Cemetery

The Jewish cemetery lies in the South of Saida, on an antique dune, on the same sand that Sidonians used in antiquity to fashion their fine glass work, a skill that was noted by the great Athenian poet Homer in the 8th century BCE.

The rehabilitation of the dune is our first project. Many tombstones are made of remnants of old Roman and Greek columns. The age of the site is buried with the dead beneath the surface of the dune, and remains unknown. On its grounds are also some of the oldest chalcolithic habitats of the world (ref: Saidah, R. 1979. Fouilles de Sidon-Dakerman: L'agglomération chalcolithique. Berytus. 27. 29-55)

During the first phase of the cleaning of the site (September to November 2018), special attention was given to the burial area in order to recover as many tombs as possible. Many tombstones were found to be missing and some vandalized. Also many inscriptions were not legible due to the action of the elements (rain, sand and erosion), particularly on the Roman granite columns, which are used as tombstones.

To prevent further damage and loss of information, it was decided to photograph each tomb and tombstone and to assign it a geographical positional number for future reference. Using these photographs, a dedicated team of volunteers has translated the Hebrew, Arabic, and French inscriptions and produced a table listing the name of the deceased and when available their father's name and date of death. Some information was gleaned from other sources and we hope to uncover many more tombs as the cleaning progresses. Pieces of broken tombstones have been stored in a container on the site, with the hope that efforts can be put into reconstituting some of them in the future.

The table below lists all the burial sites identified with a legible tombstone in the Saida Jewish Cemetery. The list is incomplete as many tombstones are broken or illegible, and there are many more tombs still buried under the dune. We hope to expand the list over time, and to find a way to identify and honor all those buried in the cemetery. We invite you to peruse the list and inform us of any discrepancy at [email protected].

You may want to visit the www.farhi.org site for further genealogical information including names of relatives and place and date of birth.

Of note, during the civil war, as the Beirut Jewish cemetery was situated on the green line separating the combatants, no burial ceremonies could take place. All the deceased were transported to Saida and buried there; there are at least 18 such tombs.