London – Fury over Construction on Site of the Novo Sephardic Cemetery

London – Strictly Orthodox leaders have pledged to organize mass protests against plans by Queen Mary, University of London, to build on the site of a Jewish cemetery in Mile End Road, east London.

The Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Cemeteries in Europe is leading the campaign against the development of the Novo Sephardic cemetery, which now belongs to the university. Planning permission has been approved and construction has started.

Thirty years ago, the land was sold to the college by the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation on a 999-year lease. The sale involved exhuming thousands of graves and moving the remains to a site in Brentwood, Essex, prompting fierce protests from strictly Orthodox community. A quarter of the graves were left undisturbed in the college grounds.

The latest development is to allow the widening of the path from Mile End Road to the campus and creating a “space for silent contemplation” by the law and humanities buildings. The preservation group believes the work will affect burial sites. The Sephardi organization disagrees and its Rabbi Eiran Davies is supervising the scheme.

The preservation group’s executive director, Rabbi Abraham Ginsburg, said “It is disgraceful that the cemetery was ever sold for financial gain in the first place. We have evidence that there are more than 100 children’s graves on the site.

Mass protests would be organized when the academic year starts. “There are many Jewish students at the university. We must get them on board.”