Sonora Hebrew Cemetery

Sonora Hebrew Cemetery
Sonora Hebrew Cemetery entrance in 1934
Details
Established	c. 1851
Closed	1977
Location	Sonora, Tuolumne County, California
Country	United States
Coordinates	37.98421°N 120.38651°W / 37.98421; -120.38651
Type	Jewish
No. of graves	70
Find a Grave	Sonora Hebrew Cemetery
The Political Graveyard	Sonora Hebrew Cemetery

The Sonora Hebrew Cemetery, also known as Pioneer Jewish Cemetery, is an inactive Jewish cemetery founded in c. 1851, and located in Sonora, California.[1] This was the first Jewish cemetery in the Gold Rush region.

History

The cemetery was founded by the Hebrew Benevolent Society and is mostly the graves of European-born Jews who emigrated to the Gold Country. The first burial is recorded in 1853 as Hartwig Caro, age 17; however it's possible there were burials starting in 1851.[2]

Local Jewish community leader Mayer Baer (1821–1907), and then his son Julius Baer (1876–1972) maintained the cemetery up until 1972.[2][3]

As of 2022, there are only 44 visible grave sites.[2][4] In 1962, the Commission for the Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks in the West was formed to help with education, and restoration for all of the Jewish cemeteries in Gold County.[3] The Mother Lode Jewish Community has an annual clean up day, when they visit the cemetery as a group and maintain the space.[2]

Related cemeteries

Other 19th-century Jewish cemeteries in Northern California are located at:

• Jackson Pioneer Jewish Cemetery (or Givoth Olam), Jackson, Amador County;[5][4]
• Grass Valley Pioneer Jewish Cemetery (or Shaar Zedek), Grass Valley, Nevada County;[5]
• Marysville Hebrew Cemetery, Marysville, Yuba County;[5][3]
• Placerville Pioneer Jewish Cemetery, Placerville, El Dorado County;[5]
• Nevada City Jewish Cemetery, Nevada City, Nevada County;[5]
• Mokelumne Hill Pioneer Jewish Cemetery, Mokelumne Hill, Calaveras County;[5]
• Jewish Cemetery, Shasta, Shasta County[6][7]

See also

• Birth of a Community: Jews and the Gold Rush (1994 film)
• Hebrew Cemetery
• List of cemeteries in California
• Judah L. Magnes Museum
• Chevra Kaddisha Cemetery, Sacramento, first Jewish cemetery in the state

References

1. Tagger, Mathilde A. (1997). Printed Books on Jewish Cemeteries in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem: An Annotated Bibliography. Israel Genealogical Society.
2. Ricapito, Giuseppe (July 19, 2021). "Sonora Hebrew Cemetery hosts final burial for Holocaust survivor". The Union Democrat. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
3. Greschler, Gabriel (November 25, 2020). "A road trip through Jewish Gold Country". J. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
4. Levinson, Robert E. (1994). The Jews in the California Gold Rush. Commission for the Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks, Judah L. Magnes Museum. ISBN 978-0943376622.
5. Morris, Susan (1996). A Traveler's Guide to Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries of the California Gold Rush. Commission for the Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks, Judah L. Magnes Museum. ISBN 978-0-943376-63-9.
6. Rensch, Hero Eugene; Rensch, Ethel Grace; Hoover, Mildred Brooke (1966). Abeloe, William N. (ed.). Historical Spots in California (3 ed.). Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 487. ISBN 978-0-8047-0079-5.
7. Friedmann, Jonathan L. (2020-03-23). Jewish Gold Country. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 22–23. ISBN 978-1-4396-6942-6 – via Google Books.

External links

• Sonora Hebrew Cemetery profile at pioneerjewishcemeteries.org