Congregation Shearith Israel - America's first Jewish Congregation
FRIENDS OF GREENWICH VILLAGE are very proud to help the Congregation Shearith Israel and the 1654 Society embark on a much-needed preservation project at Shearith Israel's West 11th Street Cemetery, New York City’s second-oldest Jewish gravesite. Help us preserve this important piece of our nation’s Jewish heritage: donate today.
We are all extremely thankful to our early donors and funders for their support:
An Anonymous Gift in Memory of Paul David Finkelstein
Susan and Jack Rudin On Behalf Of The Rudin Family
The Landmark Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Program
The 1654 Society
Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, Inc.
Isaac Ainetchi
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita in memory of the Bueno de Mesquita ancestors
Karen and Jack Daar
Andrew Fader
Rhoda Fairman
Barbara Finkelstein
Alan Grossman in honor of Jean and Roger Grossman
Thomas Jacks in honor of National Society Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims
Lola Langner
Paul and Erin Pariser in memory of Sanford and Marilyn Pariser and Sheldon Leider
Matt Peltz
Gerald Robbins
Charles Sutphin
Margaret Wenig
Adam Woodward Sr.
Shearith Israel is North America’s oldest Jewish congregation, and has been in New York City for over 360 years, since the days of Peter Stuyvesant’s New Amsterdam. The 1654 Society is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-sectarian organization charged with the preservation of the historically significant objects, cemeteries, and synagogue space of Congregation Shearith Israel.
The West 11th Street Cemetery dates back to 1805, and is a national and city landmark rich in historical and cultural significance. This triangular graveyard reminds the world that Jews have been living in New York City for hundreds of years. And the stories of those buried within, of revolutionary war veteran Ephraim Hart, noted painter Joshua A. Canter, and others, shed light on the birth of our nation, the history of our city, and the cultural and civic development of the American people. This graveyard is located at 76 West 11th St, just east of Sixth Avenue, in the heart of Greenwich Village. Learn more about the history of our second cemetery here.
On February 27, 2015, the West 11th Street Cemetery turned 210 years old, and it is in dire need of preservation and repair. Its walls are unsound, its grave markers are leaning and nearly illegible, and passersby can learn very little about the cemetery when they stop to linger at its gate. This living piece of history is vanishing before our eyes, and if our renewal efforts are not completed, this cemetery will literally disappear before our great-grandchildren can visit it.
Our dedicated West 11th Street Project Committee, consisting of Shearith Israel professionals, congregants and concerned and historically oriented neighbors of the cemetery, has been working since early 2013 to get these renewal efforts off the ground. This tireless group has applied for and received grants, raised early funds, commissioned a structural engineering survey, commissioned a property survey, met with various architects, and hired Rachel Frankel Architecture, a wonderful architect-conservator team with decades of experience in the preservation of Jewish burial grounds. Our architectural conservators estimate that repairing, stabilizing, and beautifying the cemetery will cost at least $250,000.
A project of this nature takes patience, perseverence, expertise, and financial resources. In the Fall of 2020, our project was approved by the Community Board and the Landmarks Preservation Commission and was issued a Certificate of Apppriateness; all vital steps toward restoring this precious cemetery.
But our ultimate aspiration is to do more than just preserve this cemetery. Today, New York's second-oldest Jewish burial ground is not open to the public and lacks educational signage or visitor guidance. Thus, our committee aims to raise enough to do three things:
1. Complete the urgent repairs
2. Fund a maintenance endowment
3. Open the cemetery to the public, and guide visitors through educational signage, audio tours, and docent-led tours
To date, our committee has raised nearly half the funds needed to repair and stabilize the cemtery. We are counting on you to help us cross the finish line: Donate below to save the West 11th Street Cemetry and share this treasure with the public.
To learn more or discuss a major gift and naming opportunities, please contact Executive Director Barbara Reiss.
The West Eleventh Street cemetery, the second historic cemetery of Congregation Shearith Israel, was consecrated on February 27, 1805. Although several locations were initially considered for the Congregation’s second cemetery, the land ultimately selected was in an out-of-town field located on Milligan Street. The cemetery still stands today, on West 11th Street in the heart of Greenwich Village, and is in dire need of repair and restoration. Learn more about our ongoing West 11th Street Cemetery Renewal Project here.
Initially, this graveyard was the burial site for victims of communicable diseases like yellow fever and malaria, for recently immigrated Jews who did not have strong ties to Shearith Israel, and for those who died at their own hand through suicide. Until 1825, Shearith Israel was New York’s only synagogue and therefore provided for the burial needs of all of the city’s Jewish residents. After 1823, when city public health ordinances banned burial in the congregation's first cemetery at Chatham Square, the West 11th Street Cemetery became the congregation’s only burial ground and was used much more generally. Among those buried here are the Revolutionary war veteran, Ephraim Hart, and the noted painter, Joshua A. Canter.
If you visit this cemetery today, just east of Sixth Avenue on W.11th Street, you will find a tiny triangular piece of land with an obelisk, two table-top graves, and several well-worn, often illegible gravemarkers set along the walls. By 1829, New York was growing and the development of the “grid” street system resulted in the city taking of a large part of the cemetery for the creation of W. 11th Street. This required the disinterment and re-interment of many of those buried in the West 11th Street Cemetery. In addition, because 11th Street was graded significantly higher than the cemetery, the new road also required the filling in of many cubic feet of earth in order to keep the cemetery level with the street. Thus the graves in the eleventh street cemetery are unusually deep. Yet again the city’s expansion resulted in the search for a new cemetery, and the congregation opened a third cemetery at 21st Street.
Left image credit: Mary French, from the New York Cemetery Project
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