October 10, 2024

Honoring Our Loved Ones Together

Steven D. Levy Interim CEO

Three years ago, on Annual Newark Cemetery Visiting Day, I had the amazing experience of helping a visitor find the grave of his uncle.

For almost a decade he had been searching through one of the Jewish cemeteries in Newark to find his cherished relative’s final resting place so he could honor his memory. This only happened because our Jewish Federation and our Jewish Community Foundation made it a priority to restore the Newark cemeteries, to make them safe and welcoming for visitors.  

Collectively, these cemeteries have about 60,000 graves going way back to the founding of our Jewish community (the oldest grave is from 1874).

 

We have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure that the final resting places of these souls are dignified. Our Federation and Foundation have always recognized the importance of honoring the past, and over the next few years, we hope to go even further by creating a visual database that will enable all of us to learn about our community’s founders and their histories.  

In Judaism, it is often taught that there is no greater mitzvah than honoring the deceased because they cannot say thank you.

 

Each year, the Federation hosts its annual cemetery visiting day on the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This year, the day was renamed in memory of Sam Convissor, a beloved South Orange resident who passed away a few months ago and was the President of Beth El Memorial Park Foundation, which holds funds dedicated to the maintenance and preservation of these cemeteries.

Sam, along with the other trustees of the Foundation, have been diligently caring for the 60,000 graves in five cemeteries, and are committed to ensuring that these cemeteries are maintained so that visitors are able to comfortably and safely visit the resting places of their loved ones. 

Beth El Memorial Park Foundation currently has sufficient assets invested so that it can now care for these cemeteries in perpetuity.

 

It has been incredible to watch as more and more people come to the annual visiting day each year, and either reconnect with their families or just learn more about the community.  

Once the new database is up and running, not only will they be able find their family members’ graves more easily, but there will be an ability for them to share the history of those buried in our cemeteries (photos, biographies, etc.). This entire project, although far from complete, has already transformed an important part of Greater MetroWest’s history. 

For more information about the cemeteries, please contact the Jewish Historical Society of Greater MetroWest (JHS).