A Grave Situation: Honoring the Wishes of the Dead

More than a century ago, immigrants who came to America from the town of Kolomea, in Galicia, formed a brotherhood and pooled their resources -- as immigrants from so many other towns in Europe had done -- to buy burial plots for their townspeople. These groups kept memories of their towns alive and put their members to rest among their own for eternity. In fact, whole sections were purchased in various New York cemeteries and reserved for landsleit.