Following yesterday’s desecration of the Mount Carmel Jewish Cemetery in Philadelphia, as well as the desecration of the Chessed Shel Emeth Cemetery a week before, the National Museum of American Jewish History (a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate located in Philadelphia) has set up a website dedicated to collecting the stories of the deceased whose graves were damaged.

The website, mtcarmelstories.tumblr.com, prompts “those who have friends or loved ones interred at Mount Carmel Cemetery to share a picture of their loved one (and/or the headstone, if available) and a personal story of up to 150 words” (the site text notes that the project is also open to those whose families were affected by the desecration that occurred at St. Louis’s Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery).

So far, the site only contains two entries, one for Kate Fischer Glass (1861-1944) and one for Bertha Grossman Reisman (1879-1948). The entry for Glass contains a startlingly strong image, one that encapsulates the importance of a project like this. After detailing some biographical information, the entry ends, “Kate Glass was laid to rest on January 25, 1944 in Mount Carmel cemetery, Philadelphia, PA. She awoke abruptly on the morning of February 26, 2017 in tears, with anti-Semitic visions unknown to her since childhood.”

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