by Natalie Zellat Dyen (Huntington Valley, PA)
Last year I searched for my grandfather’s grave at Har Jehuda Cemetery.
Nathan Weisbord.
Section C25, row 2, location 47.
But couldn’t find him.
Once, I was able to run my hand over Hebrew letters incised into the stone.
Once I was able trace the date of his death from the Spanish flu: October 1918.
But now he is twice buried.
This time in a jungle of tangled weeds and branches.
Buried by neglect that afflicts old Jewish cemeteries like this one.
Cemeteries passed down to owners unwilling or unable to maintain what was entrusted to them.
We are the caretakers of our ancestors.
Responsible for remembering them and reciting their names.
It’s not easy for many of us to find our roots.
Nature unchecked reclaims its own.
Paths to our history are blocked by twisted roots.
And burned records.
And toppled gravestones.
And the rubble of cemeteries in the old country.
The last time I visited Har Jehuda I was a volunteer.
One of many warriors, armed with rakes, hedge trimmers, and bare hands.
Working to clear the paths, section by section.
We have not yet reached my grandfather’s grave.
But we are persistent.
We Jews.
That’s how we survive.
I had hoped to accomplish much as a volunteer.
Bus alas, my ability to twist and bend
Had gone the way of my youth.
So I sat down and continued weeding and trimming on the ground.
But when it was time to leave, I found myself stuck.
Lacking the strength to get back on my feet.
So I wrapped my arms around the nearest gravestone.
A monument to man named Joseph Feingold
Who died in 1948.
And he helped to lift me to my feet.
As Jews, we are responsible for each other in life and in death.
And as I honor my ancestors, they will continue to lift me.
Natalie Zellat Dyen began writing humor pieces and essays for newspapers while working as a technical writer. Since turning to fiction, her work has appeared in a number of publications including, Philadelphia Stories, The MacGuffin, the Schuylkill Valley Journal, Willow Review, Alternative Truths: Endgame, Jewish Writing Project, Damselfly, CERASUS Magazine, Every Day Fiction, and Neshaminy: The Bucks County Historical and Literary Journal. Her short story collection, Finding Her Voice, was published in 2019. Her debut novel, Locked in Silence, a work of historical fiction, will be released on February 1, 2024.
To learn more about Natalie and her work, visit her website: www.nataliewrites.com.
The Jewish Writing Project 
This is very moving. In fact, just today, I was speaking about my great grandfather’s grave in Warsaw and learned that it has been overgrown with weeds, roots, and brambles. Your phrasing, “Nature unchecked reclaims its own” is both beautiful and apt. You write an important truth when you say that, “We are the caretakers of our ancestors. Responsible for remembering them and reciting their names.” I hope to be able to make my way to Warsaw and to be persistent as you were, clearing the paths and trying to locate and honor my great grandfather’s grave. Thank you for sharing such a lovely piece.
This touches me deeply, Natalie. With my grandparents in a cemetery whose stones tip with the changes of the earth, and display rusted photo frames, I once visited and found that my grandfather’s photo had been reset and polished, the stones brushed off, and more. It turned out that someone in the Chicago area made it his work to tidy the graves in this lovely old Jewish cemetery, I was so deeply touched by this—and your poem brought this memory back.