Sacred Ground on de la Savane: Montreal’s Baron de Hirsch Cemetery

At the turn of the 20th century, more Jewish immigrants were arriving in Montreal than anywhere else on the continent, and the city’s small middle-class Jewish community suddenly had to meet the burial needs of many new, mostly poor, arrivals, who had little affiliation with the local congregations. Out of this crisis, the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, one of Canada’s largest Jewish cemeteries, was established on an undeveloped expanse of swampland in the heart of the city.rnrnPublished to mark the cemetery’s centennial, Sacred Ground on de la Savane traces the growth of the many burial societies that make up the cemetery and explains how the institution tackles issues all Jewish cemeteries must face: security, burial rituals, modern management techniques and monument repair.rn