For information on the history of the Jewish community and congregations of Belfast, see Belfast on JCR-UK. [David Shulman, Webmaster JCR-UK]
There are also former communities in Londonderry, Lurgan and Armagh and Jews living elsewhere, including Dundalk and Drogheda (now in the Republic of Ireland), were occasionally buried in Belfast. David Shulman & Steven Jaffe [November 2025]
Belfast Synagogue website: https://www.belfastjewishcommunity.org.uk/ [October 2025]
The Belfast City Council has placed on line about 360,000 burial records including Belfast City Cemetery - records from 1869 including some Jewish records. When using the search mechanism - you need at a minimum the surname and the extraction will show all or some of the following information: name, age, sex, place of last residence, date of death, date of burial, cemetery, grave section and type of burial - for example, earth burial or cremation. [May 2012] See: https://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/burialrecords [Update October 2025]
Northern Ireland Jewish Heritage Map - the Jewish history of Northern Ireland told through an interactive map. A project of Belfast Jewish Heritage (project director - Steven Jaffe). [February 2022]
The City Cemetery Jewish section features on the map. [Update November 2025]
CEMETERIES:
- Old Jewish Cemetery, The Falls Road, Belfast BT12:
The old Jewish section, located at the Whiterock Road side of the Belfast City Cemetery in west Belfast, was used as the principal cemetery for Jewish burials between 1871 and about 1914 (and occasionally after).
Initially no headstones were allowed for those buried in the Jewish ‘poor ground’ (in accordance with regulations at the cemetery regarding Paupers' graves). Following an appeal by Rabbi Shachter of the Belfast Hebrew Congregation, a memorial stone to all those buried there was erected in 1931.
Up until relatively recently the Jewish section at the City cemetery was in a sad state of disrepair and a target for vandalism. Many headstones have been lost and the former tahara house was destroyed in the 1970s. It was listed (in 1999) as a "Jewish site at risk" by the Survey of the Jewish Built Heritage in the UK and Ireland. However, the Jewish section in recent years has been well maintained and explanation boards about the history of the Jewish community have been installed. Steven Jaffe [February 2004, updated November 2025]
13 Jewish graves vandalized [Update, August 2016]
Cemetery Scribes - Belfast Old Jewish Cemetery includes images of a number of headstones at this cemetery [January 2017]
[NEW DATABASE] A new searchable database hosted by JCR-UK has been created, relating to Jewish burials in Belfast - the Belfast City Cemetery (Jewish Section) Database. The database, at present, contains records covering all 133 unmarked Jewish Paupers' graves and seven of the Proprietary graves in the Jewish Section of City Cemetery, who were interred between 1884 and 1912. Data on remaining graves will be added at a later stage. David Shulman [July 2025]
Access: During general business hours.
- Carnmoney Jewish Cemetery: Church Road, Carnmoney Hill, Newtownabbey:
Opened in 1912 and situated in a scenic spot in what was rural Carnmoney, the oldest stone is that of Annie Gross, who died 9 September 1912. David Shulman [June 2016]
Access: Locked, keys care/of the Belfast Jewish community.