Cemeteries
Members of the Congregation may purchase burial plots at New Mount Carmel Cemetery or Wellwood Cemetery. Each grave costs $1,000.
Cemetery Committee Chair Judith R. Greenwald, who may be contacted at [email protected], manages our cemetery holdings and the issuance of deeds to plots and burial and monument permits.
Directions to Our Cemeteries
New Mount Carmel Cemetery
66-02 Cooper Avenue (near Cypress Hills Street)
Glendale, NY 11385
(718) 366-5900
By car from the Synagogue – approximately 8 miles.
Proceed on Kane Street to Clinton Street and turn right. > Proceed on Clinton Street to Atlantic Avenue and > turn right > Proceed on Atlantic Avenue 5.3 miles to Granville Payne (formerly Pennsylvania) Avenue and > turn left. > Proceed north on Granville Payne Avenue onto Jackie Robinson Parkway. > Proceed on Jackie Robinson Parkway to Exit 3 ramp. > Bear right on ramp, > proceed to Cypress Hills Street and > turn left. > Proceed on Cypress Hills Street to Cooper Avenue and > turn right. > Proceed 109 yards on Cooper Avenue to New Mt Carmel Cemetery entrance on the right.
Wellwood Cemetery
1232 Wellwood Avenue
West Babylon, NY 11704
(631) 249-2300
By car from the Synagogue – approximately 40 miles
Proceed on Kane Street to Clinton Street and turn right. > Proceed on Clinton Street to Atlantic Avenue and turn left. > Proceed on Atlantic Avenue to I-278 (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) northbound ramp and turn right. > Proceed on I-278 to I-495 (Long Island Expressway) eastbound ramp and turn right. > Proceed on I-495 for 27.8 miles to Exit 49S and bear right onto service road. > Proceed east on service road to Pinelawn Road (at third traffic light) and turn right. > Proceed south on Pinelawn Road (which becomes Wellwood Avenue) for three miles (passing Beth Moses Cemetery) to Wellwood Cemetery entrance on left.
Washington Cemetery
5400 Bay Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11230
(718) 377-8690
Washington is no longer an active cemetery for us, but because we used it until the recent past, we are providing directions
By car from Synagogue – approximately 6 miles.
Proceed on Kane Street to Columbia Street and turn right. > Proceed on Columbia Street to I-278 (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) southbound ramp and turn right. > Proceed on 1-278 to Prospect Expressway ramp and bear left. > Proceed on Prospect Expressway to Ocean Parkway. > Continue south on Ocean Parkway to Avenue J and turn right. > Proceed on Avenue J to Bay Parkway and turn left. > Proceed on Bay Parkway to Washington Cemetery entrance on left.
History of Our Cemeteries
Our cemeteries date to 1855. Before organizing the synagogue, several founders of our congregation established the United Brethren Society, Brooklyn’s first Jewish institution. The Brethren Society provided members with “doctor and medicine, burial plot, funeral and tombstone and $20 at the death of members, members’ wives and families.” When Baith Israel organized the following year, the congregation also provided its members with free burial services, a practice that continued until 1972.
Kane Street Synagogue holds parcels in six cemeteries. Our oldest are located at Union Field in Cypress Hills and at Washington Cemetery in Gravesend. Civil War hero and member Leopold C. Newman is buried at Union Field. In the 1870s, the congregation acquired land at Machpelah Cemetery. As there was a dearth of available plots in local Jewish cemeteries at that time, this purchase resulted in new members joining the synagogue. Additional land was acquired in neighboring Beth-El Cemetery from the forerunner of Temple Emanu El in Manhattan. The family plots of our early twentieth century presidents Copland, Salit, Weinberg and Kalischer are located here. In 1921, the Congregation acquired land at New Mount Carmel Cemetery, where members of the Goldfarb, Brown, Belth, Kahn, Kronman, Turk and Goldman families are buried. Land in Wellwood Cemetery in West Babylon, acquired in 1958, is the Congregation’s latest cemetery purchase.
For the congregation’s first six decades, the Chevrah Kadisha (Holy Society) administered to the dead. Learn more from Brooklyn Eagle articles. Customs changed in the 1910s with the development of professional undertakers. Invoices found during the Renewal Project show that Max Braun acted as “Sexton and Undertaker” at 236 Harrison Street.
In 1921, the Congregation established the Cemetery Board to administer members’ burial services. In all this time six dedicated Synagogue members have chaired the Cemetery Board: Louis Summer, Julius I. Kahn, Jack Hertz, A. Seth Greenwald, Ellen Phillips, and Judith R. Greenwald.
Contact Cemetery Committee Chair Judith R. Greenwald at [email protected].
Research Interment records: www.MountCarmelCemetery.com
Memorials in the Synagogue
Since the early 1900s, the Congregation has remembered cherished friends and family with inscriptions on plaques, ritual objects and bookplates. The first record of a memorial is the 1917 marker in memory of Sophie Weinberg, wife of President Pincus Weinberg and mother of Goldman Sachs chairman Sidney Weinberg. The marble plaque dedicates a scholarship to a deserving pupil. Stained glass windows in the Sanctuary commemorate Sophie’s parents, Moses and Rebecca Barkhan (Barr). The World War I plaque with the names of servicemen from the Congregation commemorates those who died serving our country in The Great War. A bronze marker by the Friendship Garden on Tompkins Place is placed in memory of member Tucky Druker, a leading member of the group of young couples who brought about the renaissance of the Congregation in the 1970s.
The 1929 installation of illuminated bronze memorial tablets gave members the opportunity to honor the memory of deceased loved ones. Today, members may purchase a memorial plaque for $500. Purchasers receive annual notification of the Yahrzeit observance date.
Contributions to the Sanctuary Preservation Capital Campaign have the opportunity to dedicate areas of the synagogue in memory of or in honor of beloved family members. Their names are inscribed on Dedication panels in the Goldman Educational Center lobby and on individual markers.