05/06/2026
Community Spruces Up Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery
Phil Goldberg rakes a grave during the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Cemetery Clean-up Day on May 3 at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery on Ridge Road in Cleveland. CJN Photo / Shannon Mortland
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
by Shannon Mortland
Tucked between other buildings on a commercial part of Ridge Road on Cleveland’s west side is Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery, which opened in 1903 as a burial site for the area’s indigent Jewish population.
On May 3, Jewish people of various ages took to the cemetery with rakes, leaf blowers and shovels to remove overgrowth, fallen branches and leaves. The clean-up day has occurred for the past 11 years, according to Howard Wolf, managing director of the finance department for the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
“People come to this to do good and to honor their ancestors,” he said, adding that the Federation owns seven Jewish cemeteries in Cleveland and one in Sandusky. The oldest Jewish cemeteries in Northeast Ohio are on Cleveland’s west side, he said.
The first burial at Chesed Shel Emeth took place in 1904, so many of the oldest tombstones date back to the beginning of the 20th century. The Federation makes sure even those stones remain cleared and in good shape.
At the height of Jewish immigration from Europe just before World War I, the cemetery was holding about 100 burials annually. Many who came to America died without friends or family who could provide a proper burial.
Though the cemetery does not have a lot of new burials these days, the Federation makes sure it remains well kept as a continuous memorial.
Brett Cochran, cemetery operations manager for the Federation, said about 60 to 100 people come for the annual cemetery clean-up. Some Jewish schools from the throughout the region have even used toothbrushes to clean the headstones.
The cemetery has about 20 burials each year, especially since the area’s Jewish population is mostly on the east side, Wolf said. About 500 feet down on Ridge Road is another one of the Federation’s cemeteries, which also is the focus of one clean-up each year.
“We care so much about giving those who rest here a place of dignity,” Cochran said.
