The origin of this cemetery was possible thanks to the collaboration of the Jewish community that existed in Mallorca, so it was inaugurated on July 9, 1975.
The curiosities that are hidden within its walls bring the visitor closer to knowing the belief of one of the oldest monotheistic religions of humanity, even more than the Christian one, with which it has in common the concept of God and the Old Testament.
To enter the Jewish cemetery of Santa Eugènia it is mandatory, as a sign of respect and humility before God, to put on the traditional “kippah”, a small cap used in rituals that serves to cover the head and is traditionally worn by Jewish men and that they should put it on before entering holy places like this.
In the cemetery we will see the small chapel where the religious acts are carried out in memory of the deceased, once the act is finished, the coffin free of ornamentation is transported. As a difference between other funeral rites, we will say that the Jewish ritual has a maxim “dust we are and dust we will return” it is because of them that in the coffin they leave a contact gap between the deceased and the earth. Nor will we see decorative elements such as flower arrangements, for the Jewish community their “flowers” are to place stones on top of the tombstones and they are placed on them because in ancient times rocks were placed directly on top of the shrouded body.
Another difference that we will observe with the rest of Christian cemeteries is that there are no niches or mausoleums, the graves are individual and the tombstones are at ground level with the man of the deceased.
In the Jewish cemetery of Santa Eugènia there is the tomb of a married couple of the Bahá’í religion that is completely separated from the rest. Despite the fact that this belief is not related to the Jewish one, there is sympathy between both religions, the Bahá’í community having one of its temples in Haifa (Israel), and the symbol is a nine-pointed star like the one that appears in these graves from the Mallorca cemetery.
The visit to this cemetery supposes an approach to other cultures different from ours.