While driving down I-94, maybe after a day of work or heading to a Brewers game, you’ve surely seen the array of tombstones lining both sides of the freeway near American Family Field.
The rows turn from the uniform white gravestones of military veterans in the General George Wood National Cemetery to the personalized burials in three of Milwaukee’s Jewish cemeteries.
David Schultz has lived in the Story Hill neighborhood for over 40 years, but he first started thinking about the cemeteries in 2016.
"The reason I found out about it was that my company was doing an environmental impact statement for the...I-94 reconstruction project," says Schultz. "And they made a big point of talking about how they weren't going to disturb any of the cemeteries, because that happened when they built the freeway the first time. And I thought that was very interesting. I wanted to know more about it.”
Spring Hill and Anshai Lebowitz cemeteries are right next to each other on Hawley Road south of the highway. Beth Hamedrosh Hagodel is located on the other side of 1-94.
Schultz wanted to know why there were three separate Jewish cemeteries there. The answer turns out to be quite simple.
John Gurda is a local historian and author of the book "One People, Many Paths: A History of Jewish Milwaukee."
“The reason there are three instead of one large one is that they are the projects of different congregations and organizations,” says Gurda.
The cemeteries were established between the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Beth Hamedrosh Hagodel cemetery and Anshai Lebowitz belonged to Orthodox synagogues. B’nai B’rith, a group Gurda describes as “Jewish masons,” established the Spring Hill cemetery.
“B'nai B’rith was sometimes described as a secular synagogue — so people who were more probably aligned with what became the reform movement in Judaism,” says Gurda.
Gurda says the synagogues and organizations the cemeteries belonged to can tell us a lot about the history of the Jewish community in Milwaukee.
"So there were, I think, a dozen synagogues in the Haymarket area and then they move out to the west side, the Sherman Park area, especially Burleigh, Center Streets become kind of synagogue row where Cherry Street had been in the old neighborhood," says Gurda. "In more recent years, you know, 70s and later, you have a migration up to Mequon. So Mequon Road became synagogue row. You have this kind of very large-scale migration of Jewish families, and synagogues follow.”
While the cemeteries remain in their original locations, the communities they belong to have changed. The congregation of Beth Hamedrosh Hagodel has merged over time with other synagogues and now is Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid.
The Anshai Lebowitz synagogue is still operating but has followed the migration of its community to Mequon.
Joel Gusthmann is the synagogue’s president.
“We're a much smaller synagogue than we used to be, but there are plenty of people who are members that have family that are buried in the cemetery," says Gusthmann. "We have burials that take place each year. I don't remember how many there were last year, but I would say at least six or seven.”
Gurda says graves from the Wood veterans cemetery next to I-94 were relocated during the original freeway construction, but he is not sure whether the Jewish cemeteries were affected.
David Schultz, our question asker, was happy to find an answer to his question.
“I mentioned to a friend that I was going to do this call, and he said, 'Oh, well, there's all kinds of different versions of Jewish religion, some more orthodox, some less.' And I thought, 'Well, that's probably got something to do with it then,'” says Schultz.
The cemeteries along I-94 are not the only Jewish cemeteries in Milwaukee, but they do give insight into the history of Jewish communities here.
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