New Cemetery Resources!

We've just updated our records of Jewish Cemeteries in Maryland!

Cemetery burial listings are now available on-line for Rosedale, Beth Jacob-Finksburg Cemetery, Beth Tfiloh Cemetery, Mikro Kodesh-Beth Israel, Other East Baltimore cemeteries, West Baltimore cemeteries, Chevrah Ahavas Chesed, Cumberland Eastview Cemetery, and Frederick, Maryland!

Our family history collection at the Robert L. Weinberg Family History Center contains many additional primary source materials, including:

• Baltimore Jewish Times obituaries, 1919 to present
• Jack Lewis Funeral Home records, 1924-1939, 1956-1965
• Published and unpublished genealogies of Maryland Jewish families
• Baltimore City directories on microfiche/film, 1752-1930 (some years missing)
• U.S. manuscript census, Baltimore and other parts of Maryland, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930
• Passenger index for ships that arrived in the Port of Baltimore, 1820-1952
• Passenger manifests of ships that arrived in the Port of Baltimore, 1840-1920
• Memoirs of Jewish Life in Maryland and Europe
• Records of Jewish cemeteries in the Greater Baltimore area
• Circumcision (1836-1870, 1940-1967), midwife (1892-1919) , and marriage (1850-1944) records of individual Baltimore-area mohels, midwives and rabbis
• H.I.A.S. arrival records (1911-1914, 1938-1953)
• Historical Database of Baltimore Religious Personnel
• Yizkor (Memorial) books of East European towns
• Hebrew Orphan Asylum records, 1873-1917
• Registries of Maryland military personnel in World Wars I and II

Additional resources include: archival collections from several Baltimore-area synagogues; records of local Jewish agencies, institutions and businesses; personal papers of prominent individuals; profiles of individuals and families in A History of the Jews of Baltimore (Blum, 1910) and other locally-published books; biographical, institutional and subject files related to Baltimore and Maryland Jewry; and oral histories of Maryland Jews. Periodicals that offer information on Maryland Jewry include the Baltimore Jewish Times (1919 to present), Jewish Comment (1895-1918), Jewish Chronicle (1875), Jewish Exponent (1887-1888), Sinai (1856-1860), Generations (1978 to present) and American Jewish Year Book (1899-1985). We also maintain a photograph collection related to immigration, Jewish life in Maryland, and the many institutions of Baltimore Jewry.

Our library contains publications on Jewish genealogy, including Shtetl Finder, Where Once We Walked, A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames From the Russian Empire, Jewish Roots in Poland, and the periodical Avotaynu. We also maintain a collection of publications and newsletters from genealogical societies across the nation.

To find out more, please contact our historian, Deb Weiner, at 410.732.6400 x224 or dweiner@jewishmuseummd.org.

Walking Tour of East Baltimore

Last week, we provided a driving tour of Jewish Baltimore. This week, we're adding a walking tour of the neighborhood surrounding the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Planning on coming to Brews and Schmooze on Wednesday, August 5th from 6 - 8pm? Maybe consider coming a little early to take this self-guided tour!

About the Tour:
Through this self-guided walking tour, The Jewish Museum of Maryland encourages you to take a fresh look at the old East Baltimore Jewish immigrant neighborhood known today as Historic Jonestown.

At first glance you might think there is little to see beyond the Museum’s two historic synagogues and the Lombard Street delicatessens. We invite you to discover what has survived and learn about what hasn’t by navigating the neighborhood with these directions.

This tour was created in connection with the Festival of Maps Program through Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and the Mayor & City Council of Baltimore City. It has been adapted by Ilene Dackman-Alon and Deborah R. Weiner from Dean Krimmel’s Jewish East Baltimore: A Walking Tour for the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Copyright The Jewish Museum of Maryland, 2008.

This walking tour uses Google Maps. Please click on the map or link below to learn about all of the different stops along the way.


View Jewish East Baltimore in a larger map

Driving Tour of Jewish Baltimore

The tour begins on Baltimore’s East Side and retraces the migration route of the early Jewish immigrants who initially settled (in the mid 19th century) in East Baltimore. The route moves north and westward through the city and into the suburbs. Along the way, participants see and experience the development of Jewish life in Baltimore and the metropolitan region. The tour includes sacred, educational, recreational, and social sites of Jewish interest. Please note that this is not intended to be a comprehensive tour of all Jewish neighborhoods. Instead it is designed to follow a specific path of migration and to bring certain neighborhoods back to life.

The Jewish Museum of Maryland gratefully acknowledges Gilbert Sandler and Efrem Potts for their guidance in creating this bus script. In addition, a special thank you is owed to Willa Banks for providing additional research.

This driving tour uses Google Maps. Please click on the map or link below to learn about all of the different stops along the way. Next week, we will post a walking tour of East Baltimore.


View Jewish Baltimore Tour in a larger map

Israel Photo Contest!

Are you a Jewish young adult from Maryland who has visited Israel? The Jewish Museum of Maryland is looking for your best, most meaningful photograph for an upcoming issue of our Generations magazine. Send us a picture of yourself in Israel with a short story (less than 300 words) about the photograph and its meaning to you. The best ten submissions will be published. Each winner will receive a free one-year membership to the Museum.

Submissions must be received by May 1st to be considered. Submissions can be sent digitally or in hard copy. Hard copy submissions can be mailed to: Rachel Kassman, Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd Street, Baltimore MD 21202. All hard copy photographs will be returned. Email submissions should be sent to: Rachel Kassman at rkassman@jewishmuseummd.org as low resolution copies of the photograph. If accepted for publication we will ask for a high resolution copy.

LSS Fact of the Day

1845 - After fifteen years of moving between rented rooms, the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation decided to build its own synagogue. The structure became the first synagogue in the state of Maryland. The congregation hired Robert Cary Long, Jr., a prominent Baltimore architect, who created a Greek revival style building. In September, the new synagogue was consecrated.

From the Baltimore Sun, September 27, 1845

“Agreeably to announcement, the new synagogue erected by the Hebrew congregation of Baltimore, was yesterday afternoon dedicated to the service of the Most High. The building was crowded in all its parts, and among the audience we noticed the Rev. Dr. Johns, Rev. Wm. Hamilton, Rev. Mr. Purvance, and other ministers of Christian churches. There were present, the Rev. Mr. Rice, Chief Rabbi in the U. States, the Rev. Mr. Isaacs, of New York, the Rev. Mr. Leeser, of Philadelphia, and the Rev. Mr. Ansell, of this city. About 4 o’clock the lamps in the church were lit, and the ceremonies of consecration commenced by the opening of the Ark, from which the five books of Moses were taken, and carried by five persons through the centre aisle to the front door and back again to the reader’s desk or altar, prayers in Hebrew being chaunted in the meantime by the congregation, led by Mr. Ansell. They then moved round the desk a number of times, still chaunting [sic], when the sacred archives were deposited in the Ark. Mr. Ansell then read a prayer in English, in which the blessing of Heaven was invoked upon the President of the U. states, the Executives of the State and city, &c. &c.

“The Rev. Mr. Leeser then rose and delivered a lengthy address from a portion of Scripture commencing with, 'And not to you alone do I make this covenant,' &c. We cannot pretend to follow the Reverend gentleman in his discourse. He spoke of the covenant given by God to the fathers in Israel, which had been handed down; the law, although called the law of Moses, was the law of God, and Moses but the means used to deliver the law to mankind – in it God speaks, not Moses. He gave a history of the Jews, their persecutions, &c., and exalted that the law was still preserved, and alluded to the preservation of the law as one evidence of their being peculiarly under the keeping of God; Israel has been ever true, will be ever true, to follow their God – the one God. The brethren present, by raising this structure, had entered into the covenant anew. They had no new mode pointed out to them, but faith in the law and obedience were still the means to be used for propitiating the mercy of God. The address, of which the above is the merest sketch, was an eloquent one, and was listened to with the most profound attention.

“The Rev. Mr. Isaacs next followed in an able discourse from the text, 'How awful is this place; this is no other than the house of God; the gate of Heaven.' The general object of this discourse was to demonstrate that the church just erected was God’s house – a miniature temple erected to his service. The address was quite a lengthy one, and at the conclusion, he made an appropriate prayer. Prayers were then chaunted [sic], in Hebrew, led by the Rev. Mr. Ansell, and the congregation was dismissed. And thus has been dedicated, the first synagogue ever built in Maryland. We are requested to state that the services will be continued as usual this morning; and at ten o’clock a lecture in English, will be delivered by the Rev. Mr. Isaacs. Tickets of admission will not be required.”

*Please note that "Rev." does not indictae that a person was of Christian faith but a title for someone who was deemed to deserve respect. In this case, "awful" is something full of awe, not something horrible. Additionally, spelling and grammar have not been edited.

The Void is Drained!

Recently, archaeologists at the Lloyd Street Synagogue uncovered a mysterious cistern in the southeast corner of the building. We believe that this may have been the cistern used by the synagogue's mikvah. This video shows the water being drained from it.

Pre-Restoration Lloyd Street Synagogue

This is how Lloyd Street Synagogue has appeared since the 1960s.

Image courtesy of Caruso Studios.










This is how Lloyd Street Synagogue appeared in 1864. This is the oldest known image of the building, when it was still operated by Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.

"Carte-de-visite" of the Lloyd Street Synagogue, circa 1864.
Photo courtesy of the Ross J. Kelbaugh Collection.
JMM1997.071.001

















This is the interior of LSS as it appears currently.