OUR CEMETERIES' HISTORIES

The rich histories of New Jersey's Jewish communities are reflected and preserved in our cemeteries, which have their own histories and need our ongoing support. Please join us in reminiscing about some of New Jersey's Jewish communities as you read these brief histories of our cemetery partners, which serve as landmarks of our heritage.

NEWARK JEWISH CEMETERIES

Newark Jewish Cemeteries, which cover more than 60 acres in 5 geographic areas of Greater Newark and include more than 110 individual cemeteries, represent an important part of our history and heritage and serve as the final resting place for about 150,000 people. Each individual cemetery was started by a Jewish organization (synagogue, fraternal lodge, landsmannschaft, mutual aid society, burial society, benevolent society, trade union, etc.) whose members had emigrated from Europe and settled in Greater Newark. Only two of these individual cemeteries are currently owned by organizations that are still active today — both synagogues; all of the other organizations have become defunct, leaving their cemeteries behind and underfunded. The thriving Jewish communities living in Greater Newark around 1950 no longer live there, but their cemeteries remain as a vivid reminder of our history and heritage — deserving dignity, respect, and the funds necessary to keep them in the condition they deserve.

Recognizing both the importance of preserving these cemeteries and the enormity of the challenge, Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest and Sanford B. Epstein, Inc. are working together to restore and maintain the Newark Jewish Cemeteries. The Community Relations Committee of Greater MetroWest NJ sponsors Newark Cemetery Visiting Day annually, and investment income from the Beth El Memorial Park Foundation provides funding for some cemetery repairs. Because the immediate needs for repairs are so great at Newark Jewish Cemeteries, we have added these cemeteries as partners. Our goal is to raise funds that can be used both immediately and in the future at Newark Jewish Cemeteries — to honor those interred there with the dignity they deserve.

SHAAREY TEFILOH CEMETERIES

Shaarey Tefiloh Cemeteries include several cemeteries in Perth Amboy and Woodbridge that were originally owned by Congregation Shaarey Tefiloh (an Orthodox synagogue in Perth Amboy) and are now owned by Shaarey Tefiloh Cemetery Association. Congregation Shaarey Tefiloh Cemetery in Perth Amboy was founded in 1917 by the synagogue (Congregation Shaarey Tefiloh), which also purchased burial rights in a section at Beth Israel Memorial Park in Woodbridge. The Bingle Street section of the Congregation Shaarey Tefiloh Cemetery was founded in 1917 by the United Hebrew Association of Perth Amboy, which transferred this cemetery to the synagogue in 1954 when the organization dissolved. The Hebrew Fraternity Cemetery in Hopelawn (in Woodbridge Township) was founded in 1894 by the First Perth Amboy Hebrew Mutual Aid Society, which reorganized as the Hebrew Fraternity; this organization dissolved in 1973 and transferred its cemetery to Congregation Shaarey Tefiloh. As the Jewish population of Perth Amboy declined, Congregation Shaarey Tefiloh closed its doors and transferred these cemeteries to Shaarey Tefiloh Cemetery Association. We have partnered with these cemeteries since 2005 — honoring those interred there and preserving our community's history. Like all cemeteries, these have ongoing needs for maintenance and repairs and are in need of funds to support these both now and in the future. We are grateful to all of you who have generously contributed to this effort, and we hope we can count on your continued support for these cemeteries.

We are planning to add more information about the histories of all of our cemetery partners soon. If you have any photos and/or stories you would like to share with us, please contact us by selecting "Contact Us" on the menu.

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

As we continue to seek and collect stories and memories to share with you, we begin by relating a little-known, but highly significant, detail explaining an important connection between the Perth Amboy and Newark Jewish communities: When Mae Chazin (daughter of Perth Amboy’s Cantor Hirsch Chazin) married Cantor Nathan Mendelson (son of Newark’s Chief Rabbi Jacob Mendelson), it connected the Perth Amboy and Newark Jewish communities more than 80 years before Friends of New Jersey Jewish Cemeteries, Inc. acknowledged that we need to work together to achieve the same goals. Cantor Chazin was a major leader of the Perth Amboy Jewish community and is interred at our Shaarey Tefiloh Cemetery in Perth Amboy, and Rabbi Mendelson was a major leader of the Newark Jewish community and is interred at our North Arlington Jewish Cemetery in North Arlington.

We invite you to send us more stories and photos about the New Jersey Jewish communities that are interred in our cemeteries, and we plan to share these with all of you soon.