By Jon Marks

As soon as he heard the story on the news over a year ago, Greg Jehanian knew he had to get involved.

Despite the fact that he’d never heard of the place and wasn’t even Jewish, this semiretired Armenian stone mason from West Chester knew he wanted to be part of the restoration of Har Hasetim Cemetery in Gladwyne.

“As soon as I see anything about stone it grabs my attention,” explained the 67-year-old Jehanian, moments before they marked the official dedication of the “Monument for Lost Souls” he spent over two months painstakingly carving from a piece of marble that had been sitting in his shop for over 20 years. “I’d never even heard about this place until that day. I immediately called the synagogue that day and said, ‘There has to be a way I can help.’”

That set the wheels in motion for the culmination of a project that already had been underway. The efforts of the Friends of the Gladwyne Memorial Jewish Cemetery, a consortium of synagogues which includes nearby Congregation Beth David, had been busy restoring a place that had been neglected for years. While Har Hasetim goes back to the 1890s, many of its graves had fallen into disrepair, with broken tombstones, unreadable headstones and a general lack of upkeep.

Surveying the damage, Friends trustee Ernie Dellheim, who was unable to attend the June 4 ceremony, had an idea.

“He thought it would be nice to have some sort of memorial,” said Adam Buchanan, FGMJC president. “Because there are countless number of souls buried here with no markers and no headstones.

“It would be something like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Arlington, Virginia. Fast forward maybe two to three months and I get a call from Greg Jehanian, who just called out of the blue after seeing the story on TV. I said, ‘I’m not sure if there’s anything you can do, but let me let me give you a tour.’ Greg could not have been more excited to help. After I gave him the tour and we talked, he said, ‘I might have a couple of pieces of marble lying around.’”

Jehanian got to work soon after that, completing the “job,” which entailed some 120 hours, on New Year’s Day. Two months after it was installed, some 20 men and women gathered on the site on for the dedication.

“This came together very, very quickly,” said Buchanan during the dedication, where a plaque was presented to Jehanian in appreciation of his strictly volunteer efforts. “The people who are interred here, their stories go back to many, many different countries a continent away. Many were immigrants from Europe, mainly Eastern Europe, who came to this country as pioneers. First in their family, never to see their homes again. So while the monument is very new, this cemetery is very old.”

Buchanan also noted that while the cemetery was not only not limited to Jews, it was impossible to determine who was buried there due to questionable record keeping and the fact that some of them were too poor to afford gravestones.

Regardless, carving the monument and recognizing its significance was more meaningful than Jehanian ever imagined.

“When I initially took it on, I just wanted to do this job,” he said. “But then as time went on it became more meaningful to me because I knew the impact it would have. So it means the world to me. The hope is that this memorial will stand as a reminder to future generations that, although time may claim our gravestones and the names written upon them, God remembers each and every one.”

The ceremony concluded with Beth David Rabbi Beth Kalisch conducting a Yizkor service and chanting El Malei Rachamim, while also pointing out the significance of the occasion.

“The amazing work that you can see in the background here to turn this place of memory into a place where we can more concretely see the names and something of the times of the people who are buried here is a testament to our understanding that what it means to remember those who have died is to honor the way that each of them lived in full and beautiful individuality and humanity,” she said. “And yet because we do not know the names or the stories of each of the people who are very dear, we acknowledge that the names and the memories are too many to count. With this beautiful memorial, we honor those who have no other stone to remember them.”

She later expanded on the meaning of the occasion.

“I think it reminds me the ways in which it means to be part of the Jewish community and the need to serve the Jewish community,” she said. “We don’t know the specific people who are buried here. They don’t have any connection to my congregation. But what Jews do is understand that we’re all family to each other. And so the fact that in this beautiful part of Gladwyne we have this cemetery that was so neglected for so long, I just think it’s a beautiful mitzvah that members of our congregation and other nearby congregations have taken up to restore it.”

Jon Marks is a Philadelphia-area freelance writer.