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Cemetery Continued from Page 1
“The way we respect our dead
reflects our own values,” said
Addie Lewis Klein, the Jewish
Federation’s senior director of
leadership development and
community engagement. “And
it’s important for the Jewish
Federation to help convene and
connect the people who can
care about our history.”
The community’s response
to the cleanup event has been
overwhelming, Blumberg
said. More than 300 people
have signed up to volunteer.

Friends of Jewish Cemeteries
has raised more than $11,000
of the $20,000 goal.

At the cleanup, volunteers
will pick up litter around
the cemetery’s fence line;
rake twigs, branches, leaves
and other debris; and clip
overgrown vines. Volunteers
may also clean off the plaques
that delineate the cemetery’s
plots, allowing visitors to find
the graves of loved ones.

Though volunteer help is
needed to tidy the cemetery’s
16-acre grounds, much of
the restoration work must be
completed by professionals.

Many gravestones weigh
500-1,000 pounds, some
up to 2,000 pounds. Lifting
gravestones and leveling the
ground underneath them have
to be done by a professional.

Masons must clean and repair
the gravestones to avoid altering
the text written on them.

With the money raised for
the pilot project, Blumberg
hopes to hire area conservator
Joe Ferrannini to consult with
him on how to best restore the
pilot project’s allotted space at
the beginning of November.

The pilot project will focus
on a plot with graves from
1918-1936. The area has some
graves that are toppled, leaning
and split in multiple places,
providing the opportunity to
address multiple problems in a
contained area. The spot is also
accessible by truck.

“It gives us a really good
cross section,” Blumberg said.

Har Nebo’s maintenance has
declined likely due to its small
perpetual care endowment that
provides funds to keep plots tidy,
according to Dennis Montagna,
the program lead of Monument
Research & Preservation for the
National Parks Service.

Har Nebo was established
in 1890, but fewer people are
being buried there, which
means less revenue is incoming
to maintain the area. Rabbi
Eliott Perlstein of Ohev Shalom
of Bucks County, who will
Plaques to be cleaned as part of
Friends of Jewish Cemeteries’ pilot
restoration project.

Courtesy of Richard Blumberg
conduct a memorial service
at the cleanup, has noticed a
decrease in traffic there.

“I’ve been a rabbi here for a
number of years, and I’ve only
had about three or four funerals
in that cemetery,” he said.

“There’s still space for burial, but
it’s not a cemetery that people
are going to these days.”
Har Nebo owner Rich Levy
said 44 people were buried
there last year.

According to Perlstein,
fewer people are aware of Har
Nebo than before. There are
other cemeteries in the area,
including ones as old as and
larger than Har Nebo.

Though poor maintenance
is a manmade reason for a lack
of cemetery upkeep, much of a
cemetery’s maintenance is out of
humans’ control, Montagna said.

Cemetery aging is inevitable,
but environmental factors, such
as rainfall, can shift the ground
When Richard Blumberg visited Har Nebo Cemetery, he saw 2,000 of
the cemetery’s 35,000 gravestones in disrepair.

beneath the gravestones, as can
the breaking down of caskets,
he said. This is particularly an
issue for Jewish cemeteries,
where caskets are not ornate
and quickly degrade.

If cemeteries are overgrown,
they can become habitats for
small animals, which can pose
a danger for both the animals
and visitors, Montagna said.

“Sometimes you have
animals burrowing,” he said.

“If the grass is overgrown, you
don’t always see where those
holes are, so the chance of
stepping in one is pretty high.”
Montagna said that Har Nebo
is particularly worse for wear:
“It’s like the worst-case scenario.”
However, Montagna believes
that there’s a renewed interest in
cemeteries, thanks to Ancestry.

com and similar sites that have
made genealogy more accessible.

Blumberg hopes to incorporate
genealogy projects into Har
Nebo cleanup efforts once more
gravestones have been cleaned.

Har Nebo isn’t the only
struggling Jewish cemetery.

Har Jehuda Cemetery in
Upper Darby has struggled
with upkeep. In 2017, vandals
desecrated 275 gravestones
at Mount Carmel Cemetery
in Philadelphia, which is also
owned by Levy. The Jewish
Federation raised $288,000 for
cleanup. Though cemetery cleanup
efforts are seldom proactive,
Perlstein believes it’s really the
only way to help.

“Other than an event like
this, where people are invited to
purposely go to that cemetery, I
don’t think there really is a more
natural way,” Perlstein said.

Though Blumberg’s pilot
project will only tackle a small
portion of the cemetery, he
hopes it’s just the beginning.

“My dream would be to start a
movement where we, as a Jewish
community, include cemeteries
in our daily lives,” Blumberg said.

“And we start to put our atten-
tion, our awareness and resources
towards fixing them.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
16 OCTOBER 14, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
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H eadlines
Curb Continued from Page 1
were just waiting for “Curb” to
come back.

“I couldn’t wait,” said Rabbi
Cynthia Kravitz, a Lafayette
Hill resident. “Just as I can’t
wait until Oct. 24.”
“We needed it,” added Brett
Goldman, who lives in Center
City. “In the time we’re in,
everything is so serious, and
we’re so hypersensitive. It’s good
that comedy can still exist.”
“They can take six months
off or 20 years. Doesn’t matter.

I want more,” said Perry Shall,
also of Philadelphia. “That’s
the one show I could watch
until the end of time.”
Fans described “Curb” as
timeless because it remains
hilarious, oddly thought-pro-
voking and quintessentially
Jewish. David’s antics in the
show do not embarrass Jews as
some sort of caricature.

Quite the contrary, actually.

Local followers said David,
in pointing out and questioning
ridiculous social conventions,
represents the very Jewish
quality of being willing to
question and debate literally
anything. We all have that Larry David
in us, according to Goldman.

Unlike David’s character in the
show, though, we just learn to
tame its most awkward manifes-
tations, said Rabbi Joel Seltzer
of Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

“We let our better intentions
win the day most of the time,”
Seltzer added.

Amy Milbert, a Phoenix
resident who grew up in Philly,
said her husband has a lot of
Larry David in him. Recently,
the couple was going to a party
where gifts were optional ...

similar to the season four
“Curb” episode where the host,
the comedy actor Ben Stiller,
tells guests not to bring gifts.

In the show, Larry doesn’t
bring a present and Stiller gets
mad at him, even though the
host told people not to bring
presents. And comedy ensues.

Milbert’s husband, like
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Local artist Perry Shall said it doesn’t matter how long “Curb” stays off the air between seasons. He will
always watch the show when it comes back. 
Photo by Jarrett Dougherty
Larry, didn’t want to bring a
gift. The party was, after all,
gift-optional, he reasoned.

“Even if it’s gift-optional,
you have to bring a gift!”
Milbert responded.

By the end of the debate,
her husband agreed. And when
they got to the party, everyone
else had brought a present, too.

“We love the show,” Milbert
said. The show has maintained
those hilarious, incisive and
representative qualities for
its entire two-plus decade
existence. But while fans say
those essential qualities keep
them coming back, they also
argue that the show had one
key inflection point: Larry’s
divorce from his wife Cheryl
David, played by Cheryl Hines.

The couple split up in a season
six episode in 2007.

Subsequent episodes and
seasons focused on Larry’s
dating and sex lives. They also
focused more on the show’s first
major Black character: Leon
Black, played by J.B. Smoove.

Smoove joined the show
in season six, before the
Davids’ breakup, as part of a
storyline involving the Davids
taking in a family displaced
like argument for the sake of
argument.” Fans are pretty much unani-
mous in their love for Leon’s
character. But some think the show has
been a little less funny post-di-
vorce. Milbert liked it better
when Larry was married to
Cheryl and doing provocative
things at otherwise respectful
events for married people.

She preferred that dynamic
because it allowed the same
rotating cast of friends, like Susie
Greene (played by Susie Essman),
Jeff Greene (played by Jeff Garlin)
and Ted Danson (portraying
himself), to have more of their
own hilarious moments.

At the same time, Milbert
still loves the show and can’t
wait for the new season.

“I’m completely committed,”
she said. l
by a hurricane. Even after his cultures are looking at the jsaffren@jewishexponent.com;
family left the David house, minutiae of things, or might 215-832-0740
though, Leon stayed, and
hilarity ensued.

The comedian’s character
was so popular that he became
an integral part of the show.

Smoove’s Leon was listed as
“recurring” during seasons
6-8 from 2007-’11. But he was
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Now, according to local
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Leon takes up a lot of the space
that used to belong to Larry
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and Cheryl’s marriage.

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David always had chemistry
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with the improv performers on
the show, Seltzer said. But his
chemistry with Smoove is on
another level.

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That opened the stage to
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OCTOBER 14, 2021
17