Our cemeteries

At least fourteen Jewish burial grounds in Jamaica remain intact, while close to twenty more are known but without extant grave markers. Our oldest tombstone belongs to Abraham Gabay, who died on April 6, 1672.

 

In 2007, Rachel Frankel recruited participants to document and catalog Jamaica’s Jewish cemeteries, and in 2017 the nonprofit JJCPF, Jamaican Jewish Cemeteries Preservation Fund, came into being. In addition to fundraising and planning for preservation and maintenance, JJCPF aims to increase awareness of the cemeteries' historical significance.

 

JJCPF and the United Congregation of Israelites have engaged Cemify, the cemetery management software application, to host the photos, scaled surveys, transcribed and translated epitaphs, and condition analyses volunteers recorded, beginning in 2007, of Jamaica's Jewish cemeteries.

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Cemify is a web-based software program developed for the management of open active cemeteries. It is a robust, flexible, inexpensive platform for the storage of this large and ever expanding volume of material.

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JJCPF is currently digitizing, sorting, and uploading data recorded to the Cemify platform.

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Visitors can see a map of the cemetery, search by name, click on individual tombstones, view images of each grave, read transcriptions and translations of epitaphs, and learn about the architecture of each gravestone.

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Click here to access Cemify, our cemetery database for the following cemeteries: ​​​

• Falmouth

• Hunts Bay

• Lacovia

• Rowe's Corner

• Lucea