Hebrew Benevolent Cemetery, Chicago

Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery may not be Chicago’s largest cemetery but it is one of the city’s oldest. It’s the oldest existing Jewish cemetery in the city, founded in 1851.

Entire sections of this beautiful tribute to the departed are overgrown and decaying. More than a few headstones are illegible–victims of time, neglect, and vandalism, and still, others are missing.

Historically important Chicagoans buried here include a Civil War colonel, Marcus Spiegel, and his wife, the first Chicagoan to be converted to Judaism, and novelist Edna Ferber’s grandparents.