Chestnut Street Cemetery - entryway and commemorative plaque

A Traditional Burial

With so few Jews living on what was then the nation's frontier it was difficult, if not impossible, to live a traditional Jewish life. It was, however, not difficult to be buried as a Jew. So even before the founding of a congregation, the Jewish community of Cincinnati established a burial society and purchased a cemetery. Cincinnati's earliest Jewish cemetery dates from 1821 and is located on the corner of Chestnut Street and Western Row (now Central Avenue).