It is hard to believe that our last week in the field has arrived. What an amazing, rich, and wonderful educational experience we are having. It will be difficult to say goodbye to our fellow classmates, all of the volunteers, our professor, and our teaching assistant; but most of all it will be difficult to say goodbye to the Congregation of Emanu-El cemetery. The cemetery is a beautiful place of quiet, reflection, peace, love, understanding and community. We will miss what at first was our bi-weekly visits that quickly turned into a five-day-a-week visits. We didn’t go this much just to complete our assignments that could have just as easily been finished at home, we went because within the gates of Congregation Emanu-el assignments could be completed because it invites all who seek and crave the quiet; just the environment we needed to finish our work.
On Thursday May 26, after spending the morning at the cemetery we will make our way to the Special Collections archives at the University’s Library. There will be more of the past to discover, though the gravestones and monuments of Congregation Emanu-el have already taught us so much; now is the time to discover what the archives have to tell us. But before we talk about our experience in the archives we want to share some of our experiences at the Congregation Emanu-El cemetery…