Every day on her way to her new assignment in Zvolen, Slovakia-a short distance from her own Austrian birthplace-she passed a Jewish cemetery in deplorable condition: a mass grave covered in weeds and trash, gravestones overturned. Alice's grandparents had perished during the Holocaust and she vowed to bring dignity to the cemetery. Perhaps her grandparents' burial place was in a similar chaotic state.
When Alice Gingold turned 71, she retired and joined the Peace Corps and went to Slovakia
Sustaining Judaism in Slovakia
When Alice Gingold, a member of Congregation Beth Israel in Northfield, New Jersey, turned 71, she retired and joined the Peace Corps. Every day on her way to her new assignment in Zvolen, Slovakia-a short distance from her own Austrian birthplace-she passed a Jewish cemetery in deplorable condition: a mass grave covered in weeds and trash, gravestones overturned. Alice's grandparents had perished during the Holocaust and she vowed to bring dignity to the cemetery. Perhaps her grandparents' burial place was in a similar chaotic state.
First, a local young Jewish couple and a handful of Jewish students from the Czech Republic volunteered to help Alice clear out the debris and restore the cemetery. Later, the municipality of Zvolen joined in, resetting fallen gravestones in cement, and returning others that had been inexplicably strewn around the city.
The recitation of Kaddish at the cemetery's opening ceremony in 1994 rekindled in a small group of estranged Jews the desire for Jewish connection and community that had been lost after the Holocaust and Communist occupation. They formed a synagogue called the Jewish Religious Community and began meeting in a converted warehouse.
Alice suffered a slight stroke and returned to Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. Now an ocean apart from Zvolen, she still made sure the fledgling congregation had seder plates, recipes for holiday foods, and more. Her rabbi, David Weis, sent transliterations of holiday and Shabbat prayers. A woman attending one of the holiday celebrations in Zvolen gave the young congregation a Torah that had been concealed underground near her village. The scroll was kept in a glass case until the congregants learned they were permitted to touch the Torah!
Now, 14 years later, the nearly 100-member Jewish Religious Community is self-sustaining. A national monument stands at the site of the mass grave. And this September, Alice will be attending the dedication of the Park of Generous Souls (adjacent to the Jewish cemetery) in honor of those who risked their lives to speak up for Jews at a time when Jews couldn't speak for themselves.
