For information on the once-thriving Jewish community and congregations of Sunderland, see Sunderland on JCR-UK.
JCR-UK includes the following searchable databases for the Jewish burials in Sunderland:
(a) Sunderland Cemeteries Database, created 1 August 2019, covers all three Jewish sections of the Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, contains records of nearly 1,500Â burials (to the end of May 2019) and includes over 1,260 photographs of headstones and graves, with GPS coordinates for each individual grave (accurate to about one metre) together with a button which, when clicked, brings up a Google satellite image of the cemetery showing the location of the grave;Â
(b) JOWBR Database; and
(c) Records for Sunderland on the All-UK Database.
CEMETERIES - (Source: David Shulman, Webmaster JCR-UK [December 2005]):
- Ayers Quay Cemetery:
This is the earliest known of the Sunderland Jewish cemeteries, in use from about the 1770's until 1856. Although it is estimated that up to 500 persons may have been buried at the cemetery, the site, some distance from where the Jewish community was located, has been neglected, is overgrown and has been the object of vandalism over the years.
All that remains visible and legible is a broken monument and two headstones. The monument bears the inscription - "This monument was erected by the children of David Jonassohn of Usworth Hall, Durham, in memory of his beloved parent who died on the 25th July 1859 in the sixty fourth year of ......". One headstone is inscribed (in English) - "In memory of Leah Louise Lee, Widow of the late Aaron Levi Lee...", and the other stone bears the Hebrew inscription to Reb Moshe, son of Reb. Shlomo, who died aged 67 and whose date of death appears to be Friday 8 Nisan 5615 (which, if correct, corresponds to 25th May 1855). The remaining text on the stones was not decipherable.
See also Cemetery Scribes - Ayers Quay Cemetery, which includes images of a number of headstones [January 2017]
- First Bishopwearmouth Cemetery:
This plot, in use from 1856 to 1899, is at the northeastern corner of the main Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, adjacent to Hylton Road, Sunderland, and contains over 100 graves. The inscriptions on many of the stones are still legible. A list of most of those known to be buried here appears as an Appendix to Arnold Levy's "History of the Sunderland Jewish Community 1755-1955", Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 1956.
- Second Bishopwearmouth Cemetery:
This cemetery, in use from 1899 to 1926, is situated in the central section of the western side of the main Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, Sunderland.
- Third Bishopwearmouth Cemetery:
This cemetery, dating from 1926 and still in use, is to the northwest of the main Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, Sunderland. It is accessible from Hylton Road.