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An Indiana town had no Jewish cemetery. When its mayor died, it built one

JL;DR SUMMARY Marcus Levy, a respected mayor of Aurora, Indiana, in 1871, passed away, creating a unique situation as the town lacked a Jewish cemetery. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish CommunityJewish Burial TraditionsInterfaith RelationsJewish CemeteryCivic Engagement19th CenturyFuneral ProcessionMarcus LevyAurora IndianaRabbi Isaac M. Wise

Places mentioned

Aurora, Indiana, United States
"When Marcus Levy died in Aurora, Indiana, in September 1871, the city gathered."
Lawrenceburg, Indiana, United States
"Rabbi Isaac M. Wise later explained that the Jews of Aurora and neighboring Lawrenceburgh, few in numbers,"
Prague, Prague, Hlavní mešto, Czechia
"Levy was 63 years old, a native of Prague, and the mayor of Aurora."
New York, United States
"he left Europe and arrived in New York a stranger"
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
"But he did not die unknown. He had, as The Israelite newspaper of Cincinnati put it,"

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This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 80998
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-04-28 05:31:03 UTC
Curated 2026-04-28 08:30:53 UTC