Levi Sheftall Family Cemetery

Levi Sheftall's father, Benjamin, arrived in Savannah from London in 1733 on a ship with other European Jews. Benjamin Sheftall was originally from the Prussian town of Frankfurt (present-day Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany). Levi was born in Savannah in 1739 to Benjamin's second wife, Hannah Sheftall (née Solomons).[3] When Benjamin Sheftall died in 1765,[4] he was the first to be interred in a new cemetery[5] that Levi reserved on a 25-by-40-foot plot of land, surrounded by a wall. The cemetery is now located at Cohen Street (formerly Spruce and Cohen Streets) in the Kayton/Frazier neighborhood.[6][7] In 1773, the cemetery was placed in trust as a family burial ground. Among those later interred there were Levi himself, who died in 1809, and his wife, Sarah Sheftall (née De La Motta), who died two years later, in 1811. The cemetery was closed to burials in 1861.

Today the cemetery is owned and maintained by Congregation Mickve Israel.[6] Few tombstones remain standing.[8] The Mordecai Sheftall Cemetery, founded by Levi's brother for Savannah's Jewish community, is located across the street.