Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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By SCOTT DERKS u Where does a cemetery that is being over taken by a mushrooming university go? y Nowhere. a The House of Peace Cemetery on Whaley s Street, across from the Roost, will be surrounded in the next five years by USC projects, including a new intramural field and a power plant. Pass patterns, missed free kicks and scrums will liven up the 60-year-old Jewish cemetery in the coming years, replacing the atmosphere of s ti t fi h C ti C 0 squawling children, overworked diesel engines and impatient mothers. When the university began purchasing the land around the grave yard, Harold Brunton, vice president for business affairs, asked the Beth Shalom Synagogue if it was interested in selling the land. He even sent a representative of a cemetery transfer agency to visit. The answer was a polite but decisive, ''no.'' The Orthodox Jewish segment of Columbia has maintained the heavily shaded grounds since 1918 and has set up a fund to insure |ts VOL. LX II - NO. 85 Univer! pkeep in the future. bef Gus Oppenheimer, who has tended the grave tra ard since 1934, said that when a man came 1 round asking the Synagogue to dig up the sta acred ground he said they were not interested. trir "It makes no difference if they build a power dep lant, a football field or a whatever next to it, wh ve will stay," Oppenheimer said. "We just eant to keep up old traditions; we don't want to other the dead," he said- with a backdrop of inoculars, watches and guitars, all in well olished display cases in Freed's Luggage & ewelry. "it don't matter about the money, they'll ever get that land. We want them to rest in eace. Money means nothing," Oppenheimer aid. The short dark-skinned businessman said iat when he first came to Columbia in the arly 1930's, "there weren't but 18 hundred at ie school down the hill. We had no idea they fould be 18,000 and all around us." Oppenheimer has kept the grave sites "In the rec Id tradition for the orthodox Jews" for nearly 1 )rty years, but he has chosen a burial spot for mo imself next to his son at the Tree of Life yea emetery. pro "A lot of members would prefer to go to the stil ree of Life," he said, drawing air-trace pic- mir ires with his hands. "The House of Peace C emetery will be active for another 25 years; bar ily a few go there. It will be at least 25 years ~ity of South Carolina, Columbia,. C. 29208n 4A Dre It Is filled up. We keep It up In the old dition.'' 'he head stones, many engraved in Hebrew, rid In neat rows on two .sides of a carefully nmed walk. A six-foot high wall shields the iarted from the outsider's casual glances le high trees and bushes tend to hide the tiny 4e-~ dj% tanglar cemetery. 'he shotgun houses to the left, occupied stly by poor blacks, will be gone In a few rs, replaced by a dormitory or a housing ject for married students. But the plans are I little mnore than a twinkle in some ad iistrator's eye. or the right of the well-shaded oasis is the bed wire fence of the university and its sign: (Continued on Page 2) 'hTeahtoe, ay ravdan H...brew,