In case it helps, here is an inverted version of the photo,

Thanks, Lindsey!

I emailed it to my BIL and hope to get you an answer soon.

I know little about that faith but being a longtime student of European history and Western European languages, I've learned that Modern Hebrew is a language mostly "invented" in the 20th century for use in the area that is now Israel. Jews living throughout Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries, in areas from which Jewish immigrants to the US came, didn't speak Hebrew at home or in their communities but rather Yiddish (usually in addition to the local language in the region they were located). It's apparently a variant of German that was written phonetically with the Hebraic alphabet. That's the language they brought with them to the US. If this is as old as it looks, that might be what's on the headstone. Whether that writing would be intelligible to a speaker of Hebrew, I can't say for sure, but beyond working out the dates and the sounds of names, I suspect not.

The crack along the bottom suggests this headstone may have been broken by vandals. That's too bad.

Elmer -- Did they speak Hebrew in temple? (Picturing centuries of boys struggling through their reading of Torah!)

I don't know. If they did/do, I suspect very few present would understand. Kind of like a Catholic mass in the old days in Latin. Though I understand that's coming back in a limited number of churches.

Just wondering if this might help with Hebrew translations. On eBay there a "Hebrew" keyboard, and there's a picture of the keyboard and on each key a Hebrew alphabetic character. Here's the link: The Hebrew Keyboard picture is here.

Thank you, Eld6161!

My husband's college roommate, now deceased, translated my great-great-grandparents' gravestones for me, and those, of course, were a lot older than this one. He said they were written in Hebrew. I have no idea if the one pictured above is in Hebrew or Yiddish.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more vandalism at this cemetery. It's very small, and its location was probably rather bucolic when it was established. But 100+ years later it is right on a business highway, sandwiched between a car repair garage and a gas station. It is surrounded by a chain-link fence. I drove past it for decades without even noticing it was there, so perhaps that explains the minimal amount of damage from vandals.

Justlinda, that's interesting, thanks! I think if someone were to use that, they'd still need a translation, no? Or maybe I missed something.

Yes, Hebrew is used (in the sense of reading from the Torah and the Siddur, the prayer book) in temples/synagogues to this day, and always has been. Completely, in Orthodox congregations, and along with English in the Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist denominations. If you email the photo to any local rabbi, s/he will be able to translate it for you.

Good idea, Bookwoman--thank you!

English is written in latin........letters. It's not latin. Spanish is also written using latin letters. The two aren't mutually intelligible. My understanding is that Yiddish was written in Hebrew........letters. Using the letters for their sounds but the resulting sound combinations for words in Yiddish being in a very different language from Hebrew. With the two not mutually intelligible. I could be wrong.

I don't think Hebrew was ever a common language spoken in Jewish homes or communities in the US. Or in Europe, for that matter.

justlinda's keyboard is interesting. My guess is that just as the QWERTY key layout was someone's idea of what worked best for English, and there are different letter layouts for use for French and German (non-qwerty), I would bet that the layout of Hebrew letters is someone's idea of what works for that language and wouldn't be a case of placing similar sounds together.

after comment - I think bookwoman's idea is a good one, but if the clergyman doesn't have a knowledge of Yiddish (if that's what it is), his help may be limited.

Elmer you are right that it is the same alphabet, but Yiddish does in fact have some Hebrew words in it. Frequently it's just which syllable is stressed (or an "S" for a T like how in Spanish a B for a V so to speak. Also, re the gravestone, the names are not the English names, they are typically the Hebrew name.

Elmer: "I could be wrong." But you're not. :-) Yiddish is, as you say above, a dialect of Medieval German and has little to do (except occasionally, as sheilaaus notes) with Hebrew, a Semitic language. What justlinda is talking about would result in a transliteration, i.e. you'd be able to pronounce the Hebrew, but would still have no idea what it meant.

A gravestone would, in all probability, be in Hebrew and not Yiddish. Hebrew is the sacred language while Yiddish is the vernacular.

This reminds me of when I worked for a Greek shipowner. many years ago I learned the modern Greek alphabet so I could read ship-to-shore cables to him over the phone--another example of transliteration! I eventually learned to speak a little Greek, but never as much as I could read aloud. :-)

Yiddish has plenty to do with Hebrew.

Yes, there are Hebrew words in Yiddish (I just googled and it's 10% of the vocabulary), and culturally of course they're intertwined, but in my post above I was responding more linguistically, to Elmer's "with the two not mutually intelligible".

Interesting.

Having a curiosity for what that might look like for English after reading these comments for Yiddish, I did a search to find out what were the sources of words in English. I found an authoritative source, citing an authoritative source, that says modern English vocabulary is 28% from Latin AND another 28% from French. Pretty interesting, I thought. I'm not ready to have a conversation in Latin any time soon (though I do speak French pretty well).

Where do English words come from?

Yes, we have William the Conqueror and those wacky Normans to thank for all the French!

Exactly!!

Remember, his name was really Guillaume. And I don't believe he, King of England, could even speak the English of the day. Nor did several subsequent generations of his descendants.

Yes, and you've inspired me to look this up. The following is a fascinating conversation on Reddit (which has some pockets of real intelligence): https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/46njiu/which_english_king_was_the_first_to_speak_english/

That's interesting too, thanks.

Ever see the Bayeux Tapestry? Thought to date from around 1100, it presents a cartoon-like depiction of the invasion and the battle in 1066. It's really something and worth seeing for anyone whose travel takes them to Normandy.

I've only seen pictures of it, alas. I've been to France a number of times, but never to Normandy, so it's on my travel list.

The Hebrew name is Shmaryahu ben (the son of ) Yitzchok (Issac).

I cannot make out the date.

Hope this helps.

It does help, Estysmith--thank you! If it's a male, it's probably Jacob Stone. I'll stop by soon and see if any other Stones are adjacent to this one, or nearby. Another Stone, a woman, had no name in English on her gravestone either. The date on the one above, written in Hebrew, was probably not in our calendar anyway.

Alisande, BIL is having trouble translating the text. He will bring it to his Bible group on Friday.

Hopefully, someone else will come through before then.

Alisande, I'll be glad to help you with any of the Hebrew on the gravestones. In the above gravestone, I cannot make out some of the words. The first two words on the gravestone mean, distinguished and honored.

Eld, please thank your BIL for me for his efforts. He doesn't have to bother with it further as Estysmith has translated the name, giving me the information I needed.

I'll try to get in touch with the person who posted Jacob Stone's FindAGrave memorial. The memorial reads Yakov b. Dov Arya. If that came from Jacob's gravestone, it sounds like I've got the wrong one.

Gosh! The things I learn by reading KT!