Long Island, NY – The manicured sprawl of a chic Long Island country club holds a morbid mystery.
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Hundreds of partially engraved Jewish tombstones shore up portions of the Woodmere Club golf course against the waters of Reynolds Channel, the Post has learned.
In one area, the tide laps at a pillar with an engraved Star of David. Elsewhere, the names Morris Gutterman, Ira Feinberg and Hyman Friedman are etched into individual stones close to the clubhouse.
Some of the stacked markers bear only monograms or surnames like Troob and Levy, but none bear visible birth and death dates.
Jeffrey Markinson of Silver Monument Works — a Jewish gravestone maker on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — believes they could be discarded pieces from a manufacturer.
“I would like to think that this was extra granite,” he said.
While golfers at the predominantly Jewish club rarely see the macabre piles, maintenance staffers are well aware of them.
“I’ve been told that they’ve been here for 50 or 100 years,” said one groundskeeper. “No one knows where they came from, but I think we inherited them.”
The worker said that course staffers avoid mentioning the mysterious markers to club members to avoid any potential controversy.
Woodmere Club general manager Donald Mollitor said that he was not aware of the stones but would look into it.
Ahron Weiner, 38, of Hewlett, stumbled upon the stones last week while walking along some of the course’s wildlife-rich fringes. The Orthodox Jewish photographer said he was stunned by the find.
“I’m not saying that this can’t be the result of an innocuous business transaction,” he said.
“But these stones, carved with Jewish names and used as embankment material on a private golf course are reminiscent of towns that I saw in Europe where Jewish gravestones were used by the Nazis as building material.”
One club member described the markers simply as “truly bizarre.”
“There’s no doubt about that. To have those names sort of floating out there is troubling.”
Its one of the best courses on Long Island, with dues that are affordable and the greens and fairways very well maintained. They should be able to remove these stones (wherever they came from is unclear) without having to close the course or changing the configuration of the 3 or 4 greens along the water where most of these markers have turned up. The stones should be disposed of with respect even though we don’t know if they were ever used.
it seems that its from a real cemetery.
Sombody needs to make an inquiry about it urgently.
Heimishe jews playing there, all halachic questions needs to be solved.
It could well be a part of the golf was made from a small jewish cemetery.
someone should contact the attorney general
Scrap from a manufacturer w/ names? Sounds highly unlikely to me.
Don’t contact the AG, contact the Hall of Records Bureau of vital statistics, They will tell you exactly where these people were buried and the date. If they have relatives it will show up on the death certificate. –or who buried. them
Someone should be able to do a search on deceased individuals and/or check some old local maps to determine if there was ever a cemetery in that location.
The odds of the area being an ancient cemetary are nill. Much of the area where the golf course is was once part of Reynolds Channel. In fact most of the area south of Broadway was under water until the mid 1800’s. A historical mystery? Perhaps. A scandal? No of course (pun intended) not!
Dov Hikind, where are you on this matter? What about the ‘conccert ban rabbis’?
The question can be answered very quickly with a shovel. Dig down. If you hit a coffin; stop. If nothing turns up and they really are scraps then maybe break them up or turn them name side down. I’m oversimplifying, of course. If my relatives were under a golf course, I’d rather know, IMHO.
THERE IS NO CEMETERY. Hasn’t anyone wondered what happens with factory mistakes? You use them as you would any other stone. Why are people being so ignorant about this?