NEWS AND EVENTS:
Check this page often for news updates and information about special events. Anytime is a good time to send us a donation!

CEMETERY TOURS:
In response to excellent suggestions and requests we received from our supporters, we began a program of monthly Cemetery Tours and offered our first scheduled tour in March 2006. These tours provide an excellent opportunity (1) to visit the graves of your loved ones; (2) to honor the memory of the entire Perth Amboy Jewish Community of yesteryear; (3) to learn interesting historical information about these cemeteries, those interred there, and the community in which they lived; and (4) to observe the current condition of the cemeteries and our progress in restoring them. We include a few prayers at each cemetery, to enhance our memorial tribute, and we follow each tour with a visit to a local restaurant, so that we can extend our reminiscing and socializing.  The tours are free, and all are welcome and invited to attend.

Our first tour program (in 2006) was very successful and popular, and we were sometimes accompanied by news reporters.  Our final 2006 tour was covered by Channel 12 News.  Our 2007, 2008, and 2009 tours were even more rewarding, since many attendees invited their families to join them --- in some cases planning big family reunions around our cemetery tour.  This enabled many to see cousins they hadn't seen for a long time and, in some cases, meet cousins they had never met before.  We plan to continue these tours throughout 2010, and we have selected dates that we hope will be both attractive and convenient for as many people as possible, including some when we know many of you will be in the area for high school reunions.  We hope more families will plan reunions around our tour schedule. 

Cemetery tours have been scheduled for the following Sundays in 2010: 

• May 9 (Mother's Day)
• June 20 (Father's Day)
• July 18
• August 29 (before the High Holidays)
• October 17 (weekend of PAHS Class of 1960 Reunion)

All tours begin at 12:00 noon at the Hebrew Fraternity Cemetery entry gate on New Brunswick Avenue in Hopelawn. After a 1-hour tour of the Hebrew Fraternity Cemetery, we will drive to the Congregation Shaarey Tefiloh Cemetery on Florida Grove Road and Bingle Street for a 1-hour tour of that cemetery. WEAR VERY COMFORTABLE CLOTHES AND SHOES.  ALSO WEAR A HEADCOVER (BASEBALL CAP WILL BE FINE).

For those who are unable to attend a scheduled group tour, especially those who live at a distance and plan to visit this area at another time, we will be happy to arrange for a private tour at another time. Please contact us to make such arrangements.

Although all tours are free, advance registration is strongly recommended (via website or phone), so that we can notify you of any changes (bad weather or other emergencies, etc.).  Check back often for any weather-related changes. 

RECENT CEMETERY DAMAGE:
In March 2008, major spring storms uprooted and toppled a healthy 60-foot evergreen at the Hebrew Fraternity Cemetery (as shown in these photos), damaging several graves but narrowly and miraculously avoiding major destruction to a large number of monuments as would have occurred had the tree fallen a few feet away.  We worked together with Congregation Shaarey Tefiloh, sharing the costs, and we are happy to report the tree has been removed and the final stages of repair have been completed.  This event reminds us that our mission must be not only to provide regular maintenance for the cemeteries --- now and in perpetuity --- but also to be able to manage such unexpected (and unbudgeted) events and disasters.

BIRTHDAY AND YAHRZEIT DONATIONS:
If you can't visit the cemeteries for a real tour, be sure to take the virtual tour on this website. Anytime you can't visit the graves of your loved ones in person, you can visit them online through this website. Instead of placing a stone on the grave during a real visit, you can send a donation to Friends for Preservation of Middlesex County Jewish Cemeteries, Inc. in memory of your loved ones ----- before the holidays, on a birthday or Yahrzeit, or at any other time. We will gladly place a stone on the graves for you. We do not want to compete with any synagogues or other institutions to which you are sending Yahrzeit donations. Please continue to send those donations, which are important to you and the recipient institutions, but please consider this an additional opportunity to honor and remember your loved ones, worthy of an additional donation to Friends for Preservation of Middlesex County Jewish Cemeteries, Inc.

BAR AND BAT MITZVAH PROJECTS AND STUDENT COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS:
We welcome calls from any students seeking projects for their Bar or Bat Mitzvahs or for school community service.  We offer project ideas using our cemeteries to perform mitzvahs and to learn about their heritage.  Any interested students should contact us through this website (using the "Contact Us" button on the left menu) or by phone (856-222-1418). 

OUR PARTNERS:
We have formed a partnership with The Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, so that we can work together to achieve our goals.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR NEW PROJECTS:

• Cemetery Registry:  Some of our supporters have suggested that we photograph and index all monuments at our cemeteries and provide these data to the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry.  We are eager to add the names of those interred at our cemeteries and the photographs of their grave monuments to this wonderful international project, and we seek volunteers to assist with this effort.  Please contact us if you are willing to take photographs for this project or to assist in any other way.
• Perth Amboy Jewish History Book:  In 2001 a group of former Perth Amboy residents initiated plans to write a book about the history of the Perth Amboy Jewish Community.  We are assisting them in the preparation of this book and are thrilled that this project is making wonderful progress.  The book project organizers have collected a great deal of material and have interviewed many people with stories, memories, and photos to share.  Many families are coming together to sponsor Family Tribute Pages as a special way to honor their ancestors.  Because many families needed additional time to prepare these special tributes, the book organizers have extended the deadlines for submission of this material.  If you want more information about the book or sponsorship of Family Tribute Pages, please contact us.