History of the Jews in Baltimore

Few Jews arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, in its early years. As an immigrant port of entry and border town between North and South and as a manufacturing center in its own right, Baltimore has been well-positioned to reflect developments in American Jewish life. Yet, the Jewish community of Baltimore has maintained its own distinctive character as well.

The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia states:

It can not be determined when Jews first settled in Baltimore. There were none among the buyers of lots when Baltimore Town was laid out in 1729-30; but as Jews are known to have been resident in Maryland in the middle of the seventeenth century, it is not hazardous to suppose that the quickly growing town attracted some of their descendants early in its history. Family traditions, not yet verified, seem to point to the presence of Jews in Baltimore in the middle of the eighteenth century. In his "The Hebrews in America" (p. 93),Isaac Markens mentions Jacob Myers as the earliest Jew in Baltimore, probably basing his assertion upon the following passage from Griffith's "Annals of Baltimore" (1824), p. 37:

"In 1758 Mr. Jacob Myers took the southeast corner of Gay and Baltimore streets and built an inn."

In 1781 Jacob Hart, father-in-law of Haym M. Salomon, headed a subscription of £2,000 ($10,000) loaned to Lafayette for the relief of the detachment under his command.

The existence of a Jewish cemetery in 1786 indicates a Jewish community of some size. How long previous to that year the cemetery had been established is not known. The earliest mention of it occurs in a document (the document was in the possession of Mr. Mendes Cohen of Baltimore), dated July 12, 1786, headed "Mr. Carroll's [Charles Carroll of Carrollton] claims." It is a "list of the names of the Persons who occupy the ground (supposed to be about 2 acres) on the east side of Jones's Falls, . . . with an account of the improvements." One of the items is "The Jews burying-ground, 1 small lot enclosed," situated in Ensor's Town, near East Monument street. A deed dated Dec. 26, 1801, conveys this same burying-ground from Charles Carroll to Levi Solomon and Solomon Etting, for a consideration of five shillings; and another, dated Dec. 29, 1801, for a consideration of $80, conveys it to the same parties from Wm. McMechen and John Leggett. Interment has been made in it as late as 1832, the same year in which the oldest Jewish cemetery now in use was established. No indications can be discovered of the removal of remains buried in it when the cemetery was abandoned.

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