[PHOTO] Shearith Israel Cemetery, New York City

[rfmcdonald]

satyadasa did me the kindness of showing me around the Lower East Side and beyond during my recent trip in New York City. One of the many places he showed me was the First Shearith Israel Cemetery near West 21st Street at Sixth Avenue on 55-57 St. James Place. This cemetery is the oldest Jewish cemetery extant in New York City and, likely, North America.

Shearith Israel--the cemetery and its congregation--is associated with the Sephardi Jews, descendants of the Jews of Spain and Portugal deported from their homelands in 1492. Characterized by, among other things, use of the Ladino language--briefly, a Romance language derived from Old Spanish spoken by the descendants of the Iberian Jews--the Sephardim were the first Jewish group to be established in New York City, beating the Ashkenazim of central and eastern Europe by at least a century. The first Sephardim came to New York City in 1654, back when the tolerant Dutch granted Jews expelled from Dutch Brazil the right to live in the outpost of empire that was New Amsterdam. This cemetery, the second operated by the congregation, was founded in 1682.

The cemetery was a pleasantly green expanse when we saw it, a compact park-like territory hosting a hundred tombs and above-ground monuments, surrounded by buildings and full of life.