Eudora’s historic Jewish cemetery will soon see improvements and begin offering tours after receiving a local grant.
The B’nai Israel Cemetery (historically known as Beni Israel), owned by the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation, was awarded $28,600 from the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council.
The Natural and Cultural Heritage Grant will be used to fix broken or leaning headstones, install new signage and two more stone benches, and create a new road through the area. The money will also help facilitate tours of the cemetery from KU professor David Katzman.
Barry Shalinsky has been a member of the cemetery committee for five years and said the cemetery helps showcase the major contributions made by Jewish people in Kansas from the beginning. It also shows the welcoming culture of the state, he said.
“I think the importance of it is twofold. Number one, to highlight that there has actually been a Jewish community in Kansas, dating from the 1850s, and people tend to forget that even in a place like Kansas, there’s a lot of diversity and a lot of different experiences,” Shalinsky said. “The other thing that I think is important is the fact that it’s an active cemetery. It’s not a historic graveyard, which means that it is part of a vibrant, existing community in this state.”
The cemetery was first established in 1858, said Ben Terwilliger, director of the Eudora Area Historical Society. Several of the families who established Eudora in 1857 were Jewish immigrants, he said.
By around the 1890s, most of Eudora’s Jewish community had moved away, leaving the cemetery without proper care for a number of years, Terwilliger said.
Since the late 1970s, the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation has owned the cemetery and helped restore it.
“I think people in the community just felt like, number one, it was not okay to leave this place in the condition it was in. Number two, we had an active growing Jewish community here in Lawrence and needed a place to use for burials,” Shalinsky said.
Being buried in a Jewish cemetery is an important part of tradition for many, he said.
The historic portion of the cemetery has 21 burials from 1858 to the 1920s. There have been an additional 52 burials since 1978. Members of the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation are able to use the cemetery for burials.
In 2013, the historical society helped get the cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places. About one-fourth of the original Eudora settlers were Jewish, Shalinsky said.
There aren’t many cemeteries in Kansas listed on the National Register, Terwilliger said, making it even more unique.
The grant is for the entire 2-acre cemetery but will primarily focus on aiding the historic one-fourth acre portion, Shalinsky said. The committee had thought for a while about applying for a grant, he said.
New signage near Winchester and 20th will also allow more people to recognize the location from the street. There will also be signage inside with QR codes with information about the National Register application and historical burial details.
Since there are not many Jewish cemeteries in the state, B’nai Israel serves an important purpose in the community, Shalinsky said. Because of the inclusivity they hope to foster, they also allow non-Jewish spouses to be buried there, something that is not common among other cemeteries, he said.
There is also a fenced section that adheres to traditional Jewish law – meaning there are no non-Jewish people buried there – to give everyone an opportunity to feel comfortable with the cemetery.
“Because we have a diverse community and we try and be inclusive and serve everybody,” he said. “We really essentially, in some ways, have almost three cemeteries: we have a historic one, we have an active general one and then we have an active traditionally religious one all right there on the property, all kind of right next to each other.”
Kaitlyn Ammerlaan, the Heritage Conservation coordinator for Douglas County, helps applicants apply for the grant program each year.
The grant can apply to a wide range of projects whether they are cultural events, prairie restoration or supporting local museums. Ultimately, the goal is to support important heritage all throughout the county, she said.
She said she thinks the project was recommended for funding since it assists the Douglas County community in a number of ways.
Grant recommendations come from the council before moving on for County Commission approval. This year, the grant funded 11 projects.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected].
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