Lone Jewish Graves Get Respectable Tombstones

A mass ‘Hakomas Hamatzeiva’ ceremony was held yesterday in upstate New York for dozens of graves in a cemetery owned and operated by Chesed Shel Emes, an organization dedicated to bringing the unclaimed bodies of deceased Jews to proper burial.

Chesed Shel Emes created this special cemetery on a plot of land they purchased in Liberty, NY, in an effort to ease the financial burden of burying the unclaimed bodies of Jewish people in the tri-state area, who would otherwise have been unceremoniously dumped by the city into a ‘potter’s field.’

The Matzeivos were erected by numerous volunteers, after which a Se’udas Mitzvah was held in an adjacent Shul.

Among those buried in the cemetery was the familiar Crown Heights fixture Zalman Brass, who passed away last year without leaving behind any clues as to his origins and family.

Chesed Shel Emes is also very active in its effort to prevent unnecessary autopsies and cremations on Jewish deceased.

To donate to Chesed Shel Emes, visit their website at https://www.chesedshelemes.com.

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10 Comments

  • Matzeivos

    Interesting is why the Matzeivos were set up this way, without showing the boundaries of the קברים.

    If one can’t make both a headstone and a flatbed, isn’t it preferable to just have a flatbed מצבה?

  • Perspective

    Why is it so hard to focus on the positive? The man had no tombstone at all prior to this one.

  • Anonymous

    this is truly an amazing achievement and it surely makes me proud to be part of our people.

    just sad that someone should take the time to find a spelling error with something so special.

    nu………

  • Fellow Yid

    These volunteers are amazing!
    They give up thier time and energy for forgotten souls.
    May Hashem bless them and thier families!

  • CSE

    The names are based off the immigration/naturalization/death papers.

    Many immigrants spelled their names in all sorts of strange ways. (Who knew Zalman Der S…. was named Rabaert?)

  • TO all

    I think it is terrible to spell a persons name wrong on a Tombstone. They need to have one person who knows how to spell English.

    Bob Brass or ROBERT BRASS was a well to do man who happened to like drinking and became an alcoholic. He wrote and penned the song THIS DIAMOND RING in 1965, he received checks every month for it and how do I know because he asked me years ago to drive him to NYC to pick up some royalty checks.

    He is listed here

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Diamond_Ring

    You can see he is listed as the song writer.

    NF

  • amazing org

    Amazing organization, they helped me bury 2 people in jewish cemetery. Both holocaust survivors. 1. all her relatives just said cremate her, Chesed shel emes came to her apt. in manhattan before the fdny and made sure to take her( with fdny permission) and no autopsy.2 her husband was friends with a priest and he offered to do her burial for $2k, I called chesed shel emes and got them to do for same price , convinced the son its better for his mother to be in Jewish cemetery.

  • Bittersweet

    Chesed Shel Emes has been on my tzedakah list for years. They do an incredible job.
    But it’s so sad that there are so many Yidden who have no family or friends to claim their body and bury them properly.
    Cremation is a serious issue especially for internarried Jews, or those without family. PLEASE if you know someone in such a situation, do everything you can, while they are still competent, to have them formalize their final directive to insure kevuras Yisroel.