Home

Requesting information on old Newark cemeteries and burial societies

The city of Newark at one time supported a vibrant Jewish community. It is estimated that this community numbered close to 80,000. The Newark Jewish community became the epicenter for many different cultural organizations, support groups, and synagogues.

As each successive generation left the city of Newark for the emerging suburbs, much of the distinctive and delicately woven fabric that made the Jewish community of Newark unique began to unravel. With the passing of the elders of each generation, irreplaceable amounts of oral history about the Jewish community of Newark passed with them into the obscurely defined realms of history.

As the migration to the suburbs continued, less and less interest was shown in the Newark-based Jewish institutions. Membership plummeted dramatically in these societies, cultural organizations, supports groups, and synagogues. As these institutions began to fail due to their dwindling membership and lack of funding, many of them disbanded, and in the process they discarded their written records with careless and reckless abandonment. Some of these institutions feared the possibility that their proprietary information might fall into the hands of others; therefore, they intentionally destroyed these records.

It is unfortunate that many invaluable and irreplaceable records of Jewish history have been lost to future generations. It is also unfortunate that a convenient, central, and local repository for Jewish history and records did not exist at the time that many of these institutions disbanded that could have preserved their records. As a result, we may never be able to gain a total understanding of how these Newark-based institutions helped to shape, mold, and influence current Jewish culture and society in our state.

Any assistance that the readers of this publication can provide would be deeply and sincerely appreciated. Written responses should be directed to The Jewish State at news@elipubs.com.

Inquiry no. 1 concerns an organization known as Erste Bershader K.U.V., which is often described as a Landsmenshaften, and can someone define this term in context?

(a) What significance does the name of this organization have?

Was this organization named for a geographic region, etc.?

(b) What do the letters K.U.V. stand for? Give an English translation of the words.

(c) When was this organization founded?

(d) Original location where this organization was founded?

(e) Names of the original founders of this organization.

(f) List of the officers of this organization and their length of service.

(g) The declared purpose of this organization -- Can someone supply a written copy of this organization's charter?

(h) Did this organization have separate divisions for men and women?

(i) The locations where the Erste Bershader K.U.V. had offices.

(j) The requirements for membership in this organization.

(k) The amount of dues paid by its members and how the amount of dues varied over the years during the organization's existence.

(l) The types of services provided by the Erste Bershader K.U.V. to its members.

(m) Did the benefits received by its members vary by the amount of mass transit fees they paid (i.e. residents in Newark received more benefits than those who moved outside the city).

(n) At what point in its history did this organization evolve to take on the added duties of a burial society?

(o) The organization originally acquired cemetery plots in the McClellan Street cemeteries. Did the organization have plots in other Newark cemeteries? The organization also acquired plots in locations outside Newark. When did that happen and what are the other locations?

(p) Did the organization supply the cemetery plots for free to its members and/or pay for the funeral services?

(q) The date the organization ceased to be active.

(r) Did the organization send out a letter to inform its members of its impending demise? If so, can anyone provide a copy of it?

(s) Has someone been entrusted as the guardian of the records of the now defunct organization? If so, how can they be contacted?

Inquiry number 2 concerns the Beth El Memorial Park Cemetery, located on McClellan Street in Newark adjacent to Route 1.

(a) Was the cemetery founded by a Beth El synagogue that supposedly existed in Newark during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s? The Roseview Memorial Park Association was formed in 1945 to run the cemetery and in 1949 the name was changed to the Beth El Memorial Park Association. Does anyone know the reason for the name change?

(b) Or, was the cemetery founded and incorporated as a separate entity?

(c) Names of the person(s) or organization(s) who brought this cemetery into existence.

(d) The original reason for opening an additional Jewish cemetery in Newark when so many other Jewish cemeteries already existed in the area at the time.

(e) The official opening date for the cemetery.

(f) The purchase price for gravesites at the cemetery during the mid 1940s and early 1950s. The current cost of a gravesite at the cemetery.

(g) To purchase a gravesite at the cemetery, did the prospective buyer have to be a member of any particular organization(s)?

(h) The cemetery was once a beautiful, well-manicured, and expansive cemetery that promised a dignified setting and perpetual care of the gravesites of those interred within its confines. Can anyone provide a detailed history of the chain of events that allowed its "perpetual care fund" to be drained, its management to abandon the cemetery to the ravages of the elements, its degeneration into an uncared for wilderness and dumping grounds?

(i) For decades the cemetery existed as an ownerless entity. At some point at least three law firms would be brought into the picture to shape its fate. In the firm of Wilentz, Goldman and Spitzer, one of their clients was attempting to form a new board of trustees, with the consent of the gravesite owners, to take over control of the cemetery. Apparently this attempt failed. Does anyone know the actual details?

(j) New legislation was passed by the state concerning cemeteries within its jurisdiction. It was known as the New Jersey Cemetery act of 1971. How did its passage affect the Beth El cemetery? Is this the reason the law firm Goldman, Jacobson, and Kramer entered onto the scene?

(k) At some point real estate developers entered the scene. One developer wanted to build a hotel on the site of the cemetery. He sent letters to owners of the cemetery's gravesites and offered to have the bodies of their relatives exhumed and moved to other cemeteries at his expense. Apparently the deal fell through for lack of response. Does anyone know the actual details?

(l) Another developer appears on the scene and offers to buy the unused portion of the cemetery to use as an airport park and fly facility. Apparently this deal is approved by the courts. The money is placed in a fund to be used for the upkeep of the cemetery. Does anyone know the details of this transaction?

(m) The Jewish Federation of MetroWest (Whippany) then enters the picture. The federation wants to obtain jurisdiction over the cemetery and the funds derived from the sale of its surplus land. The federation doesn't want the funds solely dedicated for the repair and upkeep of Beth El, but to be also used for the repair and upkeep of other old Newark-area Jewish cemeteries. At this point the law firm of Lowenstein and Sandler enters the scene. Does anyone know their actual involvement in this case? In 1993 Gov. Jim Florio supported the federation's takeover. Under Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, New Jersey attorney general Debra Poritz (1994-95) comes out in favor of the federation's attempt to take control of the cemetery, its board of trustees, and the funds obtained from the sale of the Beth El property. A subsequent court decision allows the transfer of control of Beth El and its assets to the federation. What were the actual details?

(n) The cemetery is bisected by an access road that divides it into two portions. At some point the federation granted the park-fly facility the right to transport cars through the cemetery proper 24/7 in exchange for the park-fly facility landscaping the cemetery and cutting its grass. Is this a dignified setting for those interred within its confines?

(o) More than 30 years ago, the bronze plaques on the pillars of the main cemetery gates were removed by some unscrupulous individuals. To this very day no signage has been installed to indicate the existence of this cemetery. Repeated requests to the federation to provide a list of the current president and members of the board of trustees of the Beth El Memorial Foundation, and how they can be contacted, has gone unanswered. Maybe some business, group, or individual might be willing to donate a sign for the cemetery gate.

(p) Does anyone currently possess a complete set of records for the Beth El Foundation and the Newark Beth El Cemetery, including a map of its gravesites?

(q) Supposedly Rabbi Steven Kushner is the president of the Beth El Memorial Foundation. Maybe some influential members of the Jewish community can convince Rabbi Kushner to have signage installed at the cemetery. Rabbi Kushner can be reached by mail at: Temple Ner Tamid, 936 Broad St., Bloomfield, N.J. 07003; by email at rabbi@nertamid.org; or by telephone at (973) 338-1500 ext. 3.

Stan Wasserson
Union