The Jewish Cemetery

The Jewish Cemetery is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael, now at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The Jewish Cemetery is an allegorical landscape painting suggesting ideas of hope and death, while also depicting Beth Haim, a cemetery located on Amsterdam's southern outskirts, at the town of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel. Beth Haim is a resting place for some prominent figures among Amsterdam's large Jewish Portuguese community in the 17th century. The tomb monuments commemorate leaders of the newly arrived Portuguese-Jewish population. The central elements of the painting differ from what one would see in Ouderkerk, as Ruisdael made adjustments to achieve compositional and allegorical intent. The picture's physical dimensions are twice that of typical landscape painting from the 17th century. After being cataloged in England in 1835, the work disappeared from public display for many years, before emerging at various auctions in London and Berlin. The Detroit Institute of Arts acquired the painting in 1926 from Julius H. Haass, given in memory of his brother.

Jacob van Ruisdael created two versions of The Jewish Cemetery in 1653 and 1655 while in his mid-twenties, according to Erich Simon.