End of Life

“As long as we live, they too will live; for they are now are a part of us; as we remember them.” - “A Litany of Remembrance – We Remember Them” by Rabbi Sylvan Kamens and Rabbi Jack Riemer

Rabbi Russo will visit you and discuss hopes and fears during sickness and at the end of life. They will humbly walk with you and support you during this vulnerable time. 

In the event of death, the funeral home and/or a doctor who can sign the death certificate should be called. 

Afterward, please call Rabbi Russo to help you plan the funeral before you make arrangements. 

Our community supports our congregants with Shiva minyanim.

Congregation Sons of Israel’s cemetery is located at Temple Israel Memorial Park at 75 Van Wyck Road, Blauvelt, NY.

To schedule a visit, contact CSI Nyack’s office at 845-358-3767 or Office@csinyack.org.

To learn more, call Cemetery Chair Susan Malin at 845-358-3767 or email: csicemetery@gmail.com

Inquires about purchasing plots for your family in the Jewish or Non-sectarian areas, please call Larry at 845-353-0885

Burial - Internment

CSI Nyack has its own cemetery, Temple Israel Memorial Park, in Blauvelt, NY.

Address: 75 Van Wyck Rd, Blauvelt NY 

Lovely, Peaceful, Small, Easy to Visit

Buy plots for your family now and have peace of mind.

• CSI Nyack members $2,000 per plot*

• Non-members $2,500 per plot*

• *includes $500 permanent lawn care.

Additional Cemetery Information:

• Here in Rockland County, CSI Nyack’s Temple Israel Memorial Park is the only Jewish cemetery with a non-sectarian section. It offers two burial sections to keep loved ones together – a Jewish section for Jewish individuals and their families, as well as a non-sectarian section, where couples and families of different faiths can be buried together when at least one of the family members is Jewish.

Cemetery News -

July/ August 2023

After twelve years, I'm passing on the Cemetery Committee position of Chair to Susan Malin.

As Chair, I was fortunate to work with a cadre of Shul members with a love of CSI and a commitment to maintaining one of our most important institutions – our Cemetery: Temple Israel Memorial Park in Blauvelt. Serving on the Cemetery Committee is a privilege for any congregant. Together we've had many discussions on many topics over many years, most recently on how to propel the Committee into the future.

Over the years, I've introduced myself as "The volunteer in charge of the Cemetery." Truly the cemetery committee has many opportunities for participation in a number of areas of function.

Please call me at home at H:845-353-0885 to inquire about purchasing plots for your family in the Jewish or Non-sectarian areas.

My name is Susan Malin, and I am the new Chair of the Cemetery Committee. Our first meeting of the fiscal year will take place on July 10th. At that meeting, my plan is to talk about an effective & comfortable division of labor. Some of the tasks of our committee include: Making banking deposits and paying bills, logging info into QuickBooks, liaising with landscapers and repair vendors, encouraging families to fulfill their monument placement, approving designs and foundations, being a resource for families that want to purchase plots, visiting the Cemetery with families, getting plot-purchase paperwork and deeds completed, obtaining, renewing and securing hardware and software, updating & maintaining data in our Cemetery Information Management System, responding to inquiries, and of course, arranging for burials.

For general cemetery information, Helaine can forward any phone messages from the CSI Office. 845-358-3767 Or you may use our new email address: csicemetery@gmail.com

January/ February 2023

This month I'd like to review the controversy and rabbinic rulings concerning cremation for Jews.

The Jewish death custom is burial [Abraham burying Sarah]; other cultures worldwide have funeral pyres, burial at sea, and other varied rites.

As Chair of our Cemetery Committee, I have come across folks who fear burial, and many today consider "ashes to ashes" to be preferable to "dust to dust." Some consider cremation for strictly financial reasons.

Since I became Chair, I've seen five burials of cremains at our Cemetery. Our Cemetery's Reform partner, Beth Am Temple, likely has had others.

In the 1980s, the Conservative Movement tackled the questions swirling about the topic, especially after the Holocaust resulted in millions of our brethren being criminally and unceremoniously reduced to ashes: the five-point "Responsa" below resulted.

"1986-Response-Cremation in the Jewish Tradition by RABBI MORRIS M. SHAPIRO: This paper was adopted unanimously by the CJLS [Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly] in 1986.

1. Cremation is against the Jewish tradition, and the rabbi should so advise the family.

2. Should the family decide not to follow the rabbi's advice, he/she may still choose to officiate in the funeral parlor before the body is cremated.

3. The ashes should be interred in a Jewish cemetery.

4. The interment should be private, without the presence of a rabbi.

5. In a situation where the family has not defied the rabbi's ruling, but he is faced with a fait accompli, the rabbi may choose to conduct services at the cemetery.”

Thus I revised the Cemetery Rules to allow cremains burial. The burial requires a monument, which is denied to our loved ones when ashes are scattered. When we and our children and their children are no longer here, the memorial monument reminds the world that we once were here.

Let me know your comments.

November/ December 2022

Never too early to do Pre-planning

Reminder: Prices are going up on January 1st.

The purchase price of plots will increase by $500 starting in January 2023. Other fees to families after death have increased because of our contractor’s increases. I’ve been asked, “I’ve purchased plots. What do I need to know about how to plan for my eventual use of those plots? Who gets called?”

If you've made plans in advance, and a certain memorial chapel has those plans, then you need to have "your rep" [next of kin, or your executor, or lawyer] --know-- those plans. Upon a death, “your rep” calls the chapel to attend to the decedent, and the chapel likely meets with the family to make funeral arrangements. The chapel calls the Cemetery Committee [now it's me], the synagogue office, or the rabbi to have the Committee make the contractual arrangements for the grave opening at the funeral.

If no preplanning was done, the family chooses a chapel, goes and gets "sold" a casket and funeral with "options." If, as part of the planning, you spoke with a rabbi, "your rep" should try to reach the rabbi and add him/her to the funeral arrangements [if not on vacation or unavailable]. If not prearranged, the chapel has a list of rabbis [or cantors] that can officiate. The clergy usually meets [or zooms or phones] with the family to help design the funeral and develop the eulogy.

If no plots were purchased in advance, it becomes more complex, involving perhaps a meeting at the Cemetery with a Committee member. "Your rep" may also need a list of family, friends, and business associates to notify for the funeral and instructions to place an obituary in a newspaper. So as you can see, the more of this that you and "your rep" can do in advance, the easier and less stressful it will be in the future.

Call me at home for questions or information about our Cemetery.

Larry Kintisch, Chair, Cemetery Committee

845-353-0885

LKint@verizon.net

September/October 2022

Prices are going up on January 1, 2023

Our Cemetery Committee has these volunteers: Geri Bloch, Howard Lasner, Larry Kintisch [Chair], Sue Malin, George Schoen, Esther Schwartz, David Spokony, and Barry Zuckerman. At our August meeting, we voted to increase the purchase price of plots to $500 starting in January 2023. Other fees to families after death have increased because of our contractor’s increases.

When our Cemetery, Temple Israel Memorial Park in Blauvelt, started in 1936, a six-plot “family plot” was then $150!

We mailed annual bills for $8 for “upkeep,” which decades later changed to a single payment for “perpetual care.” Now we have an endowment, an investment fund that supports the upkeep of the entire property, not just certain plots.

Our expenses: we pay a contractor for lawn mowing and seasonal clean-ups and occasional road plowing for winter funerals. Also, we pay for grave openings and follow-up restoration of the gravesite, with added soil and grass seeding. We pay to build monument foundations and occasional tree and shrub removal services.

Our income: we sell burial rights in “plots;” we charge foundation fees and grave opening fees. The latter generates a “profit” since they exceed our costs. Part of that excess is used in subsequent years to restore the gravesite. Until December 31, each plot costs $1000 for members plus $500 for permanent lawn care endowment; non-members pay $1500 plus the $500. Optionally a family may pre-purchase burial rights with multiple payments over time. Grave opening fees start at $1300 and may be higher based on manpower needs, the day and time of the week, or if the ground is frozen.

Of our net income, some funds are held for those operating expenses; a portion goes to the endowment fund for future permanent care and infrastructure repairs, and a portion goes to help fund CSI’s operations.

Call me at home for questions or information about our Cemetery.

Larry Kintisch

Chair, Cemetery Committee

July/August 2022

Veterans in Our Cemetery

Many servicemen returning from World War II were awarded added service benefits with the “Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944,” more commonly known as the “G.I. Bill.” Returning soldiers were given low-cost mortgages, business start-up loans, some unemployment assistance, and tuition assistance. Millions took advantage of the benefits to restart their lives after the war years had interrupted.

The broader Nyack community had a few active post-war veterans organizations, including a local Post of the Jewish War Veterans: Lt. Theodore Kerchman Post No. 84. It was named after a Nyack resident killed in the Battle of the Bulge in western Europe, December 1944 through January 1945. A photo of that group from the Post is in our shul’s “100th-anniversary” book “From Generation to Generation.” Email me if you’d like to see the photo.

After the original Act expired in 1956, new laws have extended benefits granted through the Veterans Administration [now the Department of Veteran Affairs]. Although free burial in a National Veteran Cemetery is one such benefit, many locals have chosen to be interred in a Jewish Cemetery like ours. When a family opts for the free military burial ceremony, it adds a warm and touching moment to the funeral of a veteran at our Cemetery. The flag-draped casket, the uniformed personnel, the playing of “taps,” and the folding and presentation of the flag: these are fitting tributes and an honor to conclude the veteran’s life.

Also, the V.A. offers a free flat military memorial stone or bronze emblem. In our Cemetery, some flat stones are found for Sam Cohen, Emanuel Goldstein, Harry Lewis, Samuel Haag, Harry Korn, Louis Sakoff, Lester Gross, William Pozefsky, Harry Meyer, Arnold Schifter, Nathan Marcus, Daniel Bettinger, Harry Rosenstein (upright), Nicholas Mauro, William Sayles, and Alan Fertile. Each Memorial Day, these graves and a few dozen other veterans' graves are marked with a flag by the local Jewish War Veterans post.

To donate and support them in this flag-placing ceremony, send a check to Rockland Orange District council JWV, PO BOX 38, New City, NY 10956-0038.

Contact me if you have any veteran questions

Larry Kintisch, Chair, Cemetery Committee

845-353-0885

LKint@verizon.net

May/June 2022

This month I’ll review: Why have a Jewish Cemetery.

I may be different from many of you because my father’s parents died before I was ten, and he took me to the cemetery, Beth David in Elmont, many times. I was never afraid of a cemetery, or what it stood for, or the reality, the finality of those many stones with names on them. Maybe because I visited it yearly, the cemetery became for me part of the circle of life. It is said that only humans realize in advance that death is part of life. Maybe also great apes and elephants understand death when it happens and is known to grieve.

Us humans know someday it will happen to us. Some phone calls I get as the Cemetery Committee Chair are sad beyond expectations. Others are rational and straightforward. Almost all deal with a death, either one that has just happened or perhaps one planned for and hoped to be far off in the future. I’ve learned that the Cemetery has a purpose for life and death. While we mourn and grieve those that have died before us, we also use visits to the Cemetery to evoke good memories and provide a sort of immortality to those interred there.

Consider this: unless one is truly famous or infamous, one will live on only in the memories of others. The Cemetery requires names on stone markers that prove they were here. They shared this planet during some time when they were known and loved by others. When occasionally I find a record of a burial that has no marker, even decades later, I wonder: did someone forget to mark it or did not have the funds? Perhaps the deceased had nobody to do the honor of memorializing a life lived among us.

Our Congregation, as custodians of a Jewish Cemetery, must then fulfill that obligation to tell future visitors, “Once I lived a life too.” I urge you to visit the Cemetery at 75 Van Wyck Road in Blauvelt and walk at the foot of graves, not on them, to explore the history of Judaism in our community.

Please call me to ask about purchasing plots in our beautiful, quiet, and local Temple Israel Memorial Park in Blauvelt and our non-sectarian section. Our lower costs for you and your family may be less than the costs of using plots already owned on Long Island or in New Jersey.

If you have questions about the Cemetery or suggestions, don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

Larry Kintisch, Chair, Cemetery Committee 845-353-0885 LKint@verizon.ne

March/April 2022

This month I'd like to discuss the unveiling ceremony or "matzevah."

An unveiling, with or without clergy present, may be held after the monument is set. I have a few pages of psalms and prayers that the family may use if no family member is trained or is a clergy present. I frequently assist at these less formal ceremonies.

There are varying customs about when a family must mark the grave with a memorial monument and hold an unveiling ceremony. After an Orthodox burial at our Cemetery, the son called me to say his rabbi wanted a monument placed quickly, even a temporary one. [We leave a small sign on a stake at each new grave.] Some customs suggest placing a monument after the "sheloshim," the thirty days of mourning after a death. Others mention that after the eleven months of mourning is a more appropriate time to conclude that ceremonial year.

My experience is that families usually want to honor the memory of their loved one on the anniversary ["yahrtzeit"] of the death. An important consideration for many is getting the dispersed family together, perhaps planning the unveiling at a holiday time. There is no universal restriction about the timing, other than the unveiling cannot be held during Shabbat (work-restricted) Jewish holidays or Chol Ha'Moed.

Families may pre-plan a monument just as they may pre-plan a funeral. In any case, the family may shop at one or more monument firms and inquire about styles and prices. I have a list of firms that have recently placed monuments at our Cemetery. Consider that before the monument can be ordered to be manufactured, it may take a few visits or design revisions. Today there are added delays, both due to COVID workforce reductions and supply chain disruptions, so it may require about six months or so to have it made and placed. Accordingly, the family should place an order about six months before the desired unveiling date. When the firm sends us the family's approved monument design, with a "concrete foundation fee," we sign off on it and order the foundation to be built.

The cost of a monument, from about $1500 to thousands, is part of the cost of Jewish burial, and we all should plan for it. When we and our children and their children are no longer here, the memorial monument reminds the world that we once were here.

Larry Kintisch, Chair, Cemetery Committee

845-353-0885