Though our focus is Europe, every so often we like to publish examples of how abandoned or neglected Jewish cemeteries are dealt with elsewhere.
This is Canada’s turn — the Canadian Jewish News runs a story describing how a “Toronto Cemetery Left to Rot” is now being cleaned up and restored.
Can a Jewish cemetery in the middle of Toronto that’s a stone’s throw from some of the country’s wealthiest neighbourhoods and in a community that raises tens of millions of dollars worth of charitable donations annually become forgotten?
That seems to be the case, at least until recently.
The cemetery in question is one small section of the otherwise well maintained Roselawn Cemetery in residential midtown Toronto. The CJS visited it as part of reporting for a feature story during which reporters visited all 12 of Toronto’s Jewish cemeteries and the main one in Montreal.
Section 9 of Roselawn was the only Jewish cemetery (or section of a cemetery) that was in neglected and poorly maintained condition. Even though the sectioh’s grass was mown, indicating some degree of maintenance, CJN described the scene as “eerily familiar” to anyone who has visited abandoned Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe.
Inside the section, which is roughly a third of an acre, one finds about a dozen tombstones lying flat before their graves; headstones that smashed from their falls; darkened markers that lean perilously; some graves hidden in a thicket of bushes and branches; and, in the back, a pile of rubble near some headstones that threaten to be swallowed up by the ground on which they lie.
Time and the elements have smoothed some tombstones clean, cruelly masking the identities of the dead. Tiny, faded markers indicate the graves of children.
The burials date from the early 20th century, and CJN believes that the space “was most likely the community cemetery for people who weren’t members of a synagogue or fraternal group.” This fact was probably key in forestalling regular care.
Roselawn, like some other Jewish cemeteries, is divided into sections. There are 23 sections and the Roselawn Lambton Cemetery Association oversees the upkeep of nine of them. Synagogues, Jewish fraternal groups and mutual benefit societies own and administer the rest.
Except for Section 9: It belongs to UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, which discovered it owned the section “only a few years ago,” David Sadowksi, executive vice-president of Jewish Community Properties of Greater Toronto, an arm of UJA Federation, told The CJN. Sadowski, who said he was surprised by the discovery, is honest when asked about the reasons for the disrepair and delays: “Straight neglect. It just fell between the cracks.”
The UJA Federation has begun cleaning and restoration work in the section, including landscaping and signage as well as fencing and straightening toppled stones.
What’s more, a ground-penetrating radar study indicated that the area could contain as many as 300 burials.
CJN writes that the case underscores an issue that is important in Canada as well as in Europe: “What happens when there’s no one left to care for a cemetery, after synagogues cease to function, or members of fraternal groups die off?”
It notes that Under Ontario’s Cemeteries Act, “a judge may declare a cemetery abandoned if the owner cannot be found, or is unknown, unable to maintain it, was a corporation that was dissolved or is not licensed.”
An abandoned cemetery then becomes the property of the municipality it’s in and loses its religious status.
Click to read the full article