The first pinkas of the Ḥevra Kadisha of Homestead, PA, spanning 1915-1934, contains the group’s rules and meeting minutes.

The book is a standard ledger filled back-to-front. It begins with these decorated pages, shown below, which comprise a title page, a three-page poem, and the names of the group’s members. After the illuminated pages come the groups rules and then hundreds of pages of meeting minutes. After the meeting minutes are lists of deaths by date, burials by row, and donations to the ohel.

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After this book was filled, starting in January 1935 the ḥevra kadisha continued their minutes in a new ledger book, but they did not carry over any of the traditional elements from this initial book.

A more detailed description of this pinkas, including a translation of the poem, is available online at HomesteadHebrews.com.