A Brief History...
Historically, when Jews settled an area one of the first things
they did was to establish a cemetery. Jews started arriving
in Newport, Rhode Island and by 1677 they had a cemetery. The
first Jewish organization in Chicago was the Jewish Burial-Ground
Society, established in 1846. Jews have been living in McHenry
County since the 1920's. By then we were already in the era
of the automobile and so nearby cemeteries were not critical.
McHenry County's proximity to Elgin and Rockford, two cities
that each had Jewish communities with cemeteries and synagogues,
meant that establishing local consecrated burial grounds was
neither critical nor urgent. By the 1950's, there was a Lox
and Bagels Club in McHenry County, men that met regularly for
fellowship and also in order to be able to get a minyan for
the annual recitation of kaddish. The first synagogue, McHenry
County Jewish congregation, was established in 1982.
For Herb and Eileen Franks, deeply rooted in both the county
and the Jewish community, starting a Jewish cemetery in the
county was in keeping with family tradition. Eileen's grandparents
on both her mother's and father's side were instrumental in
establishing Jewish cemeteries in their respective communities
in Florida. In 2006, Herb and Eileen marked their 50th anniversary
by announcing plans to fund a cemetery in the county through
the Franks Family Foundation. They enlisted members of the McHenry
County Jewish Congregation to form a committee to find a suitable
site for a cemetery in the county. They found a convenient and
serene setting on a hilltop at the Oakland Cemetery, a mature
cemetery that dates back to 1859.
Land was purchased in 2008 and the cemetery was consecrated
in July of 2009.
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