Ahavat Yisrael: A Grave Matter

Temple Beth Jacob ​of Newburgh Cemetery

While hiking in the fall of 2008, a member of Temple Beth Jacob, a Reform synagogue in Newburgh, New York, discovered several headstones with Hebrew inscriptions on a steep, thickly wooded hillside. It turned out that the Jewish cemetery, in desperate need of repair, belonged to the Temple.

The Temple’s youth group did an initial cleanup in April 2009, but it was clear that a fence was required. The only question was, where would the money come from?

Several residents of the neighboring Satmar community of Kiryas Joel, led by Zalmon Weinstock of Congregation Oitzer haChesed, read about the cemetery’s need for a fence and drove to Newburgh to meet with Kenneth Packer, chairman of Temple Beth Jacob’s Cemetery Committee.

The Kiryas Joel delegation raised funds within the Satmar community for a gated chain-link fence that still allows passersby to see into the cemetery.

Packer and several men from Kiryas Joel gathered to say Kaddish over the graves and do more work cleaning and repairing the headstones.

“Many stones are broken and will have to be repaired, at great expense,” Packer was quoted in a news article as saying. “But the generosity, kindness and energy of the residents of Kiryas Joel have been invaluable to us. They’ve forged new ties between our two communities.”