The stories of those buried in Jewish section of Auckland’s oldest cemetery are coming to life thanks to the work of an anthropology student.

For the past two months, Richard Myburgh has been meticulously translating and documenting Hebrew enscriptions on more than 80 headstones in the Symonds Street Cemetery.

Old records containing the translations were destroyed in the 1940s but Auckland University student Mr Byburgh was working to rectify that.

“A lot of them are either damaged or very weathered over 150 years so I like being here when I’m reading and writing them because there’s something about the space that really lends itself to the weight and gravity of it,” he said.

Consecrated in 1842, the cemetery sprawls either side of the Symonds Street thoroughfare and has 1200 graves, 80 of which have inscriptions in both English and Hebrew.

Richard Myburgh first started transcribing the Jewish headstones after realising other anthropology students weren’t studying them for projects because they couldn’t find translations.

The 21-year-old, who has Jewish ancestry and can read Hebrew, said he simply saw a need and filled it.

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