On the north side of Liberty Street between Lime and Shippen Streets is the Shaarai Shomayim Cemetery, the historical link between Lancaster's earliest Jews and the present. 1997 marked the 250th anniversary of the establishment of this cemetery, the fourth oldest Jewish cemetery in North America.
In 1747 this cemetery was deeded to neighbors Isaac Nuñes Henriques, a meat inspector and ritual slaughterer, and Joseph Simon, a merchant and Indian trader, to serve as the burial ground for "the Society of Jews settled in and about Lancaster." They bought this original half acre of land from Thomas Cookson, the Chief Burgess of Lancaster City, for six pounds, or about fifteen dollars. It is the visible and continuous link between those first few Jewish settlers in colonial Lancaster and the Jewish community today.
Five headstones remain from the burials that occurred between 1747 and 1804. Those buried in the cemetery in this period include Joseph Simon, the unquestioned leader of Lancaster's small colonial Jewish community; and his wife Rosa; an infant son of the Simons; Joseph Solomon, an uncle of Rosa's; and Rachel Etting, the Simon's daughter. Presumably, there were other burials in the cemetery at this time, but neither written records nor remaining headstones provide proof.
After Simon's death in 1804, there was a lull in Jewish settlement in Lancaster. There were no known burials in the cemetery between 1804 and 1849 when Julia Rosenstein Stern was buried there. Since there were no Jews in Lancaster to care for the cemetery, it was neglected and became overgrown. The cemetery's condition deteriorated markedly by the time Rebecca Gratz, Joseph Simon's granddaughter, visited Lancaster in November 1837. She later wrote that when she went to pay her respects to her grandfather's grave, she found "the fence was broken, cows were grazing among the high grass and weeds that covered it...and I came away sorrowful."
In 1856, when Congregation Shaarai Shomayim was chartered, the German immigrants who began the congregation took over the maintenance of this old, deteriorated Jewish cemetery. They cut down weeds, righted headstones, and erected a new fence. By the beginning of the 1900s, as more Jews settled in Lancaster and additional Jewish congregations were being organized, Shaarai Shomayim moved to establish formally its ownership of the cemetery.
In 1902, a group of congregation members led by Solomon R. Moss initiated a lawsuit in order to secure Shaarai Shomayim's claim to the cemetery. They argued that given the wording of the cemetery's charter, Shaarai Shomayim had no right to assume ownership and to charge for burial plots.
Congregation member Lionel Geisenberger and the Rabbi, Isidore Rosenthal (who moonlighted as a lawyer and was in practice with Geisenberger), took Shaarai Shomayim's case to the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County. In May 1902, the Court ruled in favor of the Congregation since there was no other "Society of Jews" in existence at the time Shaarai Shomayim was incorporated. To be certain that there were no loopholes in the Court's decision, Moss appealed. In 1903, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania upheld the judgment of the lower court and Shaarai Shomayim was granted exclusive right to control Lancaster's first Jewish cemetery. In 1910, the Congregation purchased additional land, nearly doubling the size of the cemetery. In 1917, the current entrance on Liberty Street was built. An ornate wrought-iron gate marked the entrance to "Cemetery Shaarai Shomayim."
Today the cemetery is neat and well-tended; flowers grow on some graves, and the Simon family plot is enclosed with a bar fence. Additional land has been purchased over the years, making the cemetery considerably larger than it was in Joseph Simon's day. To walk among its more than 500 graves is to feel the legacy of Lancaster's colonial Jews, the strength of the Shaarai Shomayim community, and the heritage we all share. To walk among its graves is to feel the power and the history of 250 years of Jewish life in Lancaster.
An Excel database of the graves has been maintained. Anyone interested in viewing this archive, please contact the Temple office.
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