Neighborhood Side Streets

The Second Cemetery of The Spanish Portugese Synagogue Shearith Israel - 76 West 11th StreetNestled beside high brick residences is Manhattan’s smallest cemetery – easy to overlook, unless one knows it is there. From 1805 to 1830 it served as the graveyard to the oldest synagogue in the country. Congregation Shearith Israel (also known as the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue) was founded in 1654. In 1830, 11th Street was extended and much of the cemetery was left behind. There are approximately thirty graves and a single, moss-grown stone path remaining. Today these 200 year-old plots sit hidden, stones barely legible.

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