JCEAA
JCEAA Expeditions Focus
JCEAA has created an imagery archive of Jewish cemeteries and burial grounds, based on its own on-site surveys. This archive is the result of visits to Jewish cemeteries, non-denominational cemeteries with Jewish sections, national veteran's cemeteries, and other burial sites where Jewish graves are present. Since 2003, JCEAA has focused its work on visits in the United States and Europe, having visited hundreds of cemeteries.
One objective of the imagery (photographic) survey of cemeteries is to collect gravestone images which are representative of the cemetery, and display a small sample of these on the Internet. The quality of the images is intended to be sufficient for transcription by the Internet viewer, whenever possible. If requested, an on-line image can be provided to a requestor at a greater resolution than the Internet image, if one exists in the archive. The JCEAA archive collection often contains additional images of each cemetery, which have not been published on the Internet. Not all cemeteries surveyed by JCEAA are listed publicly.
Subcategories of research that are of special interest to JCEAA include:
- Jewish military veteran gravestones
- Abandoned and neglected burial sites
- Isolated sites
- Suspected burial sites
- Cemeteries especially vulnerable to vandalism or environmental damage
- Urban cemeteries in danger of destruction, encroachment or relocation
- Pre-19th century gravestones
- Holocaust-related gravestones or cemetery-related memorials
- Burial sites located in regions subject to especially significant anti-Semitism
- Burial sites in areas currently, previously, or imminently subject to military hostilities
- Sites located outside the United States of America
JCEAA does not collect information for traditional genealogical purposes, though its images may be useful to individuals engaged in such research. A Directory of Gravestones is maintained by JCEAA, and published on this website. However, it only includes the names from a small subset of the archive images, and is used for another JCEAA research project. JCEAA welcomes inquiries, and will always assist researchers if possible. Contact JCEAA at jceaa@jceaa.org.
JCEAA does not accept images from external sources for display or inclusion in the archive.
The organization is a non-profit, non-commericial entity and does not accept unsolicited donations or contributions. JCEAA is not funded by any government or commercial activity.