A photographic record of headstones in the Jewish Section of Newington Cemetery, Edinburgh.

A photographic record of headstones
in the Jewish section of Newington Cemetery (formerly Echobank), Edinburgh.

This is in no way a complete record of the Jewish headstones in Newington Cemetery but
merely those whose inscriptions were still readable when I made several visits during 2003.

There are three Jewish graveyards in Edinburgh. The first was in Sciennes House Place
(formerly Braid Place Cemetery) which was used from about 1816, when that became full
this section of Newington was acquired and when it also became full a third piece of land
was acquired at Piershill Cemetery. Piershill Cemetery is still in use today.

The City of Edinburgh Council is responsible for 39 cemeteries and churchyards in the city, including Newington. During 2003 the Council carried out a programme of Health & Safety checks in all their cemeteries which resulted in thousands of headstones being 'laid flat', some were damaged in the process. Initially, the work was carried out without contacting relatives or descendants - until, that is, the Edinburgh Evening News found out!

The Council now proposes to undertake a study of the city's historic gravestones, and hopes to work together with individuals and private organizations on restoration.

At the time of writing (January 2004) I see little evidence of toppled headstones being restored.

Update: I revisited Newington in March 2008 and the Jewish section of the cemetery is in an even worse state of disrepair with many more headstones toppled, presumably for safety reasons.

And finally . . . .

These photographs are the only records I hold, if you would like more information regarding burials at Newington or any other Jewish cemeteries in Scotland you should get in touch with the Jewish Genealogical Society.

If you would like a larger version of any of the photographs for your own personal records then just email me the details of the ones you'd like.

Alan Wilson

Headstone photographs
Abrams	Freedman	Lindey	Spark
Alexander	Freeman	Lucas	Stungo
Ashenheim	Fürst	Michael	Wagner
Barclay	Glasstone	Michaelson	Wasserzug
Berman	Goldberg	Michelsohn	Zilbermann
Brash	Goldston	Meyers
Brown	Gordon	Pass
Camberg	Harrison	Reis
Caplan	Hyman	Rittenberg
Cimberg	Isaacs	Robinson
Cohen	Joel	Rosenberg
Cravezky	Julius	Salomon
Davidson	Kaufman	Samuel
Defries	King	Samuels
Edelshain	Lauterstein	Simmonds
Eprile	Levinson	Sklovsky
Factor	Levy	Solomon
		all photographs ©2004, 2008 Alan Wilson

Miscellaneous Newington Pages
Damage	Photographs taken in January 2004 show the state of disrepair in the Jewish section of Newington Cemetery
Lost	Cases where the inscription is unreadable due to weathering or the headstone has been toppled
Unknown	Photographs where only the Hebrew is readable. I'd be grateful to anyone who could supply a translation.
Links
Monumental Images	another of my sites - this one features mostly Edinburgh graveyards but also includes some in Glasgow, Paris and Londonderry.
The Man Family	David Man traces his family back to the early 19th century and includes a Reis connection.
Scottish Jewish Archive Centre	The Scottish Jewish Archives Centre - opened in 1987 - is a national heritage, information and research centre which collects documents, photographs and artefacts. It also houses an exhibition showing the history of the Jews in Scotland since the Seventeenth Century.
Gen Pals	A project by Gaby Laws to preserve for future generations the information that has been inscribed over the centuries on headstones across the country before it is lost to the insidious ravages of acid rain, urbanization, neglect and vandalism.
Site last amended 13th March 2008