Records of burial permits (in effect a death certificate) are computerized at Paperman Funeral Chapel. Chesed Shel Emes is funeral chapel for the Hasidic community. Source of Montreal is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
- Back River Cemetery-Memorial Gardens: Corner Berri and Sauve, Montreal, Quebec; Established: c 1890 Estimated burial count: 5,500. Directions: The cemetery is located north-east of downtown Montreal north of the Trans Canada Highway (40) and east of St. Laurent Blvd. The older section is between Berri and Lajeunesse north of Sauve. The newer section is on the western side of Berri, south of Sauve. Berri and Sauve Streets in Montreal's north-east end.
- Photos and restoration information [March 2003]
- 1800's- 1920. (Berri St. entrance- 1876- 1934) ( S. Denis entrance,1901- 1934) Tombstone images: a fee charged. [January 2004]
- tombstone images online. A fee charged. [April 2010]
- Images and map below courtesy of This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Some history on Montreal’s Back River Cemetery
Most Jewish Montrealers are familiar with the old cemetery located at the corner of Berri and Sauve Streets in Montreal's north-east end. Some out of towners attending the last family reunion recall our memorial and rededication at Zelig's gravesite in the pouring rain. With ankle deep ruts filled with water, we really didn't take too much time to look much beyond the next puddle. In the months since, there has been a number of articles about this cemetery forwarded to me. This is what I've gleaned from Montreal's The Canadian Jewish News and The Suburban.
The cemetery, known officially as Back River Memorial Gardens Cemetery, was started in 1883 but not under the best circumstances. The land was bought by Temple Emanu-El congregation, then in downtown Montreal. Congregation members were not pleased with the land, arguing it was too damp and watery and too far from the downtown synagogue. After having secured better burial land on Mount Royal, the Back River Cemetery was donated and sold to other downtown and east end congregations including Chevra Kadisha, B'nai Jacob, Sons of Israel and Temple Solomon. It was once the Jewish community's main burial ground, with about 5000 gravesites.
A century ago, this part of Montreal was where most common, hard-working Jews were buried. The Back River cemetery was not the first Jewish cemetery in Montreal. The Spanish and Portugese Congregation had established a gravesite on St. Janvier St. near Dominion Square in 1797. But cholera and other plagues made downtown Montrealers wary of gravesites too close to them. In 1854, the plots were unearthed and relocated to the Mount Royal Cemetery.
Now, over a century later, the ravages of time, as well as simple neglect and the impoverished state of some of the cemetery's ten congregations and burial societies, have taken an obvious toll in an area covering about 15 percent of the total grounds.
The cemetery really consists of two separate plots which are "kitty corner" from each other with a very busy intersection and metro (subway) station between them. The older "north" section, which appears to no longer have active burials, is on the north east corner of the intersection of Berri and Sauve. In one of my recent visits there, I noticed that the layout of the graves was quite disorganized. Even though there appears to have been some plan with discernible rows and aisles, many graves are in pathways, some appear at right angles to others for no apparent reason and others look like they were afterthoughts and just squeezed in. Pathways are overgrown with weeds and grass. Century old headstones, weathered by the harsh Montreal climates have toppled off their eroding bases and remain there because of the either the high cost of repair or the lack of attention by the descendants/relatives of the deceased. Many walkways are in disrepair and there are no proper toilet facilities or a fresh source of water for visitors, many of them elderly. Interesting though, a walk amongst the gravestones, one can see and feel the history of immigrant Jews who struggled with a new country called Canada, a city called Montreal and their own hopes for themselves and for their children. It also showed how hard life was. Several graves revealed death at young ages.
Periodic appeals to the community, particularly at Passover, have managed to raise desperately needed dollars to cover expensive work, such as repair and replacement of exterior fencing, gates and walls.
But with time marching on, the sense of urgency has only increased. Seymour Frank is the president of the Memorial Gardens Foundation, Inc., which represents ten Montreal congregations. Since their amalgamation over forty years ago, almost half of the cemetery grounds has been the responsibility of Chevra Kadisha and B'nai Jacob. The other half is comprised of synagogues such as Shomrim Laboker and Shaare Zion (which now mainly use other cemeteries for burials), as well as other burial societies. Some of those, such as Sons of Israel and Temple Solomon, can no longer contribute towards the memorial foundation's maintenance fund because their members are dying off. Although the Foundation helps coordinate cemetery maintenance, it can do little for individual gravesites. It is up to family members to look after graves.
It appears that there are only about 50 burials a year at the "southern" cemetery grounds since about 1960. (This is where Zelig and other Mayov's and Mayoff's are buried. See photograph on next page)
Some of the other Jewish cemeteries in Montreal are: Shaare Hashomayin, Spanish and Portugese (on Mount Royal), Eternal Gardens (in Beaconsfield) and the Baron de Hirsch (on De La Savane St.)
Credit for this article goes to Stephen McDougal, The Suburban; David Lazarus, The Montreal Jewish News; Allan Raymond, historian; Art Mayoff, The Family Descendant.
- Baron de Hirsch Affiliated Cemeteries: a.k.a. United Hebrew Cemeteries. 5015 de la Savanne, Montreal, Quebec; Tel: 514-735-4696. Established: 1905. (Inexplicably, the first burial, however, was in 1904.) Directions: The cemetery is located on de la Savanne between Mountain Sights and Lindersley Avenues (just west of the Decarie Expressway (15) and south of the Trans Canada Highway (40). Formerly called United Hebrew Cemeteries. Estimated burial count: 52,200. (Source of count: JGS-Montreal.)
UPDATE: 20,000 records and images, about a quarter of the entire Cemetery. Tombstone images: a fee charged. [January 2004]
Photos Baron De Hirsch Cemetery courtesy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [June 2015]
- Congregation Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery: 1250 Chémin de la Fôret, Outrement, Quebec H2V 4T6. Tel: 514-937-9471 #111; Fax: 514-272-6010; (founded 1846). Directions: The Cemetery is located on the slopes of Mount Royal. Chémin de la Fôret is a small, dead-end street just off of Mount Royal Blvd. Estimated burial count: 6,000
- Eternal Gardens Cemetery: Elm Street, Beaconfield, Quebec, Tel: 514-695-1751. Directions: Take Trans Canada Highway (40) to Exit 50 (St. Charles Road). Turn left (south) on St. Charles Road to Evergreen Drive (Last Street on right before Highway 20 underpass). Turn right on Evergreen Drive to Elm Avenue. Left on Elm Avenue past station to cemetery. Sections:
- Kehal Israel Memorial Park: 4189 Sources Road, Dollard des Ormeaux, Tel: 514-684-3441 Fax: 514-421-2272. Directions: Take Trans Canada Highway (40) to Exit 55 (Sources Road). Turn right (north) on Sources Road. Cemetery is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km).
- Map courtesy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- Mount Pleasant Cemetery: 5505 Bas St. Francois, Duvernay, Quebec. Tel: 514-661-7016. Established: about 1959. Directions: Take the Laurentien Autoroute (15) north. Exit on Highway 440 East. Exit at Montee St. Francois. Turn left at stop sign, go over hill until Bas St. Francois (about 2 miles, 3 km). Turn right on Bas St. Francois. Cemetery is about 1/2 mile (3/4 km) on left. Mount Pleasant is a multi-denominational cemetery. The Jewish section is immediately past Mausoleums at entrance.
- Mount Royal Cemetery: Tel: 514-279-7358. Mount Royal Cemetery Fax: 514-279-0049. Synagogue Tel: 514-937-3575. Directions: The Cemetery is located on the slopes of Mount Royal. Chémin de la Fôret is a small, dead-end street just off of Mount Royal Blvd. The cemetery is within the larger (primarily Protestant) Mount Royal Cemetery. Enter through the gates at the end of the street, keep to the left after the entrance area. The designation on the cemetery map is D3.
- tombstone images online. A fee charged. [April 2010]
- Spanish and Portuguese-Shearith Israel: Chémin de la Fôret, Outrement, Quebec. Synagogue Tel: 514-737-3695. (founded 1768). Directions: The Cemetery is located on the slopes of Mount Royal. Chémin de la Fôret is a small, dead-end street just off of Mount Royal Blvd. In 1827, Areli Blake Hart signed an agreement making a plot of land into a Jewish cemetery. The land was passed down in the Hart family that was no longer Jewish. In 1901, some of the bodies were removed without Rabbinical presence. Later, in 1909, more bodies were reburied in the cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Mount Royal Cemetery, where they are at the present time, each body with its original headstone. Source: "The Jew in Canada, complied and edited by Arthur Daniel Hart, Jewish Publications Limited; Toronto & Montreal and submitted by Bruce Bertram, Sunnyvale, CA 94087;
Partial list of interred, Oct. 27, 1909. Haddonfield, NJ. 194, Documents file at American Jewish Archives, 3101 Clifton Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45220-2488; phone (513) 221-1875. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Spanish and Portuguese Jews 1825- 1999, - tombstone images online. A fee charged. [January 2004]]
- Photos courtesy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- Temple Emanuel Cemetery: 1297 Chémin de la Fôret, Outrement, Quebec H2V 2P9.
- United Hebrew Cemetery: see Baron de Hirsch (above)
Photos of Shaare Zion Cemetery courtesy This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [September 2015]
