H eadlines
Har Jehuda Cemetery Struggles as Business Declines
While Jacob Albert’s grave is
in good condition, Silverman’s
grave is partially obscured by
tree vines and vegetation the
family says is poison sumac. The
Alberts’ efforts at genealogy are
thwarted because they can’t read
the Hebrew inscribed on the
tombstone, which dates to 1926.

“I can’t get within 10 feet of
it,” Jeff Albert said.

The Alberts said they’ve
been in touch with cemetery
management and are willing
to be patient, but are frustrated
nonetheless. “It’s been a three-year slog,”
Jeff Albert said.

Meantime, Gail Dubin of
Wynnewood and her sister, Faith
Reese, said they have gotten no
response as they seek to have the
area around their parents’ graves
updated. Beatrice R. and Louis
L. Gershman died within three
weeks of each other in 2012.

L OCA L
ANDY GOTLIEB | JE MANAGING EDITOR
HAR JEHUDA CEMETERY
President Larry Moskowitz
knows conditions at the Upper
Darby cemetery are a bit
shabby. He knows that complaints
are on the rise and that mainte-
nance has been deferred.

And he knows that this
article will prompt even more
complaints. But he said his skeleton staff
is doing the best it can, despite
changing economics that make
running and maintaining a
cemetery increasingly difficult.

“It’s very emotional for me
because I’ve been around it so
long,” Moskowitz said. “I love
it and it’s in our blood. I was
charged in 1981 with taking
care of the place, and that’s
what I will continue to do.”
Moskowitz is the fourth
generation in his family to care
for the 30-acre cemetery along
Lansdowne Avenue that holds
20,000 graves. His great-grand-
father, Jehuda Moskowitz, was
part of the chevra kadisha that
founded the cemetery in 1896.

The cemetery’s sheer age
increases the need for upkeep,
but so is the decline in the
number of people being buried.

A decade ago, the cemetery
buried 150 people a year; last
year, there were just 30.

“When your burial revenue
drops by 70%, you don’t have
what you think you have,” he
said. Older cemeteries with few
new burials have less money
coming in and tend to exhaust
their perpetual care funds.

Those trends may worsen,
according to the National
Funeral Directors Association
Cremation and Burial Report.

The 2020 cremation rate was
56%, up 8% from 2015, and the
organization projects that by
2035 nearly 80% of Americans
will be cremated.

Poor cemetery conditions
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Toppled tombstones at Har
Jehuda Cemetery
Photo by Andy Gotlieb
aren’t limited to the Philadelphia
area — or strictly to Jewish
cemeteries, as the Lebanon Daily
News and The Morning Call
have reported in recent months.

The Exponent previously
wrote about poor conditions at
Har Jehuda in September 2018.

At that time, overgrown grass
obscured many tombstones
and some markers had fallen
to the ground. Vegetation had
sprouted in the sidewalks and
weeds grew uninhibited in the
cemetery. A visit to the cemetery
on Jan. 3 showed the grass
only slightly overgrown, but
markers here and there had
fallen or were leaning. On one
edge of the cemetery, in an
older section, many tombstones
were engulfed with vegetation.

That’s what’s frustrated
Karen and Jeff Albert of
Dresher. His great-grand-
mother Mollie Silverman and
his great-uncle Jacob Albert are
buried there.

Dubin said conditions were
fine at first, but have deterio-
rated in the past 18 months.

“It’s a lack of respect,” she
said of the cemetery conditions.

Moskowitz said the end of
growing season will enable the
cemetery to catch up on some
of the maintenance.

“We’re in a tough spot, but
we’re working our butts off,” he
said. “It takes us a while to get
from point A to point Z.”
Har Jehuda is far from the
only older Jewish cemetery that
has drawn complaints in recent
years. In 2015, the Exponent wrote
about poor conditions at Har
Zion Cemetery in Darby. In
2020, both Har Nebo Cemetery
and Mount Carmel Cemetery
in Philadelphia were criticized
because of poor conditions and
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