JewishGen’s Cemetery Discovery Project
A Database of Jewish Burial Sites and Community Resources
cdp.jewishgen.org
Purpose
JewishGen’s Cemetery Discovery Project’s primary purpose is to find and document Jewish burial sites around the world. Sites may include Jewish cemeteries, Jewish sections of non-Jewish cemeteries, non-denominational cemeteries with Jewish burials, veterans’ cemeteries, etc. The burial sites may or may not still be operational.
In addition, the database includes selected references to synagogues, local Jewish community groups, and other potential sources of local information. This information is provided when available and is not presented for all towns in the database.
Put another way, is if you want to find out if your town of interest has a Jewish burial place, our goal is that this database is the place to look. If you want to find records for individual burials, JewishGen’s JOWBR (JewishGen’s Online Worldwide Burial Register) (https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery/) database is the place to look.
Background
The IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies) has been maintaining this database for decades. Since maintaining databases is not their principal mission, they have been trying to find an organization that would take over the maintenance of the database. JewishGen felt that it would be a perfect new home for the database and would be a valuable resource for our worldwide network of researchers.
JewishGen would like to recognize the efforts of those that helped to maintain the database under the IAJGS’s care; Ellen Sadove Renck (Project Coordinator), Kitty Munson Cooper (Webmaster), Peter Strauss (Germany Project Leader/Photo Asst.), David M. R. Shulman (Geographic Advisor and Editor) and volunteers Evamaria Brockhoff, Jason Hallgarten, Joachim Mugdan, Fritz Neubauer, Eva Radding, H. Peter Sinclair and Jeri Steele.
During the transition, JewishGen’s main concern was that the database would continue to be available to researchers. We understand that there may be old links and outdated references within the write-ups but we felt it was important to keep the existing information available to researchers as is. The value of this database will be enhanced by the efforts of our researchers and other groups that can help update and refine the information presented.
The data is organized geographically. The main level is Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific. Similar to the JOWBR database, as you drill down, you’ll find listings by state / province / district, etc. till you get down to localities. The names of the jurisdictions should be the modern names that are currently used, but please try other possibilities if you can’t find your town.
How You Can Help
To maintain such a comprehensive database, we ask for your help. Local Jewish genealogical societies, Jewish community groups, individual researchers, and other sources that are familiar with the areas can “adopt” the listings for their local area and provide us with updated information. If you’re travelling to an ancestral town, send us information that we can add to the database. Rather than delete any old information, we expect to add “Updates” so that all information will be retained.
Until further notice, if you have additions / corrections / updates, please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. If you’d like to help update and maintain the database, I’d also like hearing from you.
We hope you’ll find this database another valuable resource in the family of JewishGen resources.
Nolan Altman
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Director of Data Acquisition and Coordinator of Holocaust Database, JOWBR (Burial Registry), and Memorials & Plaques Project
July 2025
