| Cemetery Description: |
The Jewish portion of this non-sectarian cemetery is owned and managed on behalf of the Jewish community by Sinai Temple (3104 West Windsor Road, Champaign IL 61822-6104). A Jewish community has resided in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana since about 1854. Members of Ahavat Achim ("Brotherly Love"), a memorial society organized in October 1867 in Champaign, operated a Jewish cemetery in Urbana from 1870 to 1899. Ahavat Achim merged in March 1887 with Grand Prairie Lodge 281 of B'nai B'rith, which itself had been organized in 1877. In November 1898, the B'nai B'rith Lodge proposed replacing the Urbana cemetery with a Jewish section within Mount Hope Cemetery in Champaign. On 14 March 1899, 21 8-plot lots were purchased from Mount Hope. Mount Hope Cemetery records indicate that 15 of the burials in this new section were re-burials from the old cemetery in Urbana. After all were moved to Mount Hope, the old Urbana cemetery was closed. Since about 1915, the Jewish sections of Mount Hope have been owned and operated by Sinai Temple (organized in 1904 as Sinai Congregation of Urbana and Champaign). Congregations using Mount Hope include Sinai Temple, Congregation B'nai Israel (active between 1912 and1954), and the University of Illinois Hillel Foundation (active since 1923).
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