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First Shearith Israel Graveyard ยท 55-57 St James Place
First Shearith Israel Graveyard
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First Hebrew Burying Ground (i.e. First Shearith Israel Cemetery), St. James Place near Chatham Square, New York City, May 24, 1914.

1914

First Shearith Israel Graveyard

First Hebrew Burying Ground (i.e. First Shearith Israel Cemetery), St. James Place near Chatham Square, New York City, May 24, 1914.

IMAGE DATE1914
FromNew-York Historical Society logoNew-York Historical Society

Shearith Israel Graveyard ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1683 STYLE: Graveyard

This small graveyard is what remains today of the early burial ground of the Sephardic Jewish congregation, Shearith Israel. It was established on this site in the Seventeenth Century and thus represents one of the oldest cemeteries within the City. Handsome headstones are here interspersed by marble sarcophagus with simple flat-slab tops. One little monument is surmounted by a small pyramidal stone cap. The unique quality of this small plot lies not only in the simplicity of its early tombs but in its forgotten aspect, surrounded by houses, a reminder of our earliest history.

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