Houses of life

Establishing a cemetery has always been the first step for a Jewish community in the process of settling in a new location. In telling the story of more than thirty Jewish cemeteries in Europe, Houses of Life offers a group portrait of two thousand years of Jewish history. From the catacombs of Ancient Rome, the story is traced through medieval cemeteries in Venice, Prague and England, across the cemeteries of the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, of the Sephardim and the Ashkenazim in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Krakow and Istanbul and the cemeteries of the period of emancipation in Paris, Budapest, St Petersburg and Berlin. Each of the cemeteries and the communities they have served is richly illustrated with historical plans, maps, paintings, drawings and photographs. After 1945, Jewish life tentatively began to re-emerge in many parts of Europe, and the book also looks at a range of the continent's post-war cemeteries. From funerary customs to gravestone designs and topographical situations, Jewish cemeteries have enshrined cultural and spiritual values in a dangerous and often deadly world. Houses of Life is a record of two thousand years of tradition and change, of persecution and survival.