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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2018}}
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[[File:Jewishcemeterychennaifront.jpg|thumb|Jewish Cemetery Chennai Front View]]
[[File:Jewishcemeterychennai.jpg|thumb|Jewish cemetery chennai]]
[[File:Plan of Fort St George and the City of Madras 1726.jpg|thumb|Plan of Fort St George and the city of Madras in 1726,Shows b.Jews Burying Place Jewish Cemetery Chennai, Four Brothers Garden and Bartolomeo Rodrigues Tomb]]
[[File: Holocaust Memorial of Isaac & Rosa Henriques Decastro.jpg|thumb|Holocaust Memorial of Isaac & Rosa Henriques Decastro, erected by C. N. Annadurai Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu]]
The Jewish Cemetery is located off Lloyd's Road in [[Chennai]], India. The cemetery remains the only memoir of the once significant Jewish population of Chennai, which has now almost become extinct.<ref>https://www.dtnext.in/News/City/2018/07/22023918/1080812/The-citys-fading-link-to-its-Jewish-past.vpf</ref> Burials include the tombstones of 18th-century Jewish diamond merchants.<ref>{{cite book|author=Association of British Scholars (India), Chennai Chapter|editor1-last=Muthiah|editor1-first=S.|title=Madras, Chennai: A 400-year Record of the First City of Modern India, Volume 1|date=2008|publisher=Palaniappa Brothers|isbn=9788183794688|page=183|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbR_LLkqdI8C}}</ref> The cemetery houses less than 30 graves, of which a few are over 300 years old.<ref>https://www.dtnext.in/News/City/2016/05/09232326/Chennais-link-to-its-Jewish-past-cemetery-in-Mylapore.vpf</ref> The cemetery is located on a poor market area of the road west of the Marina Fish Market and is adjacent to [[Baháʼí Faith]] and Chinese cemeteries.<ref>{{cite web|title=Kerala Jewish Sites|url=http://www.isjm.org/jhr/IInos3-4/india.htm|publisher=International Survey of Jewish Monuments|work=ISJM Jewish Heritage Report Volume II, numbers 3-4|access-date=17 June 2017|date=December 1998}}</ref> The cemetery formerly used to have an iron gate on which a plaque was attached on which a [[Star of David]] and the words "Jewish Cemetery" were inscribed. After the renovation around 2016, these doors were replaced with sturdier ones. Before the renovation, the cemetery had been reported to be in a state of severe disrepair – with rusted iron gates, partially grown shrubs ,and cracked walls. People in the surrounding area were oblivious to the existence and historical importance of the cemetery. Even now, it tends to have few visitors.<ref name="tnIE">{{cite web|author=Roshne B|title=A cemetery buried in history|url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2016/nov/14/a-cemetery-buried-in-history-1538218.html|publisher=The New Indian Express|date=14 November 2016}}</ref>

==History==

'''1500 The first Jewish Cemetery ''' was built by [[Western Sephardim|Amsterdam Sephardic community]] in Coral Merchant Street, George Town, [[Madras]], which had a large presence of Portuguese Jews in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Neither the synagogue nor the Jewish population remains today.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LnflUVu0w2QC&q=coral+merchant+street+chennai&pg=PA30 |title=The Unhurried City: Writings on Chennai |first=S. |last=Muthiah |editor-first=C. S. |editor-last=Lakshmi |page=30 |isbn=9780143030263 |publisher=Penguin Books India |year=2004 |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

'''1644 The Second Jewish Cemetery''' was built by [[Jacques (Jaime) de Paiva (Pavia)]] also from [[Western Sephardim|Amsterdam Sephardic community]], in Peddanaickenpet, which later became the South end of [[Mint Street, Chennai|Mint Street]],<ref>http://www.madrasmusings.com/vol-27-no-20/the-last-family-of-pardesi-jews-in-madras/</ref>

'''1687''' [[Jacques (Jaime) de Paiva (Pavia)]] was buried in the cemetery upon his death in 1687.<ref>{{cite web|author=Muthiah S.|title=The Portuguese Jews of Madras|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/the-portuguese-jews-of-madras/article2252700.ece|work=The Hindu|date=3 September 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://sefarad.org/lm/041/5.html|title=The Portuguese Jewish Community Of Madras, India, In The Seventeenth Century|website=Sefarad.org|access-date=19 June 2017}}</ref>

'''1934''' The Second Jewish Cemetery was partly demolished by the local government and the tombstones were moved to the Central Park of Madras along with the gate of the cemetery on which {{transl|he|Beit ha-Haim}} (the usual designation for a Jewish cemetery, literally "House of Life") were written in Hebrew.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sefarad.org/lm/041/5.html |title=The Portuguese Jewish Community Of Madras, India, In The Seventeenth Century |publisher=Sefarad.org |first=Mordechai |last=Arbell |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

'''5 June 1968''' Local government fully demolished The Second Jewish Cemetery and took over the land for building a government school, hence Rabbi Levi Salomon (the last rabbi of Madras synagogue) died of a heart attack.<ref>http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/article1320429.ece</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20030312192024/http://thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2002/09/30/stories/2002093000180300.htm ]</ref> The remaining tombstones were moved opposite to Kasimedu cemetery.

'''29 December 1983''' The tombstones from Central Park of Madras and opposite to Kasimedu cemetery were moved to Lloyds Road, when the Chennai Harbour expansion project was approved.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2012/oct/31/18th-century-jewish-cemetery-lies-in-shambles-craves-for-attention-420448.html|title=18th century Jewish cemetery lies in shambles, craves for attention}}</ref> In this whole process 17 tombstones went missing, including that of [[Jacques (Jaime) de Paiva (Pavia)]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Janani |last=Sampath |title=Chennai's link to its Jewish past, cemetery in Mylapore fading into oblivion |url=https://www.dtnext.in/News/City/2016/05/09232326/Chennais-link-to-its-Jewish-past-cemetery-in-Mylapore.vpf |publisher=DT Next |date=10 May 2016 |access-date=6 October 2018}}</ref>

The cemetery is under the care of the Isaac and Rosa Charitable Trust, Henriques De Castro family.

'''2012''' Two walls of the cemetery came down during the [[Cyclone Nilam]]. The cost for repair was projected to be $2070.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chennai|url=http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/india/chennai.html|website=International Jewish Cemetery Project|publisher=International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies|access-date=17 June 2017}}</ref>

'''2016''' The cemetery had been renovated by Isaac and Rosa Charitable Trust, Henriques De Castro family, and the walls were re-erected. The walls were painted blue and raised to avoid trespassers and dog menace.<ref name=tnIE/>

==Image gallery==
<gallery>
File:Burial Record of Yitzhak Levi.jpg|Burial Record of Yitzhak Levi
File:1a Jewish Cemetery Chennai Allotment Letter 1983.jpg|thumb|Jewish Cemetery Chennai Allotment Letter 1983
File:1b Jewish Cemetery Chennai Allotment Letter 1983.jpg|thumb|Jewish Cemetery Chennai Allotment Letter 1983
File:Jewish Cemetery in Chennai 1983.jpg|thumb|Jewish Cemetery shifting in Chennai 1983
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Cemeteries in India]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in India]]
[[Category:Jewish cemeteries]]
[[Category:Monuments and memorials in Chennai]]
[[Category:Paradesi Jews]]

Jewish Cemetery Chennai - Revision history

imported>Citation bot at 16:15, 28 August 2021