The Story
The Mordecai Sheftall Cemetery is one of the oldest Jewish burial grounds in the United States, created in 1772 when the Savannah merchant Mordecai Sheftall donated roughly an acre and a half of land for what became Georgia's first substantial Jewish cemetery. Known for decades simply as the "Sheftall Cemetery," it was open to all Jews in good standing and served the families who had founded Congregation Mickve Israel after arriving in the Georgia colony aboard the William and Sarah in 1733. Sheftall, a Revolutionary War commissary officer whom General Robert Howe commissioned a colonel, making him the highest-ranking Jewish officer on the American side, was himself buried here after his death in 1797.
About this site
Mordecai Sheftall Cemetery is a cemetery in Savannah, Chatham County. It is one of 48 cemeteries documented in Chatham County, among 480 historic sites cataloged across the county on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 32.0723, -81.1034 near Savannah. The nearest cataloged historic site is Old Jewish Burial Ground (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Low, Juliette Gordon, Historic District, Levi Sheftall Cemetery, and St. Philip AME Church.
This record is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
History
The Mordecai Sheftall Cemetery is one of the oldest Jewish burial grounds in the United States, created in 1772 when the Savannah merchant Mordecai Sheftall donated roughly an acre and a half of land for what became Georgia's first substantial Jewish cemetery. Known for decades simply as the "Sheftall Cemetery," it was open to all Jews in good standing and served the families who had founded Congregation Mickve Israel after arriving in the Georgia colony aboard the William and Sarah in 1733. Sheftall, a Revolutionary War commissary officer whom General Robert Howe commissioned a colonel, making him the highest-ranking Jewish officer on the American side, was himself buried here after his death in 1797.
Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgen.wikipedia.org
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