Ahavath Sholom Hebrew Cemetery

Before this cemetery existed, Fort Worth's Jews shared one. A civic leader deeded land in 1879 for several graveyards, including one for the city's "Israelites," the burial ground known as Emanuel Hebrew Rest. An association revived its care in 1896. Historian Hollace Weiner reports that the whole community buried there until about 1910, when Ahavath Sholom objected to the burial of a non-Jewish spouse and opened an Orthodox cemetery of its own. The congregation's founders were mostly recent Russian immigrants, while many longer-settled Jewish families had stayed unaffiliated, so the two graveyards also reflect two Jewish Fort Worths.

What the plaque says

Ahavath Sholom Hebrew Cemetery Wishing to have their own cemetery, congregation Ahavath Sholom, the first Jewish congregation in Fort Worth, purchased a six-acre tract from the Greenwood Cemetery Association at this location and dedicated Ahavath Sholom Hebrew Cemetery in 1909. A Ladies Cemetery Society was formed in that year to oversee the upkeep of the graveyard; Rebecca Goldstein served as its initial president. The first person buried here was Charles Hurwitz in 1910. In 1929 an agreement between the congregation and the Greenwood Cemetery Association resulted in the enlargement of this Jewish cemetery. Three soldiers who perished during World War II are buried side by side in the north section of the cemetery. A large monument memorializing the millions of Jewish victims of the German Nazi Regime in World War II Europe (1939-1945) was erected by members of the congregation who lost relatives in the Holocaust. The Kornbleet Chapel, which contains seating for one hundred persons, was dedicated in 1988. The chapel is used for funeral services as well as other religious services pertaining to the cemetery. The congregation established a trust fund for the long-term maintenance of the cemetery. (1992) (1992)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimbell Art Museum — 1.0 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 1.4 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Tarrant County Courthouse — 1.7 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 2.0 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.

More markers nearby

• Ormer Leslie Locklear — 0.3 mi
• Lawrence Clifton Elliott — 0.5 mi
• Oakwood Cemetery — 0.8 mi
• John Peter Smith_Oakwood Cemetery Founder — 0.9 mi