Places in Galicia
Brody
Brody is one of the few towns that still has a Jewish cemetery relatively intact with hundreds of matzeivas.
In the cemetery is a matzeiva with beautifully engraved ship detailed detailed with sails and anchors. The stone marks the grave of a woman. She was a single, independent woman who travelled frequently, which the ship symbolizes.
Part of the inscription on the stone reads:
Sculpted out of pure waters, sweet trees from the heights. She took action to sail in a mighty fleet to go to the heights of Bethel and then someone said to her, Return to your place where you were born. That’s where you shall be buried. Indeed there will be a reward to your actions. You will feast and be satiated from the fruits of your labor.
This ship image remained in my memory among the remains of the old Jewish synagogue, the cemetery, the former home of a prominent rabbi, and the lovely Austro-Hungarian architecture. I painted the ship floating in the sky as an ephemeral guiding image floating over the city.