Research

With a long Jewish history, BC boasts several storied Jewish cemeteries. We explored their origins (and some of their ghosts) in the 2017 issue of The Scribe.

Historic Vancouver Cemetery

Mountain View Cemetery is the only cemetery within the city limits of Vancouver. It contains the oldest Jewish cemetery on the mainland and is the final resting place of many of our community’s founders. The Jewish section of Mountain View Cemetery was consecrated in 1892, and since that time more than 450 people have been interred there. In the mid-twentieth century, other local Jewish cemeteries opened, each operated by one of the local synagogues. As a result, Mountain View was used less frequently, and fell into disrepair. In 2012, a few instances of vandalism brought the cemetery back to the community’s attention and a restoration committee was assembled. Through a three-year project led by the Schara Tzedeck Cemetery Board and involving the partnership of the JMABC and many other community organizations, the site was restored to its former elegance, gravestones were cleaned and stabilized, and thorough research yielded much information about the people buried at Mountain View. A rededication ceremony was held in 2015.

Historic Victoria Cemetery

Established in 1860 by the newly-formed Hebrew Benevolent Society, the Jewish cemetery in Victoria is the oldest active Jewish burial ground in BC, and honours the lives of several prominent BC Jews. It is owned and managed by Congregation Emanu-El, though it predates the construction of that synagogue by several years. Throughout its history, this resilient cemetery has seen waves of care and neglect; on more than one occasion, the community’s Chevra Kadisha (Jewish burial society) considered relocating the dead to another, more readily accessible location. They never did. Eventually, the adjacent ground was consecrated as Victoria’s Jewish population grew. The headstones have worn down; been cleaned; been desecrated; been repaired; and been studied and documented by cultural heritage organizations. The cemetery has been ravaged by fire, and beautified by avid gardeners. In 1981, a Holocaust memorial was erected. In 2016, much of the bedrock that pervaded the site was blasted to make more room, and the stones were then used to create the Zachor Remembrance wall. Behind its gates, Victoria’s Jewish cemetery itself serves as a monument to the enduring legacy of BC’s longest-established Jewish community.