Beth Olam Cemetery
The Beth Olam Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, New York City. It is located in the city's Cemetery Belt, bisected by the border between Brooklyn and Queens.
It is a rural cemetery in style, and was started in 1851 by three Manhattan Jewish congregations: Congregation Shearith Israel on West 70th Street, B'nai Jeshurun on West 89th Street, and Temple Shaaray Tefila on East 79th Street.
In 1882, Calvert Vaux was commissioned to design a small, red brick Metaher house or place of purification and pre-burial eulogies, near the entrance to the Shearith Israel section. It is the only religious building that Vaux, the co-designer of Central Park, is known to have designed.
The burial ground contains many examples of architecture and funerary art.Vandalism
In April 2019, a thief stole 14 doors from mausoleums valued at $30,000 and 75 air vents.Notable burials
- Abraham Cohn, American Civil War Union Army soldier and recipient of the Medal of Honor
- Abraham Lopes Cardozo, Dutch-born hazzan of Congregation Shearith Israel
- Benjamin Cardozo, American lawyer and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
- Emma Lazarus, American author, poetess, and activist, who wrote the poem The New Colossus describing the Statue of Liberty; niece of Jacques Judah Lyons.
- Uriah P. Levy, American naval officer, real estate investor, philanthropist, and the first Jewish Commodore of the United States Navy.
- Jacques Judah Lyons, Surinamese-born American rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel; uncle of Emma Lazarus.
- Henry Pereira Mendes British-born American rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel
- David de Sola Pool, British-born American rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel
