There’s a Jewish Cemetery Hidden Inside a GM Plant
Image by Getty Images
By Anne Cohen May 12, 2015
General Motors, home to the Corvette, the Camaro, the Cadillac — and a Jewish cemetery?
According to , nearly 1,100 souls can claim a resting place in a 2.2 acre plot of land, surrounded on all sides by General Motors Co.’s Detroit Hamtramck Plant.
Beth Olem Cemetery has been around for roughly 155 years, and was actively used by the Jewish community of Detroit from 1860 until the late 1940s.
Though public access to the cemetery is limited — to maintain GM security — an exception is made for Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Passover as well as special family requests.
Susan Brodsky recently visited the cemetery after finding out through an elderly cousin that her great-great grandfather had been laid to rest there in 1909.
Per the Associated Press:
“He said it was in the Cadillac plant,” said Susan Brodsky, standing next to the headstone that read “Cantor” in English and the rest in Yiddish. “At first, I’m sitting there going like, ‘Where? Where? What is he talking about?’ Then I started Googling ‘old Jewish cemeteries in Detroit’ and it was pretty obvious. … This was it.”
Shaarey Zedek’s Clover Hill Park Cemetery,located in suburban Detroit, is responsible for Beth Olem’s maintenance and upkeep, though GM has access in case of emergencies.
For pictures of the unusual cemetery, head over to The New York Daily News.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
