טוקאי

טוקאי — בתי החיים

Tokaj — the Jewish cemeteries

Jewish cemetery, Bodrogkeresztúri út, Tokaj, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Hungary

• THE OLD CEMETERY IS ON AN ISLAND AND THERE IS NO ROAD. It lies between the Tisza and the Bodrog and is reached by boat, nothing else. Arrange the crossing before the day, and know that it floods — that is the standing threat to the ground, and it has damaged up to half the stones. Its matzevos run from 1799 onwards, a few hundred of them still in place. There is a broken wall and the gate is locked.
• The cemetery you can drive to is the newer one, on Bodrogkeresztúri út, opened in 1871. Thousands of graves, a beis tahara, a well, and an ohel on the ground.
• BOTH GATES LOCK AND THE SAME MAN HOLDS BOTH KEYS — the surveys give him as Lajos Lővy for the island and Lajos Dudovics for the newer ground, with Dudovics named as keyholder of both. Arrange it in the town before going up.
• The newer ground is being eaten by water running off the hill above it, which the survey calls a very serious threat. Expect washed-out ground and leaning stones on the upper rows.
• REB SHAYALE IS NOT IN TOKAJ. His ohel is on Dereszla hill at Bodrogkeresztúr, the next village, and that is a separate stop — people arrive here looking for him.
• Each cemetery is laid out with separate sections for men, for women and for rabbonim, so head for the rabbonim's rows rather than walking the whole ground.