Jewish Cemetery Trust Rookwood

Organisation Archives

---

Authority Biography/Administrative HistoryWhen the Sydney Synagogue first formed in 1832 trustees were gazetted by the government for a grant of cemetery land where Central Railway now stands. For the next 180 years until the dissolution of the Jewish Cemetery Trust of Rookwood Necropolis in 2012, burials in Sydney’s main cemetery were managed by Jewish trustees, those at Rookwood comprising almost 75% of all Jewish burials in NSW.

Until 1903 when the trust was established as an independent incorporated organisation, cemetery trustees had been appointed as a subcommittee of the Synagogue. A decade later in 1912 Sydney Chevra Kadisha was also established as an organisation independent from the Great Synagogue. These two organisations with their predecessors have had dealings with more Jewish families of NSW over a longer time span than any other Jewish organisation.

The first trustees in 1903 were executive board members of the Great Synagogue. Over the next few decades retiring or deceased trustees were replaced by representatives of newly forming suburban congregations, orthodox, conservative and reform, and later by community members with professional legal, financial, architectural, or other skills useful for development and management of the cemetery.

Rookwood Cemetery is owned by the NSW Government and operated by honorary trusts which administer specific sections of the cemetery.
ProvenanceB64 Jewish Cemetery Trust Rookwood - ROOKWOOD
Dates(s)1904 to 2002
Scope & ContentThe records of the Jewish Cemetery Trust includes minutes of meetings; purchases; burial grounds; community notices etc. The records held at AJHS are electronic copies of the physical records retained at the State Records Office, NSW as the records fall under the NSW government State Records Act.
Series

• Purchases of the Jewish Cemetery Trust Rookwood
• General Correspondence of the Jewish Cemetery Trust Rookwood
• Correspondence from the Jewish Community in relation to the Jewish Cemetery Trust Rookwood
• Burial Grounds of the Jewish Cemetery Trust Rookwood
• Buildings of the Jewish Cemetery Trust Rookwood