Shaaray Tefila Cemetery, 105th Street

This detail from an 1856 plan for Central Park depicts Shaaray Tefila’s cemetery (denoted as “Jews’ Cemetery”) at 105th Street west of Fifth Ave

In 1845, a group of about 50 English and Dutch members of B’nai Jeshurun seceded from the synagogue to form Congregation Shaaray Tefila (Gates of Prayer). Shaaray Tefila built their first synagogue in 1846 on Wooster Street and continues today at their present temple on 79^th Street in the Upper East Side.

The first concern of the new organization was the purchase of property for a burial ground and in January of 1846—before Shaaray Tefila was yet legally incorporated—two founding members, Morland Micholl and John I. Hart (both former presidents of B’nai Jeshurun) acquired land for this purpose. Situated on the south side of 46^th Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, the property purchased by Micholl and Hart was quickly found not to be suitable for burials and was resold. On November 24, 1846, Louis Levy (Shaaray Tefila’s first president) purchased another parcel, on 105^th Street near Fifth Avenue, that would go on to serve as Shaaray Tefila’s cemetery for the next decade. Levy transferred ownership of the property to the congregation when they received their charter in 1848.

Diagram from an archaeological survey of Central Park, showing the location of the site of  Shaaray Tefila’s former cemetery within the modern Conservatory Garden

Shaaray Tefila’s cemetery was located on the south side of 105^th Street, west of Fifth Avenue, at the north end of today’s Central Park. The burial ground, 100 x 100 feet, was in the area now part of the Conservatory Garden. Just west of the former cemetery site is the Mount, where the Sisters of Charity established the religious community of Mount St. Vincent in 1847. Construction of Central Park forced both the Sisters of Charity and Shaaray Tefila to abandon their properties here. In 1856, Shaaray Tefila purchased a portion of the land held by its parent congregation, B’nai Jeshurun, at Beth Olam Cemetery in the Cypress Hills area of Brooklyn, and the two congregations decided to administer their burial grounds together. Remains from Shaaray Tefila’s 105^th Street Cemetery were removed to their new burial ground at Beth Olam in 1857, at “very heavy expense to the Congregation,” according to an auditor’s report from June of that year.

A notice for the dedication of Morland Micholl’s monument at Shaaray Tefila’s 105th Street cemetery in 1854

It is not known how many members of Shaaray Tefila were interred in the 105^th Street cemetery before its closure, but among their number was founding member Morland Micholl (mentioned above). A native of Chesham, England, Micholl was interred at the 105^th Street cemetery when he died of a “short and severe illness” at age 56 in 1853. He was a prominent member of the city’s Jewish community for 30 years, and his obituary in The Asmonean asserts “his integrity as a merchant, his uprightness as a citizen, his piety as a religionist, and his charity as a man.”  Friends of the late Mr. Micholl assembled at the 105^th Street cemetery on October 29, 1854, to dedicate his monument—a 10-foot-tall marble obelisk that faced the cemetery’s entrance. Micholl’s monument would stand for just a few years before the cemetery’s removal to Beth Olam, where he is now laid to rest.

2018 aerial photo of the Conservatory Garden at Central Park; arrow shows approximate location of the Shaaray Tefila cemetery site (NYCThen&Now)

Sources: Plan of Buildings at Mount St. Vincent, Fourth Division—Central Park (Bacon 1856); New York County Conveyances, Vol 467, p520-522, Vol 489 p212-214, Vol 485, p207-208, Vol 668, p256-258 “United States, New York Land Records, 1630-1975,”FamilySearch; “Morland Micholl,” The Asmonean⁩⁩, Apr 22, 1853; “Special Notice,” The Asmonean⁩⁩, Oct 27 1854; “Monument to the late Morland Micholl,” The Asmonean, Nov 3, 1854; “The Cemeteries,” The Asmonean⁩⁩, Feb 22, 1856; “Shaaray Tefilla and the Cemetery Question,” The Asmonean⁩⁩, Jul 4, 1856; “The Cemetery Question,” The Asmonean, Aug 29, 1856; “Auditor’s Report: Congregation ‘Gates of Prayer,’” The Jewish Messenger, Jun 5, 1857; A Preliminary Historical and Archaeological Assessment of Central Park to the North of the 97^th Street Transverse…(Hunter Research, Inc.1990); Shaaray Tefila: A History of its Hundred Years, 1845-1945 (Cohen 1945); National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form—Beth Olam Cemetery, Jan 2016; “Prepare for Death and Follow Me:”An Archaeological Survey of the Historic Period Cemeteries of New York City (Meade 2020)

Anshe Chesed Cemeteries

A ca.1979 photo of Anshe Chesed’s Norfolk Street Synagogue; built in 1849, it is the oldest surviving synagogue in NYC (MCNY)

Anshe Chesed (People of Kindness) was New York City’s third Jewish congregation, formed in 1828 by a group of German, Dutch, and Polish Jews that seceded from B’nai Jeshurun. First meeting in rented quarters on the Lower East Side, in 1849 they built a synagogue on Norfolk Street and by the 1850s were the largest Jewish congregation in the United States. The ability to meet burial needs was crucial for fledgling synagogues to retain their members and attract new congregants; accordingly, Anshe Chesed made acquisition of burial grounds for its congregation a priority. In 1830 they acquired a lot on Sixth Avenue, just north of 45^th Street, for their first graveyard; in 1846 they purchased land for a second graveyard on the south side of 89^th Street, near present-day Madison Avenue. 

Anshe Chesed’s 45th Street Cemetery, denoted as “Jews’s Burial Ground” on this 1859 map

In the 1850s, both of Anshe Chesed’s Manhattan cemeteries closed to new interments and the congregation acquired new burial grounds at Union Field Cemetery in Queens. By this time their Manhattan graveyards were in poor condition. In 1853, a committee of the congregation’s trustees found four coffins partially uncovered at the 45^th Street Cemetery and the fence surrounding the graveyard “in a very bad state.” In 1856, the trustees again alluded to “the poor state of our burial places in [45^th] and 89^th Street” when suggesting that “removing the corpses from those places to our new cemetery would be a good deed as the would not be disturbed there.” They let the matter drop after making inquiries to rabbinical advisors in London, who instructed them that “removal of the dead from the burial place was prohibited” by Jewish law.

An 1871 map shows the lots (delineated in red) Anshe Chesed acquired in 1849 for its second burial ground on 89th Street

In 1874, Anshe Chesed merged with another group, Adas Jeshurun, to form congregation Beth-El. Following the consolidation, Beth-El trustees decided to finally give up the old Anshe Chesed graveyards on 45^th and 89^th Streets. Beth-El notified relatives in March of 1875 “that the proper permit from the Health Department had been obtained, and that unless they removed their dead in due time, the Trustees would see to such removal.” Representatives of several families who had relatives interred in the grounds received a temporary injunction to stop the removals, but the courts eventually decided in favor of the trustees.

Remains from the 45^th Street cemetery were removed to Union Field Cemetery in May 1875, as reported by The Jewish Messenger: 

The work of the exhumation has been conducted with some decorum. Excepting the few graves that, from their location, were recognized by relatives, there was nothing to distinguish the remains that were dug out—the tombstones having been thrown down and piled up against the wall of the adjoining houses—and the bystanders were shocked to see skulls and scattered bones, the sole remains of people who had once lived and moved on earth.

In March 1880, Beth-El proceeded with removing graves still present at the 89^th Street cemetery. The New York Herald described the work of exhuming “the Hebrew dead” from the burial ground: 

The plot is only 104 by 100 feet, being a portion of the original cemetery, and is almost hidden from view by squalid shanties and squatters’ huts. Within this narrow limit, however, it is estimated that upward of two hundred interments were made; but, owing for the lapse of time (for after 1852 there were no burials) it is not probable that the names of more than one-half of the dead can be ascertained. The graves not marked with tomb stones have been carefully numbered, and where it is impossible to ascertain the names these numbers will mark the remains in their new resting places in Union Fields. 

Today, Anshe Chesed’s heritage continues at two Manhattan congregations: Emanu-El, which absorbed  Beth-El in 1928, and Ansche Chesed, formed in 1876 by a group that broke off when the original Anshe Chesed became Beth-El in 1874. Anshe Chesed’s 1849 Norfolk Street Synagogue, now the Angel Orensanz Center, is the oldest surviving synagogue in New York City.  Americas Tower is now at the site of Anshe Chesed’s 45^th Street cemetery; Saint David’s School and other residential and commercial buildings occupy the site of the congregation’s 89^th Street graveyard.

2018 aerial photos showing the Anshe Chesed cemetery sites today (NYCThen&Now)

Sources: Perris’ 1859 Maps of the City of New York,Vol 6, Pl 97;  Map of that part of the Harlem Commons east of the 5th Ave. & Central Park : copied from the original map made by Joseph F. Bridges, City Surveyor, January 1826… (Holmes 1871); New York County Conveyances, Vol 266, p471-472, Vol 475 p630-632, “United States, New York Land Records, 1630-1975,” FamilySearch; Bodies in Transit Register IX:1874-1880, Municipal Archives, City of New York; “Removal of Jewish Cemeteries,” New York Times, March 22, 1875; “Removing the Dead,” The Jewish Messenger, Mar 26, 1875; “A Congregational Controversy,” New York Times, Mar 29, 1875; “The Health Report,” New York Times, Apr 14, 1875; “The Right to a Grave,” New York Tribune, Apr 17, 1875; “Our Gossip,” The Jewish Messenger, May 28, 1875; “Reinterring Jewish Dead,” New York Times, Feb 28, 1880; “Exhuming Hebrew Dead,” New York Herald, Mar 11, 1880; “Temple Beth-El,” The Jewish Messenger, Mar 12, 1880; Rise of the Jewish Community of New York (Grinstein 1945), Appendix 8; Anshe Slonim Synagogue (originally Anshe Chesed Synagogue) Designation Report (Landmarks Preservation Commission 1987); The American Synagogue: A Historical Dictionary and Sourcebook (Olitzky & Raphael 1996); Dust to Dust: A History of Jewish Death and Burial in New York (Amanik 2019); “Prepare for Death and Follow Me:”An Archaeological Survey of the Historic Period Cemeteries of New York City (Meade 2020)

Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery, 89th Street

Removal notice for Shaar Hashomayim’s 89th Street cemetery that appeared in the New York Herald in 1875

In 1849, Congregation Shaar Hashomayim of Manhattan purchased land on 89^th Street to serve as a burial place to supplement its earlier graveyard in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The five lots acquired for $900 in 1849 were situated on the north side of 89^th Street, near present-day Madison Avenue. By 1875, when the congregation decided to transfer the remains to new plots in Cypress Hills Cemetery, approximately 100 bodies were interred in Shaar Hashomayim’s 89^th Street cemetery.

Though not identified as a cemetery, this 1871 map shows the five lots (delineated in red) Shaar Hashomayim acquired in 1849 for use as a burial ground

Shaar Hashomayim was one of several Jewish congregations that exhumed remains from their old burial grounds in the late 1800s, an act that was denounced by the Jewish public and press. The editors of The Jewish Messenger took Shaar Hashomayim to task when the congregation began removing their 89^th Street cemetery, asserting that “there is absolutely no reason for this desecration. The old cemetery could, with very little expense, have been put in such a condition as to continue an object of grateful reverence. Had the members of Shaar Hashomayim retained any of the old Jewish feeling, they would have hesitated before disturbing the remains of their parents and other relatives.” The editorial goes on to claim that the only motive for emptying the cemeteries was to sell the land at a profit, and pleads with congregations not “to follow their example of contempt for the departed.” Today, an apartment building stands at the site of Shaar Hashomayim’s 89^th Street cemetery.

A 2018 aerial view shows the site of the former Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery on 89th St (NYCThen&Now)

Sources:  Map of that part of the Harlem Commons east of the 5th Ave. & Central Park : copied from the original map made by Joseph F. Bridges, City Surveyor, January 1826… (Holmes 1871); New York County Conveyances, Vol 525, p214-216, “United States, New York Land Records, 1630-1975,” FamilySearch; “Shaar Hashomayim,” New York Herald, Nov 21, 1875; “Special Notices—Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, New York Herald, Nov 22, 1875; “Disturbing the Dead,” The Jewish Messenger, Nov 26, 1875; Dust to Dust: A History of Jewish Death and Burial in New York (Amanik 2019)

Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery, Williamsburg

The Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery on South Third Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 1868

In 1860, one of New York City’s Jewish newspapers published the following announcement: 

To the Jewish Congregations in this City – A Burial ground in Williamsburgh, L.I., belonging to one of the Congregations of this city, is to be sold for assessment arrearages. As it is the resting place of a number of departed Israelites, immediate efforts should be made to avert the threatened sale.

The burial ground in question occupied a lot on South Third Street, between Tenth and Eleventh streets (today’s Keap and Hooper streets) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was owned by Congregation Shaar Hashomayim (Gates of Heaven), a group of German Jews that broke off from Manhattan’s B’nai Jeshurun, first meeting for worship in a building on Attorney Street and later having a synagogue on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side. Five days after Shaar Hashomayim was incorporated on June 24th, 1839, the congregation purchased the 120 x 25 foot lot in Williamsburg from Abraham Remsen for $400 and subsequently used it as a cemetery. Unpaid assessment notices for the property—denoted as “Jews’ Burying Ground”—appear in Brooklyn newspapers throughout the 1860s, but this issue must have been resolved as Shaar Hashomayim retained ownership of the property.

An 1868 insurance map shows the location of the Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery between Tenth (Keap) and Eleventh (Hooper) streets

In 1874, The Jewish Messenger described the “old Hebrew burying ground” on South Third Street, which “has been used by the juveniles of the neighborhood for the past few years as a playground. They have shamefully defaced some of the gravestones, and even carried away several. It is now over 20 years since a burial has been made there, and it seems strange that no one apparently having an interest in this ground ever visits or makes any repairs.” By the 1880s, the cemetery had become “a wilderness of weeds” and “a dumping ground for refuse and filth,” according to reports in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

An excerpt from the deed for the 1839 purchase of the property by Congregation Shaar Hashomayim

The disposition of remains from the South Third Street cemetery is unclear, but it’s likely Shaar Hashomayim removed them to burial plots acquired at Cypress Hills Cemetery for remains exhumed in 1875 from another cemetery the congregation owned at 89^th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan. In 1889 Congregation Shaar Hashomayim sold their former burial ground in Williamsburg to Westcott Express Company and the property was redeveloped; today a boutique condominium building is on the site. In 1898 Shaar Hashomayim merged with another Manhattan congregation, Ahawath Chesed; the combined congregation subsequently renamed itself Central Synagogue and continues today at 55^th Street and Lexington Avenue.

A 2018 aerial view shows the site of the former Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery (NYCThen&Now)

Sources: Higginson’s 1868 Insurance Maps of the City of Brooklyn, Pl 82; Brooklyn Land Conveyance Abstracts, Section 8 Block 2424 (Center for Brooklyn History); Kings County Conveyances, Vol 148 p125-126, Vol 298 p262-264, “United States, New York Land Records, 1630-1975,” FamilySearch; “To the Jewish Congregations in this City,” The Jewish Messenger, Jun 1, 1860; “Corporation Notices—Tenth Street Opening,” Brooklyn Times Union, Jun 6, 1860; “Corporation Notices—Assessment Notice,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan 5, 1864; “Local Items,” The Jewish Messenger, Jul 31, 1874; “Disturbing the Dead,” The Jewish Messenger, Nov 26, 1875; “Skeletons in the Eastern District,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jul 20, 1883; “The Aldermen,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb 28, 1887; “Cong. Shaar Hashomajim,” The Jewish Messenger, Sep 20, 1889; The American Synagogue: A Historical Dictionary and Sourcebook (Olitzky & Raphael 1996), Central Synagogue—Our History