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Isaac Clifton Moses
Possibly First Jewish Burial in Connecticut

[Gravestone]

Gravestone of Isaac Clifton Moses in Branford, Connecticut:

SACRED
to the Memory of
ISAAC C. MOSES
of Charleston, S.C.
who died
at Branford, Ct.
Sept. 3, 1834
Æ 53

Isaac Clifton Moses was born in Charleston, SC in 1781. He lived in Charleston and was one of the signatories of the constitution of the newly organized Reformed Society of Israelites in 1825. Although short-lived, this society was the beginning of the Reform movement in America.

Isaac and his wife, Hannah, were spending the summer at an apple orchard in Branford in 1834. While riding in a buggy, their horse bolted and threw them from the conveyance, resulting in Isaac's death. Hannah made the trip back to her home in Charleston, but died within a year from the injuries that she received in the accident. Hannah is buried in Charleston.

At the time of Isaac's death there were no Jewish cemeteries in Connecticut, and he was buried in the old Center Cemetery in Branford. His grave may be the earliest known grave of a practicing Jew in Connecticut.
The photograph of the stone is by W. S. Hirsch, and was published in Volume V of Jews in New Haven
The portrait of Isaac C. Moses is a copy of a miniature obtained from the American Jewish Archives and is used with their permission.
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Updated September 28, 2001 7:41 AM