The Tomb Detective of Mount of Olives: "90-Year-Olds Discover Their Parents' Graves for the First Time"

It was several years ago. Mordechai Motola received a phone call from a rabbi residing in Rishon Lezion. The rabbi said he heard that Motola locates graves on the Mount of Olives and asked him to find a specific grave in a section near the Arab village 'Ras al-Amud'.

Motola, who over the past ten years had earned a reputation for being knowledgeable about the secrets of the Mount of Olives, tried using all his knowledge about that particular section but was unsuccessful. He tried a second and third time but could not find a shred of information.

"But I am not one to give up," he recounts, "so I continued to dig through archives and old leaflets, spoke to the Chevra Kadisha people, and tried in every possible way to get information. I understood that without divine inspiration, I wouldn't be able to find the grave. I was planning to call the rabbi to update him that I had no news, but I first stood for the Mincha prayer and asked Hashem to give me insight to help me. That very day, I reviewed the lists again and suddenly realized that of the 140 names listed in the gravediggers' ledger as buried in Ras al-Amud, several graves were mentioned as being made of concrete."

Motola notes that for him, as someone versed in the mysteries of the Mount of Olives, this was incredible news. "Concrete is a type of structure that is preserved and can be identified even today." Because of this discovery, 140 graves were identified at that moment, including the grave the rabbi from Rishon Lezion was searching for.

"The Jordanians Paved a Road Over the Graves"

You could call him a "volunteer on the Mount of Olives," "obsessed with the cause," or perhaps simply "someone with a fascinating role." Each of these titles aptly describes the daily occupation of Mordechai Motola, a yeshiva student living in Bnei Brak, who has spent recent years locating graves on the Mount of Olives and assisting families searching for their loved ones' burial places. "I do this in my free time, between studying at the kollel in the morning and afternoon classes," he explains, "my entire purpose is to help people."

But why would they not know the exact location of the graves? Aren't the deceased’s names listed on the tombstones?

"That's precisely the point," Motola explains, "about three months before the State of Israel was established, burials on the Mount of Olives were halted for security reasons, after a long period where burials happened under Jordanian gunfire from above. At some point, it was understood that it was life-threatening and burials simply stopped."

Three months after the burial stoppage, the area was handed over to the Jordanians, who covered the graves but not before looting the tombstones. Motola mentions that he has disturbing documentation from that period showing the Jordanians had tenders for marble, using tombstones taken from the Mount of Olives. "They dismantled the tombstones and loaded them onto trucks," he describes. "They even used them without covering the inscribed side. To this day, there are structures where fragments of Jewish tombstones can be identified."

So, graves remained on the Mount of Olives without tombstones?

"Exactly. About 35,000 graves on the Mount were destroyed and left without tombstones, but the real problem was when the Jordanians paved a road for the Pope's visit. They took all the sand and soil, including the bones, and dumped them aside."

"After the Six-Day War, when Chevra Kadisha returned to the mountain, they found countless remains needing burial. They couldn't identify from where they came, so they had to dig a massive burial pit and bury them all there."

The Mission: Revealing Graves

If the tombstones were demolished, how do you manage to locate and identify the graves?

"I mainly use ledgers known as 'Parnas Ledgers.' These belong to the Parnas family who buried both Sephardic and Ashkenazi deceased in Jerusalem for centuries. "It's astonishing," he enthuses, "there's no logical reason they'd document exactly where each tombstone was. They couldn't have predicted these stones would be buried under dirt. Hashem prepped the cure before the ailment; there's no other explanation."

Still, the ledgers didn't provide exact details about each grave, which is exactly where Motola's comprehensive work comes in. It combines detective work, artifact searching, and the study of various codes and signs.

"I have a variety of ways to gather information about the deceased buried on the mountain, such as learning about the structure, shape, and color of the grave. Hundreds of years ago, families used to mark their loved ones' graves in a unique way. Typically, people approach me to locate their relatives' graves, but sometimes it's the opposite—I find the graves and search for family members to inform them. For this, I get help from the 'My Heritage' company, which builds family trees. Often, we easily and with little effort find family members who are moved to hear about it."

Motola notes that working alongside him in all these efforts is Rabbi Moshe Ackerman from the Asra Kadisha organization. Together, they diligently solve these mysteries, with particular tenacity and without making compromises.

"Excited to Find Graves of the Righteous"

How did you get into this fascinating work?

"It started back when I was a young man. I learned in a yeshiva in Jerusalem and regularly visited the graves on the Mount of Olives to find graves of the righteous and learn about them. It excited me to think such great righteous men as the Rashash, Rabbi Raphael Yosef Chazan, Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer, and kabbalists like Rabbi Chaim de la Rosa, are buried on this mountain. As a yeshiva student, I felt honored to meet the graves of these righteous people whose writings I encountered almost daily. Later on, I published the book 'Dovav Siftei Yesharim on Har HaZeitim' listing the names of the righteous buried there and their life stories."

Motola has uncovered numerous righteous graves on the mountain but doesn't stop there. "Whenever I discover a righteous grave, I make sure to research and understand who they were. I read old manuscripts and search for information about them. Often, I come across fascinating materials that provide me a lot of knowledge about the righteous person. Recently, we successfully located Rabbi Raphael Shlomo Habadelah’s grave after many years of searching."

He not only locates graves of the righteous but also of ordinary people. "Not long ago, we identified the graves of the Orgenji family. It’s a family from Bukhara with a tradition about their grandparents passing away within three days of each other and being buried at the Mount of Olives. When I checked it in the old documents, I found corroboration, leading to the discovery of their burial place."

While the work is not always easy, Motola emphasizes an important point: "Every time people approach me to help find a family member's grave, I initially recommend just praying and asking Hashem that thanks to that grandparent or another family's merit, we'll succeed in finding the grave. In my experience, prayers help immensely, and over the years we've witnessed extraordinary miracles."

Nevertheless, are there graves you haven't yet been able to locate?

"Unfortunately, there are still thousands of graves that haven't been found, some of which may never be located, such as those in the old Yemenite section. On the other hand, many graves have been found, but I haven't yet contacted the family members to inform them. With the information center's efforts on the Mount of Olives, I strive to do this, but I don’t always succeed in finding the families."

Removing Tons of Dirt

Motola's favorite part of his work is the phone calls he makes to families after discovering a sought-after grave. "Recently, I had the chance to update the family of Knesset member Gideon Sa’ar that we found the graves of his grandparents on his mother's side – the Tsupioff family, who came from Samarkand. Sa’ar himself contacted the Mount of Olives information center and asked for help locating the graves. We found the burial site, but for a long time, couldn’t access the graves because they were covered by tons of dirt. Only recently, thanks to a special project of dirt removal and excavation progress, two graves were clearly identified and commemorated with headstones."

There are also cases where Motola himself initiates the call. He shares an emotional story: "I contacted a family in the central region and informed them I'd found a grave of a woman with a specific name. I asked if they had any connection to her, and the surprised woman replied that she was her mother-in-law. I explained the matter to her and asked her to prepare her husband for the fact that his mother’s grave had been found. Minutes later, the excited husband contacted me, telling me his mother passed when he was a year and a half old, and he’d never known her. For years he searched for her grave but was told a road had been laid over it by the Jordanians, and it could never be found."

"The gentleman revealed he has a brother over 90 years old, and he asked me to call and share the news with him as well. I did, and once again, I heard sounds of crying and excitement. The next morning, at 7:30 a.m., the two brothers arrived at the Mount of Olives. The man called me standing by the grave and said, 'I’m so moved, thanks to you, I’m meeting my mother whom I never knew.'"