| AdminHistory | According to the Laws of the Congregation, 'the Cemeteries Committee consists of not more than ten members, to be elected annually by the Council, together with one representative from each Synagogue having burial rights for its members in the Congregation Cemeteries. The Committee shall annually elect its Chairman from its own body, but such Chairman must be a member of the Council of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation.'
The Committee is funded by 'the Cemetery Fund', which receives fees paid for reserved grave spaces, purchase of grave spaces, conducting funerals, setting tombstones, and upkeep of Cemeteries. For records of the Cemetery Fund, see JA/2/M.
The Committee has powers to set fees for the rate of contribution of members to the Cemetery Fund; charges for funerals; reservation of a grave space; erecting and setting stone monuments; and the upkeep of graves and tombstones.
According to the 1928 Yearbook, the Committee was set up in April 1928. Before this date, cemeteries, burial charges, and funeral arrangements are often mentioned in Council minutes (JA/1/A/1) and in the minutes of the Finance and General Purposes Committee (JA/1/B/1/1).
The Cemeteries
The Victoria County History notes that ground for a Jewish cemetery was acquired in Granville St in 1766.
In June 1823, the Congregation acquired a piece of land in Betholom Row, between Bath Row and Islington Row, which was used until 1881. This cemetery still survives, although a recent survey of Jewish built heritage reports that it is currently inaccessible and that the adjacent site is earmarked for development. (see http://www.jewish-heritage-uk.org/siterisk/riskbg.htm)
The original Jews' burial ground disappeared in 1845 with the building of the railway and New Street Station. The bodies from this cemetery were reinterred in the Jewish section of the cemetery at Witton. (see www.bham.de/cemeteries.html).
In 1869, the Congregation bought land in the municipal cemetery at Witton, which was consecrated in 1871. A Bet Chayim [House of Eternity] in the north-east corner of Birmingham city cemetery was consecrated in the same year. An additional 4 acres of land were purchased at Warren Lane, Witton, in 1907. A Bet Chayim [House of Eternity] there was consecrated in 1937. Witton cemetery is variously named in the records as Witton New Cemetery, the Hebrew Cemetery, Perry Common, Erdington, or Warren Road.
The New Synagogue bought 2 acres of land in the Birmingham Municipal cemetery at Brandwood End, Woodthorpe Road, Kings Heath, in 1919. This was taken over by the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation when the New Synagogue amalgamated with the Congregation in 1997.
Witton and Brandwood End are both still used by the Congregation.
See also Death Registration (JA/2/D) and Chevra Kadisha (JA/1/G) and W.B. Stephens (ed), 'A History of the County of Warwick Volume VII: City of Birmingham' pp. 483-485, available online at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/. |