When we refer to the existing historical records, we learn that Jewish community in Białystok had six Jewish cemeteries.[1.1]

It is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Białystok, founded in the second half of the 16th century, possibly, as Jan Glinka, a well known researcher of Białystok’s history stated, even before 1580.

Due to the fact that it was located in the center of the city (in the southern part of the present Kościuszki square, at the end of the Sienkiewicza Street) in 1752, Jan Klemens II Branicki obliged Białystok Jews to move the cemetery to another location – behind the Suraska gate. The only existing source of information referring to this object is in the inventory list of 1772. There is a mention of an old, Jewish cemetery, closed at that time, located by the southern side of the Market, by a plot belonging to Miron Josiowicz, a Jewish tailor. It is also known, that with the consent of J. K. Branicki, Josiowicz bought the above-mentioned plot on 30 August, 1770, with the aim of building a brewery. The object was also marked on the Becker’s Plan dated 1799.

Finally, in the 19th century buildings were constructed on the land of the former cemetery[1.2] .