by Cathy Steirn
(update from prior article in the Kol Kehilla)
Kehilla’s Chevra Kadisha has begun looking at securing a Kehilla (and/or greater Bay Area Jewish) section at a local or nearby cemetery for our congregation. We have expanded our search to consider green burial. All places we include below bury cremains.
We recognize that thinking about a burial plot is often not first on someone’s list of pleasant things to contemplate, or even onerous chores. But it is so important. We will all need to consider this someday and a group area requires advance planning.
Before we proceed, we need to know the wishes of our congregation. We need to consider the desires of as many of us as possible. We will be sending out a survey soon to elicit this information in a SurveyMonkey format. It will be enormously helpful to us if you would complete this survey.
We will be asking about your wishes for burial (green and conventional) or cremation. For clarification, we want to define three burial terms:
- Many cemeteries impose the use of a concrete liner, which is a five or six sided concrete box surrounding the coffin. We refer to these concrete-lined graves as ‘conventional’.
- ‘Traditional Jewish’ burial is done in an unlined grave.
- A ‘green burial’ is done in an unlined grave, and may also allow placement of the body in the grave without a casket.
We have currently identified four possible cemetery scenarios for you to consider:
* Mountain View in Oakland with conventional burial in a Kehilla section.
* Gan Shalom in Briones with conventional burial in a Jewish cemetery in a
Kehilla section.
* Lone Tree in Hayward with strong potential for development of green
burial within a Kehilla or Jewish section.
* Fernwood (Gan Yarok) in Marin with green burial in a green cemetery in a
Jewish section.
Kehilla will not be subsidizing any purchases. Each congregant would pay directly to the cemetery.
For more information on green burials: greenburialcouncil.org. Check the Kehilla Chevra Kadisha webpage for updates and other links after 10/3/2017.
Please contact either Cathy Steirn 510-289-2363 or Jane Hoberman 510-333-1848 for any questions.