A group of volunteers is working to save the historic six-acre Gladwyne Jewish Memorial Cemetery at 1130 Vaughan Lane in Gladwyne after the site was neglected for decades, writes Paul Jablow for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Har Hasetim, which translates from Hebrew to Mount of Olives, is one of the many cemeteries set up to accommodate Jews who arrived in the U.S. in the 1890s. It was founded by the Har Hasetim Association and the Independent Chevra Kadisho (ICK) of Philadelphia. The last onsite burial was in 1945.

As ICK, which assumed full ownership of the site, became unable to afford the upkeep, the cemetery deteriorated over the following decades.

The extraordinary effort to save Gladwyne Jewish Memorial Cemetery started in 2015 and is being spearheaded by Beth David Reform Congregation. The project is likely to continue for decades.

It has so far involved volunteers from all walks of life, including congregation members, local students, a Villanova University professor and his class, and the Lower Merion Conservancy, as well as a craftsman who restores the headstones.

One volunteer translates markers’ Hebrew and Yiddish into English, while another specializes in landscaping. Some of those who are working on the effort have ancestors buried there.

Read more about the Gladwyne Jewish Memorial Cemetery and its preservation in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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This video provides a more detailed look at Gladwyne Jewish Memorial Cemetery.