FICTION

GRAVEN IMAGES: Graphic Motifs of the Jewish Gravestone by Arnold Schwartzman, foreward by Chaim Potok (Harry N. Abrams: $24.95; 144 pp.). The second commandment seems to be nothing if not straightforward: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” But for more than 2,000 years, Jewish tradition has exempted tombstone decorations from that multi-part ban, with the most surprising and playful results.

Traveling 10,000 miles through 19 countries to record them, filmmaker Arnold Schwartzman has made the photographing of those decorations his hobby. This small, pleasing book contains the favored fruits of his journey, focusing on 38 European cemeteries from Bobowa in Poland to Worms in Germany.

Though all the images are symbolic, some (a cat for the Katz family) are easier to read than others. Most common are hands raised in benediction for the priestly kohanim , with a pitcher of water for the hand-washing Levites coming right behind. But some scenes, like Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, are terribly dramatic, others (an unclothed but hat-wearing pair toting the usual oversized pair of grapes) are whimsical, and still others, like a dragon, a lobster and a fairly large automobile, totally unexpected. All of them, however, have a potency and a poignancy that belies their small size.