Jewish graves lie neglected, toppled on the South Side: ‘It’s an eyesore’

On a recent afternoon, weed whackers whined and riding lawnmowers growled at one of the city’s best-known cemeteries — the final resting place for Olympian Jesse Owens, Nobel Prize-winner Enrico Fermi, Mayor Harold Washington and many other luminaries.

In another part of the South Side’s Oak Woods Cemetery, near the south wall, a private security guard watched over the Confederate Mound, a federal monument that got beefed-up protection after the deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, two years ago.

A little to the east of the Mound, on the other side of a broken picket fence lies another graveyard where few, it would seem, are watching — except perhaps the ghosts of the hundreds of Jewish people buried there.

Amid knee-high weeds and grass, headstones jutted from the ground like broken teeth; some leaned into each other like teetering dominoes. Two rusting stubs were all that remained of a headstone knocked off its base. And on a cracked concrete path between graves lay an empty bottle of Hennessy cognac — near the torn packaging for pills promising to “take your sexual performance to the next level.”

“It’s an eyesore to our park,” Natalie Woods, general manager at Oak Woods, said in mid-May.

Why are many of these Jewish graves, within the boundaries of the larger cemetery, in such a sorry condition? The answer is complicated. But Dignity Memorial — the company that owns Oak Woods and bills itself as “North America’s largest provider of funeral, cremation, and cemetery services” — has a simple answer: It doesn’t own those plots.

A sign notes that Dignity Memorial does not own the Jewish cemeteries on the Oak Woods Cemetery grounds. — A sign notes that Dignity Memorial does not own the Jewish cemetery on the Oak Woods Cemetery grounds.

Depending on who you ask, the Jewish section is actually owned by three or four different synagogues, with congregations that have long since migrated from their South Side and suburban homes.

One of the owners, Congregation Kesser Maariv in Skokie, calls itself the “oldest Orthodox congregation in the Midwest.”

“The synagogue’s charter at Oak Woods Cemetery pre-dates the Charter of the City of Chicago,” it says on the congregation’s website.

Synagogue staff didn’t return calls from the Chicago Sun-Times.

Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation in Lake View owns a section of the Jewish cemetery — “not the really bad one,” Rabbi David Wolkenfeld said.

“No one has been buried there for 50 or 60 years, and there is no current member of our congregation who has an ancestor there,” he said.

The granddaughter of a rabbi buried there in 1946 used to travel regularly to the cemetery, but she died in early May, Wolkenfeld said.

Many of the names etched in stone appear to have no living relatives. A man reached in North Carolina said a relative who was buried there in 1934 was a distant cousin; the man had never visited the cemetery. Though born Jewish, he said, “Several years ago, I accepted Jesus Christ as my lord and savior.”

Some of the graves date to the late 1800s, their chiseled inscriptions now all but erased by time.

Damaged cameos on headstones sit in the Jewish cemetery within the boundaries of Oak Woods Cemetery’s grounds, — Cameos have been damaged or worn by the elements in the Jewish cemetery housed within Oak Woods Cemetery on Chicago’s South Side.

Rabbi Paul Saiger, a former president of the congregation’s board, said Anshe Sholom’s section looks much better now than it has in the past — thanks to a gift of $25,000 from someone living outside of Chicago who has a great uncle buried there.

“Two years ago, if you’d been there, you would have found dozens of broken gravestones and toppled ones,” said Saiger, reached last week while traveling in Europe.

The decay is by no means unique.

“Since it was not the norm 75 and 100 years ago to put coffins in concrete vaults, as is the law today, graves settle, wooden coffins collapse, gravestones get destabilized, fall over and hit one another on the way down,” Saiger said.

In the meantime, the congregation is dealing with matters of the living. Last week, police were investigating an attempted fire bombing of the synagogue.

“We have a roof that is leaking,” Wolkenfeld said. “There are real, current needs of our membership and our families. We feel a sense of responsibility to do something, but there is a limit on how much we can prioritize that expense.”’

Damaged headstones in the Jewish cemetery within the boundaries of Oak Woods Cemetery.

A few years ago, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago got calls from some who’d gone to visit relatives in the Jewish cemetery and had been upset at the neglect, said David Rubovits, a senior vice president at the organization.

Rubovits helped organize a meeting in early 2015 with leaders from the synagogues.

“That conversation ended, with the synagogues present, acknowledging that they’re still responsible for their sections and they were going to continue to put dollar and labor resources into maintaining the landscaping: mowing the lawn and picking up tree limbs and trimming the bushes as necessary,” Rubovits said. “They were also going to work towards getting stones re-set, as they had funds available … .”

David Jacobson, who owns Chicago Jewish Funerals — with offices in Skokie and Buffalo Grove — said Dignity, the company that owns Oak Woods, should consider taking care of the Jewish cemetery.

“I’m in the gates of the Jewish community. We take care of everyone who needs help. The [Jewish] cemetery is in the gates of their cemetery. It’s not about the bottom line, it’s about what’s right,” Jacobson said.

In the meantime, the cemetery continues to crumble. Bricks from a hut-like structure lay on the ground, the building’s window frames collapsing. Blunt-edged headstones for a “Beloved” mother, father and others lay scattered like a child’s discarded wooden blocks. And photographs of the dead — set in tiny ceramic plaques, each one wearing a suit or a dress — are faded, chipped and all but forgotten.

Damaged headstones sit in Jewish cemetery within the boundaries of Oak Woods Cemetery’s grounds, 1035 E. 67th St., March 20, 2019.

A damaged headstone in the Jewish cemetery on the grounds of Oak Woods Cemetery on Chicago’s South Side. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

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Damaged headstones sit in the Jewish cemetery within the boundaries of Oak Woods Cemetery on Chicago’s South Side. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

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A vacant and dilapidated building sits among damaged headstones in Jewish cemeteries within the boundaries of Oak Woods Cemetery

A vacant and dilapidated building sits among damaged headstones in the Jewish cemetery within the boundaries of Oak Woods Cemetery. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

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The interior of a vacant and dilapidated building, sitting among damaged headstones in Jewish cemeteries within the boundaries of Oak Woods Cemetery.

The interior of a vacant and dilapidated building sitting among damaged headstones in the Jewish cemetery within the boundaries of Oak Woods Cemetery. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

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Damaged headstones sit in Jewish cemeteries within the boundaries of Oak Woods Cemetery’s grounds.

Repairs are needed at the Jewish cemetery within the boundaries of Oak Woods Cemetery. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

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Cameos have been damaged or worn by the elements in the Jewish cemetery housed within Oak Woods Cemetery on Chicago’s South Side. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

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