Learn more about the cemetery – a Jewish institution in Philadelphia since 1853
Mt. Sinai Cemetery has played an integral role in Jewish life in Philadelphia for some 175 years and is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries still in active existence in Philadelphia. Explore some of our notable events below.
In July 1853, an ad hoc committee of Philadelphia’s prominent Jewish leaders agreed to buy seven acres of land in the Frankford section of Philadelphia. The purchase was completed in August 1853, and The Mount Sinai Cemetery Association of Pennsylvania was formally registered in June 1854. The Preamble of the original charter states that “…we should prepare proper and suitable places for the burial an repose of our kindred when they shall have departed this life: places, where love friendship and pious enthusiasm may find expression in the embellishment of the tomb; places, to which, from the busy throng, we may turn aside and meditate in silence over the grave…”
The 1858 opening of a horse-drawn carriage line from center city to Frankford—replaced in 1863 by a steam railroad, and in 1907, by the Frankford El—made it easy for mourners to get to the cemetery. (Today, visitors can travel from center city to the cemetery in ~20 minutes via Interstate 95, traffic permitting).
The cemetery quickly gained favor among the city’s most prominent Jewish businesspeople, entrepreneurs, real estate mavens, and media moguls, and philanthropists, including the Snellenburg, Gimbel, Lit, Fels, Paley, Binswanger, Solis-Cohen, Publicker, Rosenbach, and Fleischer families, among others.
The Tranquility Garden was established in 2021-2022 to accommodate those seeking green and natural burial options.
Officers of the Cemetery
President: David A. Blumenthal
Vice President: Stephen Schachman, Esq.
Secretary: Judith Hahn Kramer