1st Fieldwork Experience: Victoria's Jewish Cemetery

        In class we are working on a monument analysis project, in which we go to a local cemetery and record a number of monuments there. We are to look at the orientation of the major face, the state of the monument, the transcriptions, and many more aspects. At first I had really no idea what I was in for. I thought I would feel uncomfortable. My group picked the Jewish Cemetery in Victoria, and not being Jewish I was worried I wouldn’t know how to act, or if I was being unintentionally disrespectful. But our first visit there was fantastic, if not a little cold! We met with a Rabbi Louis, who is an intelligent and funny man, who showed us around and talked to our group about the basic history of the Jewish in Victoria, and about what are common practices in a Jewish Cemetery. It was fascinating to learn that it is not common for the Jewish to have flowers in their cemeteries but instead when they visit a grave they place a small pebble to show that they have visited. Looking around the Cemetery I noticed that some had large piles of pebbles while others had a few scattered.

            Once we had finished with Rabbi Louis we proceeded on to our actual fieldwork. It was a typical humid, west coast day with a good wind chill. Our hands were frozen in minutes, and I was silently cursing myself for not bringing any gloves. Writing became difficult and drawing was impossible we quickly recorded 12 monuments snapped some pictures and left. When I got home and was looking at the data starting the database, I was over whelmed with excitement, it was exciting documenting these monuments. I was quickly kicking myself for taking such poor notes. It was not long before I concluded that I would have to return to the field to better my notes and take good pictures. My second day in the field was exponentially better. It was cold, but sunny, and the sun allowed me to see inscriptions that I had missed the day before. The cemetery was calm, and I felt at ease standing there in the silence recording the monuments people who died long before I was even born. It is interesting the quietness of a cemetery used to always put me on end but after this fieldwork it is quite calming, I felt privileged to be able to ‘visit’ these people. I began to want to know more about the individuals whos monuments I was looking at, what they did, who they knew, etc. I honestly cant wait to get out in the field again, and hope that I will have to opportunity to return to the Jewish Cemetery to do more work.