Jewish Cemetery, Marsa

The Jewish Cemetery (Maltese: Iċ-Ċimiterju tal-Lhud, Italian: Cimitero degli Israeliti) is a cemetery in Marsa, Malta. It was established in December 1879, and it was built to designs of the English architect Webster Paulson.

Jewish Cemetery
Iċ-Ċimiterju tal-Lhud
The Jewish Cemetery in 2017
Details
Established8 December 1879
Location
Marsa, Malta
Coordinates35°52′25″N 14°29′39″E
StyleNeoclassical
Find a GraveJewish Cemetery

History
The Neoclassic gate of the cemetery

The Jewish Cemetery is located in the Ta' Sammat area of Marsa, directly adjacent to Emanuele Luigi Galizia's Turkish Military Cemetery.[1] It was established in December 1879 and it was designed by the English architect Webster Paulson.[1] The British disallowed the building of a Synagogue to please the local Roman Catholic church, even if Jewish presence in Malta was of large numbers.[2]

The proximity of the Jewish and Turkish cemeteries led Lieutenant-Governor Sir Harry Luke to state that the area "is the only place in the world where Arabs and Jews lie peacefully together",[1] albeit Turks are not actually Arabs – he may have interchangeably used it to mean Muslims.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cares for six graves inside the cemetery: three Commonwealth military burials (one from World War I and two from World War II), one non-war burial and two war graves from other nationalities.[3]

The cemetery is still in use,[1] but it is often kept locked.[3] The cemetery contains the graves of people from Poland, Spain, Russia, Hungary, Australia, China and other European countries.[4]

Architecture
The inscription on the main gate

The Jewish Cemetery is built in a neoclassical style[1] – one significant architectural feature is its main gate, which has decorations which are similar to Torah finials.[1] Below the pediment, there is an Italian-language inscription indicating that the government granted the cemetery to the Jewish community in a public act on 8 December 1879.[1]

References
  1. Gauci, Matthew (2009). "New light on Webster Paulson and his architectural idiosyncrasies" (PDF). Proceedings of History Week: 142–143. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 July 2017.
  2. Knepper, Paul (March 1, 2010). "The British Empire and Jews in Nineteenth Century Malta". Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. 9 (1): 49–69. doi:10.1080/14725880903549269. S2CID 144580982.
  3. "Marsa Jewish Cemetery". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Archived from the original on 9 December 2018.
  4. Harroch, Meyer (28 April 2017). "The Hidden Gem: Discovering the Jewish Heritage of Malta and its History". The New York Jewish Travel Guide. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017.

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