Mayor Robert F. Wagner disclosed today New York City’s support of a Senate bill which would include the Shearith Israel Cemetery, believed to be the oldest Jewish cemetery in the United States, in the Federal Registry of National Historic Landmarks.
The Mayor indicated the city’s backing in a letter to Senator Jacob K. Javits, New York Republican, who introduced the bill. The Mayor noted that the cemetery was designated a New York Landmark as one of the first official acts of the City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The Mayor also cited the fact that the cemetery “contains the graves of persons eminent in the city from the time of the seventeenth century” and that it was “the site of a gun emplacement used in defense of our city during the Revolution.”
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