Varanasi, also commonly known as Benares or Banaras, is a city on the banks of the River Ganges in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, 199 mi SE of the state capital, Lucknow. Regarded as a holy city by Buddhists and Jains, Varanasi is the holiest place in the world in Hinduism (and center of the Earth in Hindu cosmology).
Chabad of Varasi.[May 2011]
In Varanasi, I spoke to the local church minister, who told me that Jews were buried in Tulsipur, about 1 km from Ghazipur. There isn't much there anymore. The cemetery is surrounded by a crumbling wall near a Christian school and is about 1 acre in size. As I am led to believe that 19 members of my family are buried there, and I knew it was unlikely that they would have been buried along side Christian graves, I looked outside the walls, where I did discover one unmarked gravestone where the stone is flat on the ground, which is definitely a Jewish custom. It was very sad as the whole place has been abandoned. Sorry there isn't much to say about it, however, the finding of the unmarked gravestone was emotional. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. NOTE Tulsipur is a town at 27.55°N 82.42°E in Balrampur district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradeshon the Gorakhpur-Gonda Loop of Indian Railway with bus connection to Koilabas on the Nepal border.