A Marker for a Sacred Place

April 27, 2009

Author: Jennifer Latson

Source: The Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6393909.html

The cemetery looks, presumably, better than it did in the 1800s, when one of its first capital improvement projects called for iron fences to keep out the wild hogs.

Congregation Beth Israel’s 1844 cemetery lies along West Dallas, in the shadow of downtown’s skyscrapers, between rows of newly built townhouses and the few remaining tenements that characterize much of the Fourth Ward.

On Sunday, marble headstones gleamed in the sun and a breeze ruffled kippahs as officials unveiled a plaque naming it a historic cemetery, certified by the Texas Historical Commission.

History buffs and members of the Beth Israel congregation reflected at the afternoon ceremony on the legacy of what is Texas’ oldest Jewish cemetery.

The cemetery was created by a group of about 20 Jewish families who came together in Houston in the 1840s; they dedicated the cemetery before founding a congregation 10 years later.