Cemeteries

• At the base of the Mt. of Olives lies "Absalom's Tomb." It dates from a thousand years after Absalom died. But don't let that make you doubt the authenticity of nearby tombs, some of which Jewish graves are more than 2600 years old.
• That hillside of cemeteries is on the itinerary of some tours, but rare indeed are the tourists who visit the cemetery between the Knesset building and Sacher park. To understand these burials, and the empty slabs among them, you need a good guide ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/private-guides.html ).
• An even smaller graveyard is hidden among the brambles just south of Jaffa Rd a little to the west of the old Shaarei Tsedek (now the Israel Broadcast Authority building). Here, when access to the Mt. of Olives was denied Jews, were buried, for a brief period, Jews who refused to be buried, so the guide said, in the "Zionist" cemetery at Sanhedria or the newer cemetery above what is now Gan Sacher ( http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/view.html ) . There are also two later graves -- one of the dedicated head of Shaarei Tsedek and the other of a Haredi rabbi whose followers buried him there long after the cemetery was declared closed.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox