This is the third cemetery of the first Jewish congregation in New York City, a group whose presence in the city dates back to the mid-seventeenth century. Adjacent to the congregation's synagogue on 19th Street--built in 1860 and now long gone--this burial ground houses the graves of important city residents including the obelisk of Dr. Oscar Nordheimer, a German-born professor of Oriental languages at NYU. The cemetery was closed after cemeteries were banned in Manhattan the mid-19th century.