Anthropology student translates Jewish headstone inscriptions

Details inscribed on Jewish headstones in the historic Symonds Street cemetery  could soon be made accessible to the wider community, if a Jewish history enthusiast has his way.

Richard Myburgh, who is studying anthropology at the University of Auckland, is recording and translating information engraved on each headstone, much of which was damaged in a 2012 attack.

“On some of them you can still make out the spray paint of a swastika as it is very porous rock. A lot of it is granite or sandstone so that basically never comes out,” says Mr Myburgh.

Others have had inscriptions deliberately chiselled off.

By drawing on the inscriptions in both English and Hebrew, he can fill in the missing details and discover more about who has been buried there.

Mr Myburgh has Jewish ancestry and was inspired to do the project after his fellow classmates who couldn’t read Hebrew were limited to studying a headstone in the Christian and Catholic areas for a class assignment.

“I thought it was a shame that a quarter of the cemetery was off limits, just because they couldn’t read it,” Mr Myburgh says.

Stephen Goodman, president of the New Zealand Jewish Council, says while the headstones have been translated before, the details have not been put on the public record.

Mr Goodman says the graveyard is “historically significant” and echoes the call for the information to be made widely accessible.

“There’s all sorts of people buried there, from the fire chief in Auckland to various [people] whose descendants are still around today,” says Mr Goodman.

Some of the headstones have been deliberately damaged by vandals. Photo: Jean Bell

Mr Myburgh wants an online record to be created from his findings, so more people can access the information.

“I would love for it to be hosted on some council website . . . [or in] QR codes or new media stuff at the sign by the entrance,” he says.

He says having the translation readily available for the public would help preserve Jewish history in the bustle of central Auckland.

“You see people walking through the cemetery all the time . . . It’s very much not a dead space. It’s part of the fabric of Auckland City.”