The Schara Tzedeck Cemetery Board has appointed its board of directors for 2018, and is planning more facility upgrades for the coming year.
The cemetery board is co-chaired by Jack Kowarsky and Arnold Silber. Other members of the board are Shirley Barnett, Harvey Dales, Joshua Hauser, Dr. Mark Schonfeld, Gary Segal, Herb Silber, Isidor Wolfe, Rabbi Yosef Wosk and Barrie Yackness. Honourary board members are Charles Diamond and Joseph Segal. Howard Kallner, president of Congregation Schara Tzedeck, also serves on the board in an ex-officio capacity.
The board has made significant improvements to the chapel in New Westminster over the past two years. Constructed in the early 1990s to house the chevra kadisha, as well as to provide a chapel at the New Westminster cemetery, this building was in need of repairs and upgrades. This $600,000 project was completed last year with the generous contributions of many in our community.
Other improvements to the New Westminster cemetery included beautification initiatives and projects to help manage the organization more efficiently, including developing a grave-finding system that people can instal on their mobile devices, a GIS (geographic information system) to better track records and land use at the cemetery, and the implementation of a system that broadcasts funerals on the internet so that those unable to attend in person can view the funeral. (This service is available at cemeteryboard.com.)
This year, the board is planning to move ahead with another key project. The community cemetery located in Surrey has about 2,500 plots, and began having burials in 2008. To date, there is little infrastructure at that location, only a small handwashing station and a portable building.
Plans are being developed for the construction of a chapel building that will allow the cemetery to better serve those who choose this location. The chapel will seat between 40 and 50 people, provide a private space for families to gather prior to a funeral service and have two accessible washrooms. It will also provide facilities for cemetery board groundskeepers to store equipment. Part of this project will include improvements to the fencing of the cemetery, as well as improving the gardening and landscaping to make the cemetery a more welcoming place.
The cemetery board provides its services to the entire community. Members and non-members of Congregation Schara Tzedeck may purchase plots in any of the cemeteries. Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and those involved with congregations associated with other Jewish movements, all use the chevra kadisha, which is comprised of diverse members of the greater Jewish community. Funeral directors Rev. Joseph Marciano and Howard Jampolsky (who also serves as the executive director) are available anytime to answer any questions, and to provide more information about the availability of burial plots in all three of the community’s cemeteries – New Westminster, Surrey and the Jewish section of Mountain View. They are also available to provide information about pre-planning funerals in order to relieve family members of this task during the difficult time when a loved one passes away. They can be reached at 604-733-2277.
To learn more about the board or to contribute to the current Surrey Chapel Project, call Jampolsky at 604-733-2277 ext. 204, or email [email protected].
Schara Tzedeck Cemetery is establishing a memorial wall at the cemetery in New Westminster to provide an opportunity for community members to create a tribute for family who have passed away and are buried in cemeteries located elsewhere. The memorialization will take the form of an inscription on two new black granite memorial walls located in a prominent section of the cemetery.
With the creation of this memorial, those living in Vancouver will have a physical place nearby to visit and remember their loved ones whose gravesites are located far away. This also provides a way to pay tribute to and preserve the memories of community members who made a contribution here, but who have been buried elsewhere.
The Schara Tzedeck Cemetery board has been operating in Metro Vancouver since 1929, providing Chevra Kadisha and funeral services to the Jewish community, as well as operating three cemeteries for use by the entire community, regardless of synagogue membership.
For more information on the memorial wall or the cemetery, contact Howard Jampolsky at 604-733-2277.
The consecration of Schara Tzedeck Cemetery in New Westminster in 1929. Eliya Ahroni, left, shammas of the synagogue, with shul president Chaim Leib Freedman, who was also founder of the Vancouver Chevra Kadisha in 1910. (photo from Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia L.00306)
The organization that oversees three of Metro Vancouver’s Jewish cemeteries does not want to discourage anyone from planning ahead and purchasing plots right now. They do, however, want to dispel rumors that the cemeteries are running out of space.
“I’m not trying to discourage people from buying plots,” said Howard Jampolsky, executive director of the Schara Tzedeck Cemetery Board, “but we do have adequate land in New Westminster [for now]. We feel that we have probably between 25 and 40 years left in New Westminster of burial land available, based on projections and current rates.”
The Schara Tzedeck Cemetery Board operates Schara Tzedeck Cemetery in New Westminster and a newer one in Surrey. It also is involved with the City of Vancouver in overseeing the Jewish area at Mountain View, the city-owned cemetery on Fraser Street.
Other Jewish cemeteries in the area are run by Temple Sholom, the Reform synagogue in Vancouver; Har-El, the Conservative congregation on the North Shore; Beth Israel, the Conservative congregation in Vancouver; and Beth Tikvah, the Conservative congregation in Richmond.
In an interview with the Independent, Jampolsky clarified the administrative structure of Jewish funerals and burials in the Vancouver area. Although other congregations have cemeteries, the Schara Tzedeck Cemetery Board is solely responsible for everything that happens in the preparation for Jewish funerals, regardless of affiliation or denomination.
The Chevra Kadisha, the Jewish Burial Society, effectively operates as an adjunct to the cemetery board, which is an independent organization originally created in 1929 under the auspices of Congregation Schara Tzedeck, the oldest and largest Orthodox synagogue in Vancouver. The Chevra Kadisha, which literally means the “holy society,” consists of volunteers who prepare the deceased for burial. More than three millennia of Jewish rites are embodied in the rituals performed by the Chevra Kadisha.
Beyond this most intimate act, the cemetery board also oversees the entire process before the service at the cemetery.
“We provide all the funeral services,” Jampolsky said. “[These include] the registration of the deceased, the picking up at the hospital or the home, taking them out to our funeral home, which is attached to the cemetery in New Westminster, providing the ritual preparation for burial, services of the Chevra Kadisha, which include sitting with the deceased from the time they come to us until the burial, and everything to do with the conducting of a funeral.” Rev. Joseph Marciano is Schara Tzedeck’s funeral director.
If the funeral is at one of the Schara Tzedeck cemeteries, the entire process remains under the board’s purview. If the deceased is to be buried in another cemetery, the cemetery board is responsible for everything up until they transport the person to the cemetery, where the rabbi and congregation take over. As a result, regardless of denomination, all Jewish deceased in Metro Vancouver receive full Orthodox preparation for burial.
Jampolsky stressed that one does not need to be a member of Schara Tzedeck to be buried in one of their cemeteries, one need only be Jewish.
The board, which is made up of eminent community members, is co-chaired by Jack Kowarsky and Charles Diamond. Diamond’s father, Jack Diamond, z”l, initiated the board’s current structure decades ago.
The Mountain View Jewish Cemetery has been undergoing a restoration this year, after decades of limited attention. J.B. Newall, the monument company located across from the cemetery, has renovated many of the oldest headstones.
“The headstones that are 100 years old look like they’re brand-new,” Jampolsky said. “It’s going to be a really remarkable place to walk through.”
In addition to the physical restoration taking place under the leadership of Shirley Barnett and a committee of volunteers, a campaign aims to raise funds for perpetual care to maintain the cemetery as it should be.
The oldest Jewish cemetery in the metro area – and the only one inside Vancouver city limits – still sees one or two funerals a year, Jampolsky said, despite the widespread belief that it is full.
Unlike the cemeteries in New Westminster and Surrey, which are fully operated and maintained by the cemetery board, the Jewish section of Mountain View remains under the ownership and operation of the city, like the larger cemetery from which it is separated by a hedge.
The Schara Tzedeck Cemetery Board operates Schara Tzedeck Cemetery in New Westminster (pictured) and a newer one in Surrey. (photo from wikimapia.org)
Jampolsky said a leading cemetery architect told him that the New Westminster cemetery is among the nicest in North America, in terms of natural beauty, upkeep and maintenance. Hollywood North has noticed, too.
“We’ve had movie companies come and want to film there and we’ve turned them away,” Jampolsky said. “We don’t need the revenue from that. We don’t think it’s respectful to the deceased.”
The board is a nonprofit organization and costs are covered by funeral expenses – $11,000 includes every aspect of preparation and the funeral if the deceased is being buried in a Schara Tzedeck cemetery; $5,575 if they are to be buried in one of the other Jewish cemeteries. The cost of the plot is also currently $11,000 at the Schara Tzedeck Cemetery in New Westminster. Twenty percent of all plot fees are set aside in trust for perpetual maintenance.
Families with financial constraints are offered discreet, compassionate assistance, said Jampolsky. “We believe that every Jewish person has a right to a Jewish burial, a full halachic Jewish burial that is like any other, and we’ll never turn back from that.”
Jewish tradition makes funerals not only plain in style and appearance, but comparatively simple in terms of planning, Jampolsky noted. Every Jewish person is buried in identical caskets, made of plain unadorned wood and no metal, with holes in the base to hasten decomposition and return of the body to the earth. There is none of the competitive materialism typical of the funeral industry, where anecdotes abound of families being upsold on higher-end caskets and elaborate ceremonies.
Jewish funerals are almost identical, he said, regardless of the individual’s position in life. The same care is given to respect the individual throughout the preparation.
“I really believe that we do an important, invaluable job for the community and that we do good and holy work, we do it well, every single person is treated with the utmost care, respect, whether they’re living or they’re deceased.”
Where the Jewish section is planned at Seaview Cemetery. (photo from Sunshine Coast Jewish Burial Society)
About 18 months ago, a small group of Jewish seniors living on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast approached the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) asking that a section of Seaview Cemetery in Gibsons/Roberts Creek be set aside to accommodate Jewish burials. Since then, the Sunshine Coast Jewish Burial Society has been incorporated and, after many discussions and meetings, an area of the cemetery has been designated for such use.
The SCRD has allocated 30 burial plots for burials according to Jewish rites and practices and, this Sunday afternoon, Dec. 7, Rabbi Lindsey Bat Joseph will officiate at the dedication of the site.
The Sunshine Coast Jewish Burial Society was incorporated as a society under the B.C. Society Act on Jan. 7, 2014, and as a nonprofit society on Oct. 1, 2014, with Irene King, Rita Sadlik and Michael Weiner as members of the board. Renee Switzer has also recently joined the board.
During this project, the committee discovered through speaking with many of the Jewish people living in (and moving to) this part of the province that it may help form a more cohesive community, as more people choose to live in the region. The small towns and villages are quite spread out along Highway 101, though residents do get together from time to time to celebrate and mark Jewish occasions or festivals, with the occasional visit from a rabbi.
If there should be a death, it is important to feel a sense of community and for people to come together to sit shivah and support the mourners. The society will form a local Chevra Kadisha and would appreciate help and guidance from other such groups in the Lower Mainland.
In the meantime, for anyone in the Sunshine Coast area on Sunday, the dedication at the cemetery will take place at 2 p.m. For more information (and offers of support), call Sadlik at 604-886-4906.
