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Mr. Editor:—
Perceiving a notice in the last number of the
“Occident,” relative to a dispute between the
Portuguese and German congregations of Richmond,
concerning the burying-ground that was vested in the
former congregation many jean ago by the Common Hall
of that city : it may probably prove interesting to
many of your readers, to peruse an outline of the
case now in controversy.
The congregations Beth Shalome (Portuguese) was
formed in the early part of the year 1791, A.M.
5561, by the following-named gen<<418>>tlemen, may
their souls rest in peace: Jacob Mordecai, Joseph
Darmstadt, Zalma Rehine, Samuel Alexander. Isaac H.
Judah, Joseph Marx, Isaac Mordecai, Gershom Judah.
Lyon Hart, Myer M. Cohen, Aaron Henry, Baruch H.
Judah, Benjamin Wolfe, John Tobias, Manuel Judah,
Jacob J. Cohen, David Isaacs, Benjamin Solomons,
Isaiah Isaacs, Mordecai M. Mordecai, Asher Marx,
Samuel Mordecai, Benjamin Myers, Mordecai Myers,
Marcus Elcan, Abraham Myers and others.
In
the month of October of that year, Isaiah Isaacs,
owning and residing on a lot of ground, bounded on
Main, Franklin, and 21st streets, vested into the
hands of certain trustees, a portion of his garden, fronting about forty feet on Franklin Street,
running back one hundred and two feet, for a
burying-ground. for the purpose of interring “all
Jews, male and female, that may hereafter die in the
city of Richmond, or whose bodies may be brought
there to be interred,” reserving to himself and
his heirs an oblong square of eight by forty feet in
the said ground, for the purpose of the interment of
himself and kindred, also those of his partner in
trade, Jacob I. Cohen and all his kindred. In that
reservation, mw repose the remains of Israel I.
Cohen and others.
That burying-ground was placed under the supervision
and control of the congregation “Beth Shalome,” and
used for burial purposes until the year 1816. About
that time the walls around the same became much
dilapidated, and the members of the congregation
being increased, it was thought to be more prudent
for the congregation to obtain a new ground, and
enclose the same, rather than incur an expenditure
for rebuilding the wall around a burying-ground
which was not alone too small for the increase of
the congregation, but over which they could not
exercise any legal control. Therefore, at a meeting
of the congregation Beth Shalome, held on the 13th
day of February, 1816, the following resolution was
adopted:
Resolved, that Messrs. Benjamin Wolfe, Manuel Judah,
and Samuel Myers, be appointed a committee to
investigate the records of the Common Hall,
concerning the appropriation of some ground that was
laid off for burying-grounds, for the different
religious societies some time back, and that they
use their endeavours to obtain said ground for this
congregation.
And at a subsequent meeting, held on the 9th of
June, 1816, Mr. Benjamin Wolfe, chairman of the
committee, laid before the meeting the following
ordinance of the Common Hall, appropriating a lot of
ground to the congregation for a burying-ground,
with a plat of the same. <<419>>
An
Ordinance concerning the Hebrew Society of Richmond.
Passed May 20th, 1816.
Be
it ordained, &c. &c., That one acre of land, being a
part of the lands belonging to the city of Richmond,
and lying upon Schockoe Hill, as laid off and
designated in a plat of the said land made by
Richard Young, Surveyor of the city of Richmond, be
and the same is hereby vested in the Hebrew Society
of the city of Richmond, called in Hebrew, “Kaal
Kadosh Beth Shalome,” in English, “The Congregation
of the House of Peace,” to be by them held, and
exclusively used as a burying-ground, subject to
their rites and laws, for that purpose, and for that
alone.
This ordinance shall be in force from and after its
passage.
On
motion, it was then:
Resolved, That the Congregation do accept the lot,
and that the ordinance and survey be recorded.
Resolved, That a rote of thanks be given to Mr.
Benjamin Wolfe, a member of the Common Hall, for his
unremitted exertions in procuring for this
congregation the lot of ground from the Common Hall
for a burying-ground.
Resolved, That four corner-stones, with the letters
ב״ה thereon, be
placed on the ground granted to this Congregation.
The Congregation then appointed committees for the
purpose of laying off the ground, and building a
metaher house and a wall around the same. The
committee succeeded by resorting to a voluntary
subscription* of the members, to raise the sum of
thirteen hundred and twenty-two dollars, being the
amount necessary to complete the object.
The congregation thus abandoned the use of the old
ground and commenced making interments in the new
one. Mr. Benjamin Wolfe was the first individual
therein interred. The congregation Beth Shalome
have, to the present time, continued to keep
peaceable possession,† and make interments therein
without any interruption whatsoever.
<<420>>
About the year 1841, the congregation then numbering
nearly one hundred contributing members, about
eighteen or twenty of the German portion, who having
then recently arrived, seceded, and formed
themselves into a German Congregation, by the name
and stile of Beth Ahaba: and that congregation not
having provided itself (as is customary with all
newly-established congregations) with a
burying-ground; and the congregation Beth Shalome,
being desirous of cultivating the greatest degree
of amity between the two congregations, in all
matters in which both congregations were to be in
any way interested, proposed that if the German
Congregation would pay one-half of the annual
expense of the keeping in order of the
burying-ground, which was estimated at about from 15
to 25 dollars, that they would permit that
congregation to make interments therein without any
farther charge; and the committee on the ground was
directed to have the graves dug as near to the
wishes of the relatives or friends of the deceased
as practicable, and the said interments to be made
according. to the German rites. This the German
Congregation would not consent to, unless the
Portuguese Congregation would agree to hold the
ground conjointly, and a committee of an equal
number from each congregation be appointed to keep
the ground in charge.
The Congregation Beth Shalome, rather than to part
with their exclusive right to the ground,
resolved to permit interments to be made by the
German Congregation, without receiving any
recompense whatsoever, and upon the same conditions
as the first proposition. The German Congregation
availed themselves of the latter proposition, and
whenever a death would occur in that congregation,
and application made to Congregation Beth Shalome,
for the right of interment, it was cheerfully
granted, and the resolutions on their part
relative to the location of the graves, &c., was
carried out in good faith, and no demand ever made
for any compensation.
About the latter end of the year 1847, the German
Congregation. not wishing to avail themselves any
longer of the kind and unsolicited
resolutions of the Congregation Beth Shalome, after
obtaining legal advice that that congregation were
incapable in law to seek redress against any
trespass on said ground, on account of their being
unincorporated: obtained a false key to enter and
make use of the ground with impunity, and they have
from that time continued to use the same
<<421>>
against the will or consent of the congregation, to
whom the ground was originally dedicated. The
congregation never have or intended to refuse the
right of interment to any person, and have never
made any charge for the same, whether a contributing
member or not. At a meeting of committees from each
congregation (held prior to the German Congregation
obtaining a false key) to make some arrangements
concerning the burying-ground, the committee on the
part of the Congregation Beth Shalome proposed to
take the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars as a
remuneration from the German Congregation for the
conjoint use of the ground for ever, or leave the
whole matter to the decision of arbitrators, as to
what amount, if any, the congregation ought to be
entitled to for parting with one half of their right
to the ground the German Congregation, through their
committee (who were fully authorised), would not,
accede to either proposition, contending for their
equal right to the ground, without giving any
remuneration for the same. The Portuguese
Congregation being powerless in
the arms of the law, but relying on the equity of
their cause, have been compelled to stand by and see
their ground trespassed upon by a sister
congregation, rather than engage in a disgraceful
combat, or interfere with their interments.
The Congregation “Beth Shalome” have borne these
unlawful trespasses, until forbearance has almost
ceased to be a virtue, if it could have ever been
regarded as such,—until last January, when that
Congregation applied to the court for the
appointment of Trustees, to take charge of and hold
all property belonging to the Congregation, in
accordance with an Act of the Legislature, passed in
the year 1849, relative to church property, which
application was resisted on the part of the German
Congregation, under the most unequitable pretexts
that could be countenanced by any religious
congregation or community.
This claim to the burying-ground was at first set up
ignorantly by the German Congregation, the claimants
being under the impression that the ground was
merely held by the Portuguese Congregation under a
grant of the Common Hall, on the same condition as
that, given by Mr. Isaiah Isaacs, to wit, for the
purpose of interring “all Jews, male and
female, that may die in the city of
Richmond,” &c., &c., as was, and is still, the
opinion even of some members of the Portuguese
Congregation, not being conversant with its records.
The case will be disposed of probably at the January
term of the Court. Your readers may be aware that it
is a vexatious one, and the final result is looked
for with great anxiety and interest, by both
par<<422>>ties. The above statement is made in order
to show to the Israelitish world that a
Congregation, having for its name “The House of
Peace,” have endeavoured by every act they have done
since the establishment of the German Congregation,
to sustain the peculiar virtue which their name
imports, and that they have been assailed in the
proper protection of their rights by a body of
people whose proceedings have not been always
characterized by kindness and forbearance.
Mr. Editor :—I fear that I have trespassed too much
on your space; but I cannot refrain from giving a
brief narrative of the facts connected with this
case—one, I am sure, which stands unparalleled in
the history of at least Jewish communities, and
that the old Congregation BETH SHALOME (with which
you have been associated) have endeavoured “to
pursue the path of peace,” in despite of every
provocation on the part of a sister congregation,
bearing the name of “The House of Love.”
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