Centuries-Old Cemetery Unearthed in Maastricht, Netherlands

The Jewish community of Maastricht, Netherlands, together with the municipality and the local Sphinx Tiles manufacturer, arranged for the reburial of Jewish remains from an 18^th century cemetery.

According to local historians, the area surrounding the planned construction of a new Sphinx building was used by the Jewish community as a cemetery from 1782 to 1822. When officials with the company learned of the cemetery's supposed presence, they notified Rabbis Yaakov Yitzchak Schapiro, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Limburg and North Brabant, and Binyomin Jacobs of Chabad-Lubavitch of the Netherlands and a member of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe, who suggested that a team of archaeologists supervise the necessary digging.

Crews discovered the remains, contained in two crypts, after removing only several meters of earth. Schapiro and Jacobs carried the boxes of bones to Maastricht's new Jewish cemetery during a recent ceremony.

"Without a doubt, this was a sanctification of G‑d's name," said Jacobs. "The fact that in Holland, non-Jews [consult the Jewish community] on something based only on rumors, shows the amazing power of the human spirit."