local
Cemeteries Get Creative to Offset
Dwindling Business
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
“ We might be a cemetery, but
our social life isn’t dead,” reads
the description of the Friends of
Laurel Hill Facebook page.

At first, the morbid tagline sounds
like a joke, but if you were to show
up at Bala Cynwyd’s Laurel Hill West
cemetery on a Friday evening, you may
find a smattering of people sitting on
the grass enjoying a film for a Cinema
in the Cemetery event. Once a year,
you could stumble upon the Market of
the Macabre at Laurel Hill East, with
dozens of vendors selling their wares.

The Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd
cemetery, founded in 1836 and home to
the predominantly Jewish Laurel Hill
West section, has gotten creative with
its programming as a way to keep the
cemetery gates open.

Its business model is a solution to a
common problem among cemeteries,
especially Jewish ones. As cemeter-
ies bury fewer people and run out of
funds to maintain their grounds, they
must find alternative ways to generate
revenue. Some Philadelphia Jewish cemeteries
are “in deep doo-doo,” worries Harry
Neel, consumer service council for the
Pennsylvania Cemetery Cremation and
Funeral Association.

Jewish cemeteries are old, and many
predate endowment care laws, which
mandate that cemeteries set aside
funds into a trust fund; around 15%
of profits from each grave must go into
the fund, providing a safety net for the
cemetery’s longevity.

In North Philadelphia, home of
many Jewish cemeteries in the area,
the neighborhoods have changed since
the cemeteries opened, with fewer Jews
living in that part of the city. Younger
people have different values than the
older generation, wanting to bury their
loved ones in a nondenominational
cemetery, Neel posited. Others may not
pay for long-term care of the grave.

Lack of proper funds is what leads to
a lack of maintenance: broken grave-
stones, overgrown grass and uneven
land. “Someday, when you’re out of land,
when you have no burials to make
anymore — no land to sell, no burials
to make, no markers to sell, no any-
thing — what’s going to cut the grass?”
Neel said.

Some Jewish cemeteries are turning
to help from organizations, such as
Friends of Jewish Cemeteries, a Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia spe-
cial initiative that, with community
funding, has pilot projects to repair
graves at Har Nebo and Har Yehuda
cemeteries. Though the scope of the project is
limited in how much of a cemetery
it can repair, it provides exposure to
a widespread problem to the greater
community. “It allows us to see tangible results
that are building awareness and visibil-
ity, that all of us can make a difference,
that all of us can change the tide of
despair,” FJC leader Rich Blumberg said.

Laurel Hill’s roster of programming
was designed for a similar purpose.

Cemeteries were, at their founding,
made to be beautiful to attract the
attention of individuals for potential
business. “Generating revenue is nothing new,”
Laurel Hill President and CEO Nancy
PLAN AHEAD FOR peace of mind.

W H E N YO U M A K E YO U R F I N A L A R R A N G E M E N TS I N A DVA N C E ,
you can plan a memorial that truly reflects your faith and passions.

Whether planning for yourself or a loved one, rely on your
Dignity Memorial professionals to help you design a memorial
that honors the customs and rituals you cherish.

When you’re ready to get started, we’re here to help.

® FOREST HILLS/SHALOM
ROOSEVELT HUNTINGDON VALLEY
TREVOSE 215-673-5800
215-673-7500 Memorial Park
Memorial Park
> DignityPennsylvania.com <
8 JULY 21, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM