JEWISH
EAST END OF LONDON PHOTO GALLERY & COMMENTARY
London's East End Synagogues, cemeteries and more......
My personal journey through the Jewish East End of London
e.mail thoughts & memories to:
Phil
Novo Sephardic
Cemetery, Mile End - some oddities and things that have interested
me
Some of you may have read of
the splendid efforts of Queen Mary's College, Mile End, to tidy
up the Sephardic cemetery at Westover Way, Mile End. I
visited the site in April 2012 and was impressed at the tidiness
but also a little saddened that the cemetery had lost its rural
feel. One of the plus points of the new arrangements is
that it is possible to actually enter the cemetery rather that
stare at it through a fence....so I did! Lots of
interesting graves, including a selection of Sassoons and
Montefiores. One grave in particular caught my eye, that
of a Henry Naphtali Hart who took his leave 3rd July 1891.
His inscription reads:
Many years of his life were
passed in Buenos Ayres where he was esteemed and respected by
all classes of the mercantile and financial community. He
promoted the first synagogue in the Argentine Congregation.
This is his grave:
It
just so happens that in November 2011 I visited Buenos Ayres and
attended a Friday night service in that very same synagogue.
A photo of it's exterior is below, and below that is a photo of
its interior. This synagogue was founded in 1852 by Henry
Naphtali Hart, whose grave is above.
Another grave that caught my eye was that of Isaac Cohen
Belifante, late of 67 Brick Lane (as it says on his grave) who
departed this life in 1904. I had to take a look in Brick
Lane to see where Mr Belifante had been so proud to live and can
tell you that his address is now a collection of small offices
and a derelict former Bangladeshi restaurant. What stories
this building could tell!
Below, 67 Brick Lane (the white building), former residence of
Isaac Cohen Belifante - now a permanent resident of the Novo Sephardic
cemetery, Mile End.
