The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia on March 22 announced details for its plans to restore approximately 100 headstones vandals damaged in February at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Northeast Philadelphia.
Joe Ferrannini, a preservation and conservation expert with Gravestone Matters, in cooperation the National Park Service’s Northeast region office, will lead the restoration efforts, which are slated to begin on March 28, weather permitting.
Ferrannini will oversee all restoration work and lead training sessions. The work is expected to last for two weeks.
Volunteers and paid workers will work in small teams, with some teams prepping stones for resetting, while other reset the stones or repair broken stones.
Jewish Federation said local craftspeople, including members of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1, are donating their time to the effort.
In addition to repairing the vandalism, fencing will be repaired and additional lighting will be installed.
Prior to this work, more than 300 people completed a cemetery cleanup, began mapping the ground and created an inventory of the stone conditions. In addition, $220,928 was raised from 2,984 gifts to support the cleanup, repair and security costs.
