Cornwall’s Jewish community celebrate funding for cemetery preservation

Cornwall’s Jews are celebrating after being awarded £13,000 in lottery funding for preservation work at a Jewish cemetery in Penzance dating back to the 1740s.

Work will begin at the Grade II listed site, which is the most westerly and southerly British Jewish cemetery, after a £13,100 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). 

It matched contributions made by visitors to the cemetery and donations from descendants, as well as from Jewish grant-making organisations and local traders.

HLF South-West head Nerys Watts said the work would be “a vital restoration of a final resting place for many who made a major impact on Cornwall’s commercial, religious and economic life for more than two centuries”.

With its high granite stone walls and mostly well-preserved headstones, English Heritage has recognised the site as “the finest walled Georgian Jewish cemetery outside London”.

Leslie Lipert of Kehillat Kernow, the Jewish Community of Cornwall, said: “Interest has grown in preserving what remains from our forebears, and the cemetery is one of the best remaining monuments. Its restoration is a precious part of Jewish and Cornish heritage and will honour the dead.”