Review - American Jewish Archives

Letters to the Editor
Comments and response on the Walter Judah article
Dear Editor:
The first paragraph in the article by Dr. Theodore Cohen in the
Spring/Surnmer 1996 issue requires a correction. His statement that
"It was the first burial site for the members of Cong. Shearith Israel
and is the oldest Jewish cemetery in North America" does not square
with facts. He then follows that "This plot of land was granted to the
Jewish residents of New Amsterdam in 1656 by the unfriendly Peter
Stuyvesant" is without any foundation. The last quotation (footnote
2, p.7) refers to de Sola Pool's "Portraits Etched in Stone." Nowhere
on that page does de Sola Pool refer to this cemetery as the first Jew-
ish burial ground in North America. He only wrote that "Its long and
checkered history begins in 1682 when it succeeded the ground re-
luctantly granted in 1656."
Following page 485 of de Sola's book, Dr. Cohen might have contin-
ued two pages further to the Appendices and there he would have
found Rabbi de Sola Pool's conclusion of his search for "the little hook
of ground" granted in 1656. Enclosed are copies of those pages and
in his final paragraph he is "reluctantly forced to admit that we can-
not identify the location of the first Jewish cemetery of this city?
Therefore, rather than being "the oldest Jewish cemetery in North
America" it is the third oldest. It was preceded by the 1656 site of
which its location is unknown and the 1dT7 Jewish cemetery of Cong.
Yeshuat Israel in Newport, R.I.
Irwin J. Miller
Stamford, CT
Dear Editor,
Mr. Miller's comments regarding the location of the first Jewish
burial ground require clarification.
On February 22,1656, Peter Stuyvesant granted several early N.Y.
Jewish residents "a little hook of land situated outside of the cityUfor
use as a burial place. (David De Sola Pool, Portraits Etched in Stone, p. 8).
It would be the first Jewish burial ground in North America. (Jacob R.