The Jewish community of Jamaica started a programme of cemetery restoration and cataloguing with the cleaning up of the Hunt’s Bay Cemetery 9 years ago. This, the oldest Jewish cemetery in Jamaica which served the Jews who first settled in Port Royal after the capture of the island by the English in 1655-58. The earliest graves date from 1672.
Up until now, the community has almost completed the revised cataloguing of all the Jewish graves in the remaining 12 Jewish cemeteries island-wide. This has been undertaken with volunteers, headed by Rachel Frankel, through the Caribbean Volunteers Expedition program. The community has 15 volunteers working as of today on two cemeteries, Orange Street and Elletson Road.
The White Church Street Cemetery will be catalogued next year. This will be undertaken on completion of its restoration. Updates will follow.
