Jewish Cemetery

The Hebrew Benevolent Society of Rapides Parish was established to purchase this plot of land for a cemetery. The earliest burial was that of Augusta Bernstein in 1852. This small group of Jewish families proceeded to form Congregation Gemiluth Chassodim in 1859 under the leadership of Isaac Levy, Henry Greenwood, and Julius Levin. It is unknown why the cemetery was established prior to the founding of the congregation, although it may have been due to the sudden outbreak of yellow fever which claimed six Jewish lives in the early 1850s, necessitating the establishment of a burial site.