Historical marker unveiled at Columbia Jewish cemetery

Some of the people buried in Beth Shalom Cemetery on Whaley Street have been dead more than 100 years. But they still have stories to tell.

That is the goal of a historical marker unveiled Sunday at the cemetery by the Beth Shalom Synagogue, the Columbia Jewish Heritage Initiative and the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina.

“In Hebrew, we call it a beth chaim – a house of life,” Rabbi Jonathan Case told the crowd standing at the cemetery’s entrance. “Which is an odd name for a cemetery, but the reason, traditionally, we refer to it as that is because this speaks life. The tales that need to be unwound and told are necessary. We, the living, it falls to our shoulders to do so.”

The land where the cemetery sits was purchased by the Hebrew Cemetery Society in 1883 for $255, according to Aaron Small, a member of Beth Shalom. The House of Peace bought it in 1911.

Beth Shalom Cemetery was one of the first Orthodox Jewish cemetery in the Midlands, according to Small, who said a cemetery can be compared to a museum for the history it offers.

“If one wishes to understand the heart of a Jewish community, what better place to begin than the House of Peace Cemetery, where our loved ones are interred and remembered?” he said.

The oldest marker in the cemetery belongs to Arthur Benedict, who was murdered in Abbeville in 1884, according to Small.

After the ceremony, attendees enjoyed refreshments and took a tour of the cemetery.

“It’s kind of a hidden jewel, if you will,” Robin Waites, executive director of Historic Columbia, said of the cemetery. “You can talk to lots of people who have walked by today who are Jewish and participating and never knew it was here.”

This story was originally published January 15, 2017 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Historical marker unveiled at Columbia Jewish cemetery."