Hebrew Rest Cemetery: On the High Ground of Gentilly Ridge

Hebrew Rest Cemetery: On the High Ground of Gentilly Ridge

Hebrew Rest Cemetery occupies some of the highest ground in New Orleans—Gentilly Ridge, a natural levee formation that runs through the Gentilly neighborhood and has attracted settlement for centuries precisely because it does not flood. Established in 1860, with a second section added in 1894, Hebrew Rest is one of the most important Jewish cemeteries in the South, serving a community that has been part of New Orleans since the earliest days of the colony and has contributed immeasurably to the city’s commercial, cultural, and civic life.

History

By 1860, the Jewish community of New Orleans was one of the largest in the United States. The existing Jewish cemeteries—including the Dispersed of Judah and Gates of Mercy—were filling up, and the community needed a larger, more permanent burial ground. The Gentilly Ridge location was chosen for its elevation—a practical consideration in a city where flooding could disturb below-ground burials, and Jewish law requires that the dead remain in the earth undisturbed. Hebrew Rest No. 1 was established that year, and Hebrew Rest No. 2 followed in 1894 as the community continued to grow.

Architecture and Traditions

Hebrew Rest features a mix of above-ground and below-ground burials, reflecting the ongoing tension between Jewish burial traditions—which favor direct contact with the earth—and the practical realities of burial in New Orleans. Many graves feature the raised coping style found at other Jewish cemeteries in the city, which elevates the burial while maintaining the in-ground principle. The headstones and monuments range from simple, traditional markers to more elaborate Victorian-era monuments, many featuring Hebrew inscriptions, Stars of David, and other Jewish symbols alongside English text.

The Community

The families buried at Hebrew Rest read like a roll call of New Orleans commerce and civic life. Jewish merchants, cotton brokers, bankers, and professionals built many of the businesses and institutions that defined the city in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Names familiar from New Orleans’ commercial history—the Godchauxs, the Werleins, the Katz families—are found among the headstones, representing generations of a community that wove itself into the fabric of the city while maintaining its distinct religious and cultural identity.

Surviving the Storm

Hebrew Rest’s location on Gentilly Ridge proved its worth during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While much of Gentilly flooded catastrophically, the ridge cemeteries fared better than those in lower-lying areas. The cemetery sustained damage but avoided the worst of the flooding that devastated cemeteries and neighborhoods across the city. Today, Hebrew Rest remains an active cemetery, continuing to serve the Jewish community of New Orleans as it has for more than 160 years—a testament to the permanence of faith and community in a city where nothing else seems to stay the same.