Tombstone Tuesday: Fannie & John Broida
Broida Family
For many years the family has searched for the final earthly resting place of our immigrant ancestor, John Jacob (Zelig) Karklinsky Broida. A letter written to an (adopted) son-in-law described the death of John, and stated that he was buried beside his second wife, Fannie Rubenstein, on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Families who have visited the cemetery in years past were unable to find his grave, and a query to the cemetery itself, after searching their database a number of years ago, resulted in a reply that there was no record of a John Broida or a Fannie Broida being buried in the cemetery. (John is not in the database today, either, however Fannie is actually listed, but challenging to find.)
We added a memorial to Find A Grave (FAG) for John in 2013, and for his second wife, Fannie Rubenstein/Robenstein [Cohen?] Broida in 2015, when we learned her maiden name. (John’s first wife, Sarah Gitel Frank Broida was buried in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after her 1901 death in Denver, Colorado.) We requested photos when each of the memorials were created (although the request for John’s was somehow deleted over the years, possibly with website changes), and just recently, a kind volunteer submitted photos for both John and Fannie, and gave us permission to use the images. He has been very helpful in sharing what he learned, and actually had to wander a bit to search out John’s grave, which he confirmed was not in the cemetery database.
Note that John’s ledger stone has been damaged, possibly from vandalism, which sadly happens in cemeteries everywhere. Thankfully John’s stone has been put back together.
John had immigrated to America around 1875 from his native Lithuania. After marrying, raising a family, and watching his first wife die of tuberculosis, he married Fannie Rubenstein/Robenstein [Cohen?] about 1904, and they emigrated to Palestine/Israel in September, 1920. He did return to the US on at least one occasion for a visit, and possibly a second visit, but both he and Fannie died in Israel. (Well, we believe Fannie died in Israel but do not have any confirmation of her actual place of death, just her burial.)
The Mount of Olives has quite a lot of folk traditions and Bible references explaining why persons wish to be buried there, including that the prophet Elijah will blow his shofar (ram’s horn) on that spot, declaring the “Day of Resurrection of the Dead.” Another tradition is that those buried on the Mount will be the first to be resurrected. Currently over 70,000 persons possibly 150,000, have been buried in this holiest- and largest- of Jewish cemeteries.
Our kind FAG photo volunteer in Israel translated the stones from the Hebrew.
Fannie R. Broida–
Here lies Feige Dina Broida, eldest daughter of R. Yitzhak Ya’akov Rubinstein
John Broida–
Here lies Yehoshua Zelig (son of Yosef) Broida
Thanks to a translation from a friend of family, we know the last two lines of John’s ledger stone:
next to the last line: deceased 18th of Heshvan 5669 (Nov. 9, 1938 according to the Gregorian calendar)
last line: May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life
He also provided us GPS coordinates (in decimal degrees) for the headstones, so that visiting family can more easily find the stones.
John Broida: 31.77379, 35.24417
Fannie R. Broida: 31.7738, 35.24417
These coordinates show the graves as close to each other, as stated in the letter concerning the death of John: “He had a burial lot in the cemetery in Jerusalem near his wife–may she rest in Peace!– …” (1938 letter) It is way above my genealogical pay grade to be able to tell actually how far this is distance-wise using the GPS numbers. Thankfully, the grave images show the stones right next to Fannie’s, which do not match John’s stone, so we know he is not buried on either adjacent side. Another message to our very kind FAG volunteer produced a fast reply, stating he only had the request for Fannie’s grave, but since I had mentioned that we would like a photo of John’s marker as well and that he was buried nearby, our helpful volunteer searched the surrounding area for John’s plot. He found it one row over and a couple of graves down, so very close, and he took the photo and marked the GPS coordinates. Later he realized that John’s grave was not listed in the cemetery database, so we will contact Mount of Olives so that it is easier for future visitors.
Take the time, if you can, and use the GPS-Coordinates website (https://www.gps-coordinates.net) or Google Maps to put in the latitude and longitude of the grave location (on GoogleMaps, do not use a comma between the numbers, just a space), and then look at the area on a satellite map, zooming in and out – it is amazing. (Terms of Service do not allow posting any of their images on a blog, sorry. You can make screen shots for your personal use, however.) Gethsemane is at the foot of Mount of Olives, the Old City and Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem are just to the west, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a bit northwest of the Old City. The Dead Sea is on the other side of the mountain to the east, as is Jericho; Bethlehem is to the south. New Testament places would of course had less meaning to Orthodox Jews like John Broida, and there are Islamic holy places nearby as well. This place is still an amazing and holy area to so many even today. It is very special that John and Fannie are buried there.
Notes, Sources, and References:
- A thousand thank yous to our kind FAG photo volunteer, Jared! It is hard to believe it has taken so very many years to find where John and Fannie are “quietly resting,” and his diligence is so appreciated.
- Thank you also to the family members who helped out with translating and other information.
- Very interesting reading about the cemetery and its history– https://mountofolives.co.il/en/כללי-en/jewish-cemetery-har-hazeitim/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_of_Olives
- John Broida memorial on FAG– https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120393993/john-zelig_karklinsky-broida
- Fannie R. Broida memorial on FAG– https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/146082183/fannie-broida
- Sarah Gitel “Gussie” Frank Broida, John first wife’s FAG memorial– https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120539136/sarah-gitel-broida
- Related John Broida links–
http://heritageramblings.net/2015/05/20/wordless-wednesday-report-of-john-broidas-death-in-israel-2/
http://heritageramblings.net/2015/04/12/sunday-obituary-john-broida/
http://heritageramblings.net/2015/05/19/tombstone-tuesday-john-jacob-zelig-broida/ - Use Fannie’s name to search on HeritageRamblings.net for the many stories of the search for her maiden name and for an understanding of who Ethel Broida Pincus, John’s “8th daughter” (actually only “daughter” to his 7-really 8-sons, since one died very young and was not commonly known by the family.) There are some great photos too of her with John.
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