Old Jewish Cemetery Discovered During Hiking Trip In Rockland County

by Monsey.info

A Jewish resident of Rockland County stumbled across a Jewish treasure while hiking behind his home in Pomona Heights.

An old Jewish cemetery, with gravestones dating up to the 1960’s was found apparently forgotten, but with many of the gravestones still readable.

Sidney Briskin, born in 1926 was buried there following his passing in 1966, according the well preserved headstone.

Other notable names, such a Greenberg and Zimmerman are also buried there, testifying to the Jewish community that thrived there through this day.

For the person who discovered the graves, many of the graves appeared different, standing with markers that were simply a number. No identifying names or dates told their stories.

Those graves are the graves of the mentally and physically impaired, who were at the time housed in the Letchworth Village institution.

Letchworth, a name remembered in infamy, was both a model for compassionate care and a symbol of institutional abuse.

This community-within-the-community had housed mentally and physically disabled children and adults since 1911. It was one of the biggest employers in the area, and at one time had a worldwide reputation as one of the most progressive centers of its kind.

After years of neglect and a bombshell documentary, Letchworth Village was slowly emptied of patients until it closed in 1996.

The Jewish population of the village who passed away were also buried in this discovered cemetery, but slightly differently than the way we would do it today.

In those days, speaking about the death of a mentally or physically disabled person was considered wrong, and those who were buried were done so without names or identifying information.

Having found the cemetery, the hiker called his friends about his find, attempting to arrange a minyan to say kaddish at these forgotten graves.