The Old Jewish Cemetery (also known as the Chestnut Street Cemetery and Bene Israel Burying Ground) in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, is the oldest

Jewish cemetery A Jewish cemetery ( ''beit almin'' or ''beit kvarot'') is a cemetery where Jews are buried in keeping with Halakha, Jewish tradition. Cemeteries are referred to in several different ways in Hebrew, including ''beit kevarot'' (house of s ...

west of the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range ( ) — also spelled Alleghany or Allegany, less formally the Alleghenies — is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada. Historically it represented a significant barr ...

. Opened in 1821, it is located just northwest of

Downtown Cincinnati Downtown Cincinnati is one of the 52 List of Cincinnati neighborhoods, neighborhoods of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the central business district of the city, as well as the economic and symbiotic center of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. Original ...

in the Betts-Longworth Historic District. It is situated just west of Central Avenue on the north side of Chestnut Street, in the historic West End. The cemetery is sited on a tiny plot enclosed by high walls and a locked gate. In 1821, when Benjamin Lieb was dying, he begged to be buried as a Jew. Morris Moses and

Joseph Jonas Joseph Jonas (1845 – 22 August 1921) was the German-born Lord Mayor of Sheffield, England in 1904–05. Background Jonas was born in Bingen am Rhein, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1845, and became a naturalized British citizen in 1876. (tra ...

, two of Cincinnati's six

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, purchased the lot for Cincinnati's first

from

Nicholas Longworth Nicholas Longworth III (November 5, 1869 – April 9, 1931) was an American lawyer and politician who became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A Republican, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, where he initiated the success ...

for $75.00, and then buried Lieb there. The cemetery has 85 graves and has been closed since 1849 after the

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

epidemic filled the cemetery.International Jewish Cemetery Project
Retrieved July 17, 2012. This cemetery is now part of Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati (JCGC), a non-profit organization that resulted in the merger of almost all of the 26 Jewish cemeteries in the area. JCGC is governed by a board which began as representatives of the former cemetery owners, but is morphing into a pure community-based board, on the recognition by its founders that the care of the graves of ancestors should be a function of the entire Jewish community. This merger solved the problem of caring for cemeteries created by synagogues and other organizations that no longer exist. __NOTOC__

Notes

References

* Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Ohio (1992 943. ''Cincinnati, a Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors'', Cincinnati: The Weisen-Hart Press, p. 226

External links

Cemetery Gate

Marker

Old Jewish Cemetery
* * {{coord, 39, 06, 26, N, 84, 31, 17, W, display=title,inline, source:GNIS Jews and Judaism in Cincinnati Jewish Cemetery, Cincinnati, Old Jewish cemeteries in Ohio West End, Cincinnati Cemeteries established in the 1820s 1821 establishments in Ohio

See also

Notes

References

External links