Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience
PO Box 16528, Jackson, MS 39236-0528
(601) 362-6357
Email: information@msje.org
Initially designed to represent Jews and Jewish culture in Mississippi,
Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee, the museum plans to reflect the
entire South.
BRISTOL:
Bristol is on the VA border and serves both VA and TN.) See
Bristol, VA for more information. The cemetery is in Virginia
with the synagogue in Bristol, Tennessee. Source: Arline Sachs sachs@nova.org
Jewish population in 1919 was 125. Source: "Directory of
Jewish Local Organizations in the United States" pp. 330-583.
American Jewish Year Book 5680 September 25, 1919 to Sept. 12,
1920 ; Volume 21 Edited by Harry Schneiderman for the
American Jewish Committee. Contributed by Alan Hirschfeld.
http://www.uahcweb.org/congs/tn/tn006
is B'nai Sholom Congregation, 2510 Highway 126, Bristol, Tennessee 37620,
(423) 323-7596 between the Smokies and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
BROWNSVILLE:
Jewish population in 1919 was 28. Cemetery listed in 1919. Source:
"Directory of Jewish Local Organizations in the United States" pp. 330-583.
American Jewish Year Book 5680 September 25,1919 to Sept. 12, 1920; Volume 21
Edited by Harry Schneiderman for the American Jewish Comm. Contributed by Alan
Hirschfeld. See: Jewish Community and Cemetery Study of Brownsville, by
Stephen Udelsohn. Memphis, TN: April 1975. Histories file in
AJA. American Jewish Archives, 3101 Clifton nas
Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45220-2488. Phone: 513-221-1875. FAX: 513-221-7812
E-mail: AJA@cn.huc.edu .
Adas Israel Cemetery: [January 2006]
CHATTANOOGA:
B'nai Zion Cemetery: at Hedgewood Drive; founded
1890. Cemetery information available from Mizpah Congregation,
Julius & Bertha Ochs Memorial Temple, 925 McCallie Ave.,
Chattanooga, TN 37403. Reform.
http://www.uahcweb.org/congs/tn/tn009
[December 2000]
http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnhamilt/jewishc.htm"
has burial list. [January 2001]
National Cemetery: List of Jewish soldiers killed
during the Civil War and buried in Chattanooga, TN; Richmond, VA;
Elmira, NY; Andersonville, Georgia; and Louisiana compiled by
Melvin Young, Chattanooga, Tennessee, July 1987. See: Hebrew
Benevolent Association's Land transfer deed for a new cemetery on
June 27, 1867. Documents file; miscellaneous file. Source: AJA . American Jewish Archives,
3101 Clifton Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45220-2488. 513-221-1875
(tel); 513-221-7812 (fax). E-mail: AJA@cn.huc.edu .
B’nai Israel Cemetery: Est.1896, Hollywood Drive [January 2006]
JELLICO: see Middlesboro, Kentucky
KNOXVILLE:
http://www.jewishknoxville.org
is the website of Jewish Knoxville [December 2000]
http://www.discoveret.org/kjf/
Knoxville Jewish Community [June 2003]
1919 Jewish population was 350 according to "Directory of Jewish Local
Organizations in the United States" pp. 330-583. American Jewish Year Book 5680
September 25,1919 to Sept. 12, 1920; Volume 21 Edited by Harry Schneiderman
for the American Jewish Comm. Contributed by Alan Hirschfeld. See also: from
Postal & Koppman Jewish Tourist's Guide to U.S. Phila., PA: Jewish
Publ. Soc., 1954)
http://uahc.org/congs/tn/tn003/
: Temple Beth El, P.O. Box 10325, 3037 Kingston Pike, Knoxville,TN 37939-0325,
(865) 584-3521 " Temple Beth El, founded in 1864,
is the oldest Jewish congregation in East Tennessee. [December
2000]
Heska Amuna Synagogue, 3811 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN
37919, (865) 522-0701.
Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery/Temple Beth El: {10697} founded
1862 and first used in 1864. This very well maintained Jewish cemetery is on
Linden Avenue at Winona. Almost every grave has a Star of David. Many markers
have dates for both the Gregorian/Universal calendar and the Jewish calendar.
Many markers have long Hebrew inscriptions. This cemetery was recorded March 21,
1990. Four markers, solely in Hebrew, are not included in the list. Source:
David Donahue; e-mail:
ddonahue@utkux.utcc.utk.edu
New Jewish Cemetery: also known as Heska Amuna Cemetery:
{10702} 2700 Block of Kieth Avenue & Glen Street, NW. Both Temple Beth El
congregation and the Heska Amuna congregation of Knoxville use this very well
maintained Jewish cemetery on Glenn Street at Keith Avenue. They maintain
separate sections of the cemetery. The cemetery was established in 1890.
Almost all graves have a Star of David. Many markers have dates for both the
Gregorian/Universal calendar and the Jewish calendar. Jewish calendar dates are
omitted on the index unless they are the only ones available. Many markers have
long Hebrew inscriptions. This cemetery was recorded in the 1930s as part of
the Historical Records Project under the name "Heska Amuna Cemetery." This
earlier record appears in "Tombstone Records of Knox County," an unpublished
manuscript available in the McClung Collection of the Knox County Public Library.
The 1990 record was checked against the earlier record and references made where
appropriate. Interestingly, names in English and Hebrew numeral dates have been
added to several older markers. Only one marker reported in 1938 was not found
in 1990; and one infant marker may be missing. There are no obvious unmarked
graves. The gate to the cemetery has a plaque with English and Hebrew
inscriptions reading: "In memory of Oscar A. Glazer Sept. 10, 1939." At the
entrance to the cemetery is a war memorial. "Dedicated to the Memory of these
valiant sons of Israel who, in the cause of justice and peace, made the supreme
sacrifice in World War II. Erected by Knoxville Memorial Post No. 340 Jewish War
Veterans of the U.S.A. and the Knoxville Jewish Community. May 30, 1948 Iyar
21, 5708" (These names are included in the cemetery listing.
[Source?] http://www.jewishknoxville.org/KJAheska.htm
. " Although Knoxville Jewry dates back to Civil War times, Heska Amuna
Congregation itself was founded in 1880 ... The original congregation was
located in East Knoxville where most of the Jewish community lived at that time.
... Each member of the congregation is entitled to a plot in the cemetery,
maintained on Keith Street in West Knoxville. ...A volunteer group of members
who perform the purification rituals for the departed according to Jewish law
and tradition." [December 2000]
Temple Israel Cemetery: 1708 Hernando Road; 942-0494.
Reform. http://uahc.org/congs/tn/tn002/index.html
"Temple Israel was founded in 1853 by a group of 36 Jewish Memphians, who named
the city's first Reform Jewish congregation, B'nai Israel, Children of Israel.
The congregation survived the difficulties of the Civil War and the devastation
of the yellow fever epidemic. As the congregation grew, it moved into another
home before building a new Temple in the heart of the city at Poplar and
Montgomery. The new site served Temple Israel's members for 61 years until the
congregation, which had grown into the largest Reform Jewish congregation in the
Mid-South, purchased a 35-acre site in East Memphis." Source:
http://uahc.org/congs/tn/tn002/History/History.html
[December 2000]
NASHVILLE: Davidson County
Archives of the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee
Annette Levy Ratkin, Archivist
Jewish Federation of Nashville
801 Percy Warner Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37205
Email: library@jewishnashville.org
Phone: 615-356-3242, Ext. 255
Direct line: 615-354-1655
Fax: 615-352-0056
SYNAGOGUES:
Nashville JCC:
http://www.nashvillejcc.org [December 2000] It has a
page of links
to the synagogues of Nashville. [July 2002]
BOOK: Frank, Fedora Small. Beginnings on Market Street: Nashville and
Her Jewry, 1861-1901 . Nashville: Jewish Federation of Nashville and
Middle Tennessee, 1976.
CEMETERIES:
Gay Street Synagogue New Cemetery:
Old Cemetery: Clay & Cass Sts., founded 1876 or
1912.
The Temple Jewish Cemetery:
2001 15th Avenue North Nashville, TN 37208 615-255-9077
http://www.templenashville.org/
is the website of The Temple, Congregation Ohabai Sholom (Vine Street Temple)
at 5015 Harding Road Nashville, Tennessee, 37205, (615) 352-7620. The oldest
Reform congregation in Nashville, the congregation dates from 1851. [December 2000]
UPDATE: The Temple Cemetery is the oldest existing site in the Nashville Jewish
community, dating back to 1851. The first recorded evidence of any organized
Jewish group in Nashville is found on the deed to cemetery property sold for $377
on July 15, 1851, to the Hebrew Benevolent Burial Association. This group became
the nucleus for the first Nashville Jewish congregation, called Congregation
Mogen David, which evolved into The Temple, Congregation Ohabai Sholom. This
three-acre cemetery plot on Buena Vista Pike on the outskirts of Nashville
remains as the western portion of the present nine-acre Jewish cemetery, and
contains the earliest burials, dating back to the 1850s.
In 1860, Mogen David purchased adjoining cemetery property. A new
congregation, Ohava Emes, bought cemetery property in 1864 from Mogen David and
then sold it to another congregation, B’nai Yeshurun, which dissolved when Ohava
Emes and Mogen David merged and became Ohavai Sholom in 1868. As was typical in
early burial grounds, there were no private lots, and small wooden stakes on the
graves identified the deceased by number. Around 1870 a new section of the
cemetery was opened, adjoining the old part, with individual family lots. Julius
and Max Sax secured convict labor to build the road.
The Hungarian Benevolent Society, forerunner of Congregation Sherith Israel,
bought land in 1876, and when this land was sold to the Congregation Adath
Israel, the forerunner of West End Synagogue, a privately owned piece of land
was excluded. This piece of land was used as a burial ground for the Loveman-
Mills and Rich-Martin families for almost a hundred years. Finally in 1971,
through an agreement with the family, this plot became part of The Temple
Cemetery.
In 1876, Ohavai Sholom completed the Vine Street Temple on Seventh Avenue in
Nashville. The Ladies’ Working Society of the Vine Street Temple was organized in
1880 to purchase “realty suitable for burial grounds for all classes of the
Jewish Denomination” and to manage the cemetery. In 1881, they paid eleven
hundred dollars to grade and gravel the driveway in the new section which they
had purchased. Then they paid for a chapel, which was completed in 1886, and
raised money for a water system for the grounds. The Chapel contained Byzantine
design elements similar in nature to the Vine Street Temple. An 1896 receipt
shows payment of $10.00 for a burial shroud made by the Ladies’ Sewing Circle,
which was organized in 1892.The members of the Ladies’ Working Society, which
became the Ladies’ Auxiliary in 1886, the Vine Street Temple Sisterhood in 1914,
and The Temple Sisterhood in 1916, were responsible for the maintenance of the
cemetery grounds for years. They replaced the roof on the cemetery chapel in
1900, planted flowers, plants, and shrubs, purchased markers for unmarked graves
and replaced broken markers in 1931. The contributions of the Ladies’ Working
Society, and later The Temple Sisterhood, are significant to the early growth
and development of the cemetery. The current landscape reflects their dedication.
In 1890, the cemetery was governed by the “President, Vice President,
secretary and Warden of the congregation K.K.O.S., and the President, Vice
President and Treasurer of the Ladies’ Working Society.” This system continued
until 1905, when the Cemetery Committee was established by the Vine Street Temple
Board of Directors. The Cemetery Committee remains responsible for the Cemetery
to the present time. A Perpetual Care Fund was established for the maintenance
of the cemetery. There used to be an annual cemetery tax to subvent costs of
running the Cemetery. Then in 1957 the Board of Directors of The Temple
established a Cemetery Bequest Fund. This later evolved into the Cemetery
Improvement Fund, which in 2005 was changed by The Temple Board of Directors
into the Temple Improvement Fund, from which the Cemetery Committee could
request funds for capital improvements for the Cemetery. There also is a fund
for purchasing new property in the event that the cemetery runs out of space.
In 1907, Mrs. J.G. Lusky, who was concerned about the neglect into which the
grounds had fallen, received permission from the Board of Directors to raise
funds for the improvement of the cemetery, and to replace the still legible
numbered wooden stakes with stone markers. Her inquiries and solicitations
reached all over this country and Europe. In 1917, she turned over to the
Cemetery Committee the funds she raised through these efforts.
In the oldest part of the cemetery, the graves are arranged in rows, like
early nineteenth- century cemeteries. The winding roadways and groomed shrubbery
of the present nine acres reflect the influences of the garden movement of the
mid-nineteenth century. These Victorian design elements were incorporated into
the original 1851 property with the purchase of additional ground in the 1880s.
The present character of the cemetery stems from these late nineteenth century
improvements. The wide paved roadway forms a basic figure eight. The older
gravestones, dating from the 1850s to the 1880s, are very plain. During this
time period, probably for superstitious reasons, lots were sold one at a time
on an “as needed” basis. Not until the late 1800s were “family plots” sold on a
“pre-need” basis. From the 1950s lots had to be purchased in increments of two
or above. The motifs of the earliest stones include Hebrew lettering, and such
symbols as clasped hands (for friendship or goodbye), a lamb on a child’s
gravestone, a rose on a woman’s gravestone, a weeping willow (symbolizing
sorrow), stars of David, menorahs, and the two hands of priestly descent. The
later monuments are more elaborate, using obelisks, urns, and mausoleums.
Traditionally there are no human images in Jewish cemeteries. However, the grave
of ten-year-old Felix Salzkotter includes the statue of a young boy, leaning on
a sprouting tree. There are symbols of fraternal orders, such as the Masonic
square and compass.
The cemetery entrance is on 15th Avenue North and Cass Street through a
double wrought-iron gate, each half of which has a Mogen David. The earlier gate
on 15th Avenue, flanked by an early nineteenth century stone wall, is no longer
used. The tombstones in the oldest section of the cemetery date from 1854 to
the 1880s. In the 1870s the trend became to have a large family stone,
surrounded by smaller individual stones. The obelisk, in vogue during the
Victorian era, is a common marker. Most of the stones are granite or marble,
which have weathered well, but the limestone ones have not. There are six family
mausoleums, designed in the form of small classical temples. The funerary art and
organization retains the characteristics of a cemetery transitioning from an
early urban burial ground to a Victorian-era park setting. The monuments reflect
Victorian, Classical Revival, and Art Deco stylistic elements.
Confederate soldiers Louis Nassauer, Soloman and Joseph Frankland, and Union
soldiers Adam S. Loventhal and Julius Littmann, are buried in The Temple
Cemetery. One stone is for Gen. Marcus Frankle, 1854-1897, but no mention is
made on his stone from whom he obtained his rank. In 1964 a monument was
erected containing the names of Temple members who died during World War I:
Joseph H. Rosenthal, Angelo Silverman, Irvin Small, and Daniel Wasserman; and
World War II: William S. Beck, Irving Samuel Cohn, David O. Gross, Leonard O.
Hyman, Milton Levitch, Max Mendelsohn, William P. Noa, Jr., Marvin Silver. In
1966 the Chapel was demolished and a caretaker’s house was built.
From 1989 to 1991 over 350 tombstones dated prior to 1900 were photographed
to preserve the information on their inscriptions. This project was funded by
the Jewish Federation and The Temple Cemetery Committee. These photographs,
which are housed in the Jewish Federation Archives, are used frequently by
families from all over the country researching their family histories. It is
estimated that there are three thousand burials in The Temple Cemetery during
its use over 150 years.
Adjacent to and across the street from The Temple Cemetery are the
cemeteries of the Sherith Israel and West End Synagogues. In the early 1870s,
the Hungarian Benevolent Society, the forerunner of Sherith Israel Synagogue,
purchased land for their cemetery. In 1876 part of this property was sold to
Adath Israel (now West End Synagogue). In 1909 Adath Israel purchased a small
piece of property from Ohavai Sholom. This property abuts the present Temple
Cemetery, and is cared for by The Temple through an agreement between the
congregations, made in 1903. In 1912 more property was purchased by Adath Israel.
In 2004, The Temple Cemetery was listed in the National Register for
Historic Places. An historic marker was dedicated inside the fence in 2005. In
2007, a renovation program, partially funded by the Tennessee Historical
Commission, was completed. On May 17, 2007, The Temple Cemetery Committee
received the Commissioners’ Award from the Metro Historical Commission in
recognition of these preservation activities. A rededication was held on June
10, 2007. These honors reflect the respect the secular community feels for the
historic importance of The Temple Cemetery, whose list of burials reads like a
roll call of the history of the Jewish community of Nashville: officers and
leaders of every organization, businessmen, and great-great-great-grandparents
of several local Nashville Jewish families. The Temple Cemetery will continue to
provide repose for, and document the history of, the Jews of Nashville for
generations to come. Source: Annette Levy Ratkin. library@jewishnashville.org
[September 2007]
Temple Israel Cemetery: See Cemeteries of the
US , Deborah M. Burek, ed. Gale Research Int., Detroit MI
(1994) ISBN 0-8103-9245-3. Source: Al Rosenfield, arosen@ee.net
All individuals involved in the creation of this project are volunteers.
The right to make one copy for personal use with full citation is hereby granted;
however, no profit is to be made from the use of this website's information.
No reply will be made to inquiries about specific burials. All information that we possess is on the website. We have no other information so please do not write requesting any on either burial sites or individual burials.