ASK any person on the street in Queens where they think Bayside Cemetery is, and the inevitable answer would be … Bayside. Not the case. Bayside Cemetery is actually one of a trio of cemeteries located between 80th and 84th Streets and Liberty and Pitkin Avenues in Ozone Park, just a few blocks east of the undefended Brooklyn-Queens border; Jamaica, Pitkin, Sutter and Liberty Avenues actually encroach east from Kings County. You can spot the cemeteries on this view of Open Street Map. Bayside Cemetery was so named because when it was established on what was previously empty fields and farmland, it was punctuated by streams and rivulets issuing south to Jamaica Bay.
Bayside Cemetery is the centermost of three Jewish cemeteries, Mokom Shalom “Place of Peace“; Bayside; and Acacia Cemeteries. In a sad reality the cemeteries need to be protected by fencing and barbed wire from vandals, much the same as the Jewish cemeteries further north in the Cemetery Belt north of Jamaica Avenue. Some of the most heinous acts of grave desecrations have occurred in this trio of cemeteries.
In 1973, the National Guard were called in to help with clean-up and repairs at Bayside Cemetery, after a four‐year siege of vandalism in which hundreds of tombstones were overturned or broken, mausoleums smashed, iron gates ripped open, and the cemetery office building looted and ransacked. Between 1976 and 1978, over 500 tombstones were overturned at Mokom Sholom Cemetery. In addition to the pervasive vandalism that continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the cemeteries were frequently preyed upon by professional thieves who stripped dozens of mausoleums of their bronze doors, stained-glass windows, and marble interiors. [New York City Cemetery Project]
Bayside Cemetery is the oldest of the three, founded in 1861, with Mokom Sholom Cemetery founded in 1864, and Acacia Cemetery founded 1896. They are coterminous with no fencing in between, and cemetery records of the three have been intermingled over the years.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop. As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.
4/28/26
1 comment
According to Find a Grave the most recent burial was in February 2024. There have been a total of six in the last 10 years. Mokom Sholom’s most recent is August 2022 with four in the last 10 years and Acacia is the most active of the three at November 2024/22.
My guess is that while there probably haven’t been new plot sales in years there are occasional burials in plots bought some time ago.