The Only Jewish Military Cemetery Outside Israel

Stand for Israel  |  August 10, 2020

Jewish cemeteries find themselves a frequent topic of conversation here at Stand for Israel. Either because of the history they teach us. Or because they show that humans don’t learn from history. This story, by The Jerusalem Post’s Rob Rubin, tells us about the Soldiers’ Section of Richmond’s Hebrew Cemetery, believed to be the only all-Jewish military burial ground outside of the Holy Land:

For America’s 150,000 Jews in a general population of 31,000,000 during the Civil War, it was a time of both self-examination and political devotion.

Since most Jews lived in the North, the estimates of 7,000 soldiers in the Union Army and 3,000 in the Confederate Army seem plausible.

When the war broke out, for example, and Richmond, Virginia, became the capital of the Confederate States of America, 102 Jews from that city joined the ranks of the South, a proportion greater than the Jewish population of the city would suggest…

Though threats in the current American national debate about monument integrity have thus far not been voiced about destroying the Soldiers’ Section of Richmond’s Hebrew Cemetery, it is instructive to examine the burial account of Capt. Madison Marcus, one of the Jewish dead interred there.

This burial ground is believed to be the only Jewish military cemetery in the world outside of the State of Israel.

An iron fence with rifles as posts and crossed swords and sabers as railings surround an area of five rows that each hold six fallen Jewish Confederate soldiers.

A headstone proclaims, “To the Glory of God and in Memory of the Hebrew Confederate Soldiers Resting in this Hallowed Spot,” and lists the soldiers’ names…