West Ham Jewish Cemetery

{{Infobox cemetery

| name = West Ham Jewish Cemetery

| image =

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| coordinates = {{coords|51.5528|0.0123|display=it}} – Mausoleum| established = 1856

| country = England, United Kingdom

| location = Buckingham Road, West Ham (London Borough of Newham), London E15 1SP

| type = Closed (since 2002){{Cite web |url=https://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/london/west-ham-cemetery.html |title=West Ham Cemetery: London |date=29 June 2017 |website=International Jewish Cemetery Project|publisher= International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies |access-date=27 May 2019}}

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| owner = United Synagogue Burial Society

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| website = {{Official|https://www.theus.org.uk/article/west-ham-cemetery/}}

| findagraveid = 2315354

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}}

West Ham Jewish Cemetery is a cemetery for Jews in West Ham in the London Borough of Newham, England. It was established in 1856 by the New Synagogue on Great St. Helen's, soon joined by the Great Synagogue in Duke's Place, both of them London congregations.Kadish, Sharman, Jewish Heritage in England: An Architectural Guide, English Heritage, 2006, p. 35 It has been closed to new burials since 2002

There are a number of notable people buried here, in a graveyard visually dominated by the imposing Rothschild Mausoleum. One section contains graves removed to this burial place from the former Hoxton burial ground of the Hambro Synagogue when that site underwent urban redevelopment. The oldest legible tombstone in this section dates from 1794.

Rothschild Mausoleum

The Rothschild Mausoleum is circular, domed, mausoleum built in 1866 by Ferdinand James von Rothschild for his late wife Evelina de Rothschild who died in childbirth at age 27. The architect was Matthew Digby Wyatt. It is fashioned of marble in Renaissance revival style.Pearson, Lynn F. Mausoleums, Osprey Publishing, 2001, p. 21 Nikolaus Pevsner notes the "dome of Eighteenth-century detail on attached Corinthian columns" and praises the ironwork and stone carving, calling it worthy of "the attention of the student of mid-Victorian detail."Pevsner, Nikolaus. "Studies in Art, Architecture, and Design",Victorian and after. Walker, 1908, v. 2, p. 101

Vandalism

In 2005 a number of monuments were destroyed and graves desecrated in what the police described as an attack by anti-Semitic vandals. The doors of the mausoleum were pounded with heavy iron bars until they were bashed in, then they were torn from the building.{{cite news|author=Woolf, Marie|url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-shocking-face-of-anti-semitism-226004.html|title= The shocking face of anti-Semitism|work= The Independent|date= 16 June 2005|access-date=19 June 2020}}

Notable burials

Evelina de Rothschild (1839–1866), socialite{{cite news |author=Webb, Louis|work=The Independent|date= 16 June 2005|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/defaced-the-rothschild-mausoleum-that-has-stood-for-140-years-494300.html |title=Defaced, the Rothschild mausoleum that has stood for 140 years |access-date=1 July 2009 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923000300/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/defaced-the-rothschild-mausoleum-that-has-stood-for-140-years-494300.html |archive-date=23 September 2009 }}
Ferdinand James von Rothschild (1839–1898)Pevsner, Nikolaus. Studies in Art, Architecture, and Design: Victorian and after, Walker, 1908, v. 2, p. 101
Sir David Salomons, 1st Baronet (1797–1873), a leading figure in the 19th-century struggle for Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom. He was the first Jewish Sheriff of the City of London and Lord Mayor of London.{{Cite web |title=West Ham Cemetery |url=https://www.theus.org.uk/article/west-ham-cemetery |access-date=24 November 2020 |website=United Synagogue}}{{cite web|title=The Mayoralty|url=https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/law-historic-governance/the-mayoralty|publisher=City of London|access-date = 16 June 2021}}
Philip Salomons (1796–1867), financier and High Sheriff of Sussex.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}}

War graves

The cemetery has five Commonwealth service war graves, four from World War I and one from World War II. A German soldier (prisoner of war) and two German civilian internees from the former war are also buried here.{{cite web|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/38314/WEST%20HAM%20JEWISH%20CEMETERY|title= West Ham Jewish Cemetery|access-date = 25 June 2020|publisher= Commonwealth War Graves Commission}}