Sunday, September 27th was a delightful, sunny dayóa perfect day for the Annual Cemetery Cleanup in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Attendance was excellent. There were about 80 adults and children, including Deborah Weinbergís youth group from Temple Beth Shalom. Everyone busied themselves cutting and pulling weeds, carting off debris or whatever Ted Herberger, director of the cleanup operation asked them to do.

Among the large crowd participating in the cleanup was Deborah Weinberg's youth group from the Temple Beth Shalom, Santa Fe.

      In one of the family plots a tall stone monument bore the name of Stern in large bold letters, above which was the name of Isidore Stern, born February 19, 1840; died September 27, 1898. Someone observed that Mr. Stern had died 100 years ago the very day of the cleanup. Almost spontaneously, a minyan was assembled at the gravesite and Kaddish was said under the leadership of David Land of Las Vegas. As the prayer was being said, three hawks circled in the blue sky above.
      In another part of the cemetery a more recent grave received a ìface lift.î Jude Longyear, a former professor of mathematics at Wayne State University in Detroit, had lived in Las Vegas for only three years.

But the outing purpose was work, not posing for pictures.

When she became ill, her son, a sculptor who lives in Seattle, Washington, frequently flew out to visit her. After Jude died, he made a flat marker of bronze for her grave, upon which he had designed a raised pattern of the earth. In this way he could see the marker as he flew over the cemetery. The piece had sunk below the level of the ground around it, so more dirt and gravel were added to raise it to a proper height.
As in previous years, the Montefiore Cemetery Association furnished lunch for the hungry workers, consisting of assorted sandwiches, drinks, cookies and fruit. Especially tasty were the plums picked by the associationís founding president, Marvin Taichert from his own tree the night before.

Taking a break are Gunther Aron,
Claire Grossman and Marvin Taichert.

óGunther Aron

     

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