Cleaning the Gravestones

In July 2023, Amber Woods began the first cleaning of the headstones in Phoebe Levy’s family plot.

On August 8, 2023, Amber was joined by Laura Rosenberg and Andy Muchin and most of the graves in Eva Levy’s family plot got their first cleaning. The next step is to apply the chemical D-2 which will remove remaining moss and lichen.

On Sunday, August 13, 2023 Amber was joined by Leah and Peter Freedman. Finishing touches were given to the Levy family plot. Following are before and after photos taken by Leah Freedman.

Esther Levy

David Hart

Bennie Levy

Laura Rosenberg and Andy Muchin joined Amber Woods at the cemetery to clean the Franck grave of Mollie and Julius Franck. Laura and Andy began by cleaning the headstone while Amber removed bits of moss from the ledger stone. Laura continued to work on the headstone while Andy and Amber used dish detergent and water on the ledger stone. When she was finished, Laura became the water bearer bringing water in a small bucket from the sink to the grave site. Slowly the tiles began to emerge from their cocoon of schmutz which has been building up for decades.

Phoebe, Annie and Joseph Levy’s family plot before and after moss cleaning.

Shoshana Litman and Laura Rosenberg joined Amber Woods in cleaning the grave of Isador Braverman. Laura and Shoshana worked on the headstone before moving onto the tiled surface. Amber focused on the tiles.

A couple who would like to remain anonymous joined Amber Woods after they had done some gardening at the Zachor Wall to complete the cleaning of Isador Braverman’s grave.

Under the direction of Professor Erin McGuire, a handful of students from last semester’s class and a few other people came to the cemetery to clean headstones along the main pathway.

The first step is to clean the graves with a little soapy water and a lot of elbow grease. Then the chemical D-2 would be applied. D-2 is a cleaning product designed to remove harmful bacteria and pollutants which stain stonework. As a test to see how well the product works after one application, a face on the top of Joseph Davies grave was treated. D-2 was sprayed on and left to work. Three graves were treated with D-2; Enrica Glickman, Grace Meiss, and Rebecca Harris.

The headstones for Mary Brill, Martha Elkan, Frances Shaw, Joy Montague, Patricia Montague, Charles Rapp and Samuel Ruskin were cleaned with soap and water and will be treated with D-2 at a later date. The following images were taken by Leah Freedman.

Busy at cleaning:

Before and After:

A smaller, but mighty crew of dedicated students and a couple of elders gathered with Prof. Erin McGuire at the cemetery to clean more headstones.

After having been treated with D-2 on October 24 the stones for Grace Meiss and Rebecca Harris are looking cleaner.

D-2 was applied to the headstone for Jack Levy and Sam Levy without prior cleaning.

The headstones which were cleaned were; Adolph Lancaster, Naomi Adelstein, Louis Adelstein, Istvan Bertalan and Solomon Shaw.

After the cleaning as dusk begins to gather.