CARACAS
Last Updated Thursday, 06 August 2015 19:09
The capital and largest city of Venezuela wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
The Jewish community of Caracas < Unión Israelita de Caracas > has about 10,000 members,
20+ synagogues, one Jewish day school, one Jewish community center and three main
cemeteries ("Guarenas," "Cementerio General del Sur" and "Cementerio Del Este"). Jewish
burials usually are scheduled from morning until about 3pm. The unveiling of the gravestone is
usually eleven months after the burial before which generally the deceased's family does not
visit the cemetery. Tombstones are inscribed in Spanish with Hebrew for the deceased's names
and dates. Additional information on the gravestone is the family's choice. The back of the
majority of tombstones have a very small inset to light a memorial candle.Each cemetery has
different sections under the administration of the three main synagogues.The Ashkenazi
synagogues are UIC and Rabinato.One of UIC's sections is the oldest cemetery in Caracas with
about 30 tombstones dating from 1930.The other UIC section opened with a burial on
December 5, 1937.AIV is Sephardi. [February 2009]
- Cementerio General del Sur, the oldest and largest, contains four Jewish sections: UIC
manages two, Aiv one, and Rabinato one. Total graves are 2,365 with space for a few more. (
Aerial view
)[February 2009]
- Jewish sector, Cementerio del Sur
- Cemeterio Guarenas: "Gan Menucha" section's first burial was on April 17, 1997. Now
about 300 graves leave room for up to 3,000.The AIV section with some 180 graves from
1953-1971 is inactive and replaced by Cementerio del Este.The Rabinato section is still active
with first burial on October 18, 1972. Currently, the total 755 graves leave room for up to 1,500.
[February 2009]
- Cementerio del Este: about 500 graves. Cementerio Del Este ( Aerial view ) [February
2009]
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