DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Now, pull off the road a moment, because this one deserves a little stillness. We're talkin' about the Temple Emanu-El Cemetery in Dallas — and the story starts, as so many Texas stories do, with people who came from somewhere far away and put down roots so deep you can still find them today.
Temple Emanu-El congregation established this cemetery in 1884, making it the second Jewish cemetery in Dallas. The first one, you ask? That goes back to 1872, when the Hebrew Benevolent Society set up a graveyard right downtown on Akard Street.
That original cemetery eventually gave way to time and the city, and in 1956 those earlier burials were moved here — which is why, if you walk these grounds today, you'll find gravestones with death dates that predate 1884. The stones don't lie; the stories just traveled. Now, here's a detail that stops you cold when you hear it.
The very first burials in this cemetery were two men — Aaron L. Levy and Jacob Rosenthal — both born in Russia on the same day, June 2, 1856, and both died in Dallas on the very same day, October 7, 1884. Two men, same birthday, same death day, an ocean and a lifetime between their origins and their resting place right here in Texas.
The marker doesn't tell us why, and maybe that's fitting. Some things you just hold. Among the thousands of graves here — marked by a wide diversity of tombstones and monuments, including two private family mausoleums — you'll find many of Dallas' early business, civic, religious, political, and social leaders.
And alongside them, veterans. Veterans of World War I, veterans of World War II. Also buried here are survivors of the Nazi holocaust.
Let that sit for a second. Survivors. People who lived through the unimaginable and then built lives, and then came to rest in this ground.
In 1948, a memorial to Jewish veterans of those two world wars was dedicated here — a marker within the memory, honoring the ones who served. The whole of this place — thousands of graves, generations of Dallas history, lives carried from Russia and other corners of the world to this patch of Texas earth — is overseen today by Temple Emanu-El Congregation. They tend to it because it's more than a cemetery.
It's a tangible reminder, the marker says, of the area's Jewish heritage. And some reminders, friend, are worth every mile of the drive.
What the marker says
Established by Temple Emanu-el congregation in 1884, this was the second Jewish cemetery in Dallas. The first burials which occurred here were those of Russian immigrants Aaron L. Levy and Jacob Rosenthal. Both men were born in Russia on June 2, 1856, and died in Dallas on October 7, 1884. Gravestones exhibiting death dates prior to 1884 mark burials which were moved here in 1956 from Dallas' first Jewish cemetery. Established by the Hebrew Benevolent Society in 1872, that graveyard was originally located downtown on Akard Street. Among those interred here are many of Dallas' early business , civic, religious, political, and social leaders. The cemetery contains thousands of graves, marked by a diversity of tombstones and monuments, including two private family mausoleums. Also buried here are veterans of World War I and World War II, as well as several survivors of the Nazi holocaust in World War II. A memorial to Jewish veterans of the two world wars was dedicated in 1948. Maintenance of this historic cemetery, which serves as a tangible reminder of the area's Jewish heritage, is overseen by Temple Emanu-el Congregation.