A Message from JCAM’s President
JCAM has become an important Jewish cultural and historical resource. JCAM cares for nearly 50 percent of the Jewish cemeteries in Massachusetts. We are also the caretakers of the history of the Jewish Community, not only in the Boston area but throughout Massachusetts.
JCAM’s Articles of Organization described its purposes broadly. In addition to the familiar “management, . . . maintenance and security for existing and abandoned Jewish cemeteries,” JCAM’s founding purposes also included:
- “preservation of all archives and records pertaining to Jewish cemetery associations”,
- serving “as a clearinghouse for the exchange of information between its members and between its members and the public,” and
- serving “as an education organ to heighten public awareness of the social, cultural, historic and artistic elements of Jewish cemeteries in Massachusetts”.
When JCAM started in 1984, it cared for 17 cemeteries, 5 of which were abandoned, and had an “endowment” (that is, assets transferred from the original cemeteries) of just $150,000. As I write this, we care for 101 of 209 Jewish cemeteries in Massachusetts, including the oldest (the Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery in East Boston) and newest (the Beit Olam Cemetery in Wayland).
Last year (2005), there were 616 burials in JCAM cemeteries, which is approximately 25% of all Massachusetts Jewish burials. Our “endowment” has grown, and although it is not yet sufficient to carry out our mission, we have made huge strides.
Our cemetery management functions are working smoothly, and we are now turning our attention to a portion of our mission that has not received enough attention – the social, cultural, historic and artistic elements of our Jewish cemeteries.
Because of Jewish restrictions on burial practices, establishing a Jewish cemetery has always been one of the first steps taken by the Jewish community. As far back as 1735, nearly 100 years before there was even an organized Jewish community in the Boston area, Isaac Solomon and Michael Asher established a “Burying Ground . . . fenced in to the Jewish Nation” in Boston. They contemplated a very small “Jewish Nation” because the cemetery was no larger than 10’ x 10’. In 1844, only one year after it was organized as the first Jewish Congregation in Massachusetts, Temple Ohabei Shalom (then located in Boston) purchased land for its East Boston Cemetery.
The pattern is similar elsewhere. In Chicago, where my father first lived after coming to the United States, the first Jewish organization was the Jewish Burial Ground Society. This society was founded in 1845, just two years after the first permanent Jewish settlers arrived in Chicago, and two years before the first Jewish Congregation was founded there.
For those interested in the business impact of cemeteries, it is interesting to note the relationship between having a cemetery and the health of Jewish organizations. In 1859, Adath Israel (now known as Temple Israel) in Boston had only 17 members. That year it purchased land for a cemetery and just one year later it had 50 members, with the growth in membership attributed to its new ownership of a cemetery. It is even reported that an auction of cemetery plots helped Temple Israel raise enough money to buy land and build its new facility on Columbus Avenue, Boston in 1880. Perhaps these economic factors explain why there are so many Jewish Cemeteries in the Boston area.
Clearly there are stories to tell. Why were cemeteries built where they are? And why were so many grouped together (Baker Street in Boston has 45, Montvale Avenue in Woburn has 27, and Fuller Street in Everett has 33)? Who were these organizations? The Boylston Lodge (a Knights of Pythias Lodge – Fraternal Brotherhood for Jewish men), The Roxbury Lodge of what? Older congregations have moved on to new locations, and organizations that established cemeteries may no longer exist, but their cemeteries remain, an ever-stable reminder of these historic organizations.
Increasingly, JCAM is called upon to care for these cemeteries, and preserve them for the future. Preservation requires preserving their memories as well as their gates and sidewalks. JCAM and its newly formed JCAM Charitable Foundation are committed to collecting and preserving these memories. Navigate our newly improved website, which now provides directions to all Jewish cemeteries in Massachusetts. Search for your loved ones using our search utility. Urge non-JCAM cemeteries to make their database of graves available so that they too can be searched on our website. If you have information about the founding and history of our Jewish cemeteries, contact us. If you would like to volunteer your time to JCAM, let us know. And if you support our mission, consider making a donation to help us with our work.
Very truly yours,
Sander A. Rikleen, President