Events & News

Published by the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

An unveiling of headstones will be held Oct. 18 for all those buried at Chesed Shel Emeth since the 2019 High Holidays.

By JUSTIN VELLUCCI October 5, 2020

Ensuring each Jew receives a proper Jewish burial, regardless of their status in society or financial means, is a concept that has been well-established for centuries.

“It’s a very beautiful thing,” said Rabbi Eli Seidman, who has led burial rites and read from the Psalms at free burials in the Pittsburgh area for the past three years. “It is a very touching moment, thanks to the work of the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association. And it’s something not a lot of people are aware of.”

The Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh is one of many agencies in the U.S. and abroad that provides qualified Jews with free burials after customary paperwork and screening. JCBA will honor that tradition next week by unveiling headstones of those buried since 2019’s High Holidays at its Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery in Shaler Township.

The ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. on Oct. 18.

All proper precautions are being taken to respect social distancing and keep the ceremony safe in the age of COVID-19, according to the JCBA.

Chesed Shel Emeth, which is home to about 600 graves, dates back some 150 years. The former Hebrew Burial Association — also known as Chesed Shel Emeth, named for its “ultimate kindness,” Seidman said — was organized in 1853 to provide Orthodox burials for the deceased of “indigent families,” according to the JCBA.

The “old cemetery,” located on Seavey Road in Shaler Township, ceased being used in the 1920s, said Barry Rudel, JCBA’s executive director. It was a sign of the Jewish community’s dedication to the concept of the free burial that the founding of the cemetery did not lag far behind the founding of congregations in Pittsburgh.

“The community, right away, found reason to set aside ground not only for burial, but for free burial,” Rudel said.

A “new cemetery” bearing the same name was purchased on Oakwood Street in Shaler Township, near what it is now Shaler High School, said Jonathan Schachter, JCBA administrator. It has been in use since its first burial took place in January 1918.

“It’s about our calling to an age-old mission to provide the free burials to the needy,” said Schachter, who has worked with the JCBA since about 2006. “If someone lacks the means to provide a proper Jewish burial, that’s when our organization steps in.”

Some years passed without a service at Chesed Shel Emeth, Schachter said. This year, only one headstone will be unveiled; it’s for a woman whose case was brought to the attention of the JCBA by an area rabbi, Schachter said.

The free burial service offered by the JCBA is comprehensive. Seidman leads prayers, which he customizes to the deceased, as he would at any other funeral, and other services are provided by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. in Shadyside. The headstones, all of which are intended to look similar, are donated by Urbach Memorials, which also is based in Shadyside.

“It’s a mark of society to take care of its own,” Seidman said. “And that’s what we’re trying to do.” PJC

Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

Published by the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle

Pittsburgh’s Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association recently has assumed responsibility for several area cemeteries. In some cases, non-Jews had been caring for them.

By JUSTIN VELLUCCI October 5, 2020

This year, after long hours of restoration and repair, care for the eight remaining graves at the once-forgotten Ahavas Achim Cemetery is being turned over to the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh, a nonprofit which cares for and helps preserve Jewish cemeteries in the region.

Mark Pudlowski, founder of the Family of God Biblical Reasoning and Counseling Prayer Center in White Oak, was driving down Rippel Road in the borough a few years ago when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw what looked like a tombstone in thick brush seven or eight feet tall.

Weeks later, he was driving down Rippel Road and again spotted it. This time, he couldn’t pass.

“I pulled over and saw there was a path back there. I went and saw all those gravestones and said, ‘Oh this cannot be,’” Pudlowski told the Chronicle recently. “Because I’m in ministry, I just stood there and felt sad. I just asked God, out loud, ‘What do you want me to do?’ And I just got a sense in my spirit: This needs fixed.”

Pudlowski worked alongside an area teenager, Daniel Lia, who helped to renovate the site as part of his Eagle Scout project. They cleared brush, weeds and tree limbs, laid mulch, erected a border face and placed a large blue Star of David at the front of the site. Lia’s father helped donate equipment for the cause.

“Most people didn’t even know it was there,” Pudlowski said. “Well, they know it’s there now.”

The White Oak site goes back to the McKeesport congregation Anshe Ungarn, or Men of Hungary, according to the JCBA. Some non-Hungarian Jews from that group left to form Ahavas Achim in 1892 and they remained separate for 30 years, with the final burial taking place at the compact Rippel Road cemetery in 1924.

A July 2019 Chronicle article about the cemetery’s existence ended a Monessen man’s 30-year search for a relative killed at age 12 by a train in McKeesport. The family believes one of the graves with illegible markings belongs to the young boy.

“This shows you the kindness of strangers,” said Barry Rudel, the JCBA’s executive director.

Conscientious members of the broader community have saved or kept alive memories of several other Jewish cemeteries that have recently come under the care of the JCBA, including one in Port Vue. The Kesher Israel Cemetery there, adjacent to Calvary Cemetery, has 20 graves, some marked only with numbers. A dedicated neighbor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has been caring for the property since 2004, Rudel said.

Then, there’s the Mount Zion Cemetery, a Venango County site the JCBA also started to help managing this year. The last synagogue in this once oil-rich community closed around 1940, but borough officials in Sugarcreek, whose municipal building sits across Fox Street from the cemetery, have been paying to maintain it for more than 30 years.

Why?

“It’s the community thing to do,” said Joe Storer, who has served as Sugarcreek’s manager for the past decade. “We estimate it costs about $2,500 a year to maintain it, but we do it because it’s important for these things to not lose their history. It’s the right thing to do.”

Mount Zion Cemetery in Sugarcreek Photo provided by Barry Rudel
“There are no Jews in the area but they’re doing this on their own,” Rudel said. “Now we’re catching up on the Jewish community’s responsibility.”

The cemetery features about 100 graves, many for people who worshipped at Congregation Emanuel — which became, during the High Holidays in 1865, the first Jewish congregation to hold services in Western Pennsylvania outside of Pittsburgh.

Storer said Sugarcreek, though, is not leaving behind care of the site; he’d like to repair the stone and cement work on two columns framing a fence at the Mount Zion Cemetery next year, with the blessing of the municipal government.

“I’m going to make that a priority in 2021, that we redo those,” he said.

Rudel stressed more news is coming from JCBA, as it continues to have productive talks with communities bearing Jewish cemeteries in the Johnstown and Beaver Falls areas.

“These small communities were small but mighty,” Rudel said. “They are communities that are actually helping out the JCBA more than the JCBA can help them.” PJC

Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

Peter Smith of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covers JCBA’s expanded service efforts.

“… Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association, which has already managed some of the region’s cemeteries, is expanding its role, offering to assume ownership or management of cemeteries that in many cases have outlasted the communities that once could support them.” Read more on the PG website.

July 1, 2020
Contact: Barry Rudel, 412-215-9157
Email: brudeljcbapgh@gmail.com

The Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh (JCBA) announced a major reorganization to expand its capacity to meet demand for cemetery management in the Western Pennsylvania Jewish community. The new structure will enable the JCBA to become the community’s cemetery management entity of choice, serving more cemeteries overall, incluing those that are stable as well as those at increasing risk of abandonment.

Shifts in patterns of religious affiliation and the demographics of the Jewish population over the last several decades have left many Jewish cemeteries without a plan for long-term management. With Pittsburgh-area Jews moving away from some historically Jewish neighborhoods and small towns, the cemeteries left behind are at risk of abandonment.  Additionally, even thriving congregations are seeking support in maintaining their cemeteries. The JCBA’s charge is to oversee these cemeteries in perpetuity, ensuring the preservation of the region’s Jewish past. The cemeteries – well over 50 in the region – remain as sacred ground for the region’s 50,000 Jews.

Gregory Engel, President of JCBA, comments, “Now is the time for us to assist the many communities and congregations in the region that have either closed or see the need to transition their cemetery management and operations to another entity. We are professional, compassionate and understanding in our approach, with a goal to meet the needs of the region’s Jewish community.”

The JCBA has served the region for over twenty-five years, providing maintenance and oversight to 14 cemeteries, as well as free burial. Demand for such services is rising as more synagogues close and some thriving congregations look to a professional agency to take care of their cemeteries.

Recognizing this demand, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh partnered with the JCBA to expand its capacity to serve more, and more diverse, cemeteries. The Federation’s Jewish Community Foundation granted the JCBA $450,000 – one of the largest grants in the Foundation’s history – to support this expansion, including hiring the JCBA’s first full-time Executive Director, Barry Rudel, this March.

Jewish Federation President and CEO Jeffrey Finkelstein comments on the expanded vision, “We are taught that the very first thing a new Jewish community establishes is a cemetery.  Now, as a well-established Jewish community in Pittsburgh, it is our responsibility to ensure that these cemeteries are maintained in perpetuity.  We will best able to do so through this expanded JCBA and look forward to working with them in partnership to honor our mothers and fathers.”

Under Rudel’s leadership, the JCBA has made great strides despite the difficulties imposed by COVID-19. The JCBA recently acquired the Anshe Lubovitz cemetery in Shaler Township, and joins with the Federation and the Foundation in their involvement with the New Castle cemeteries. The JCBA’s Board of Directors also recently approved pursuing management of two small abandoned cemeteries: one on Rippel Road in White Oak, and one in Port Vue. 

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh began working with the JCBA over four years ago to expand its capacity to meet the increasing demand. The effort started with a task force comprised of JCBA board members and staff as well as interested members of the community. The task force led to a comprehensive study of the region’s cemeteries, the development of a business plan, funding from the Federation’s Jewish Community Foundation and the hiring of Rudel.

The plan outlines how to best preserve and maintain the region’s cemeteries as well as build the JCBA’s capacity to take on more over time. The Federation’s Jewish Community Foundation’s commitment of significant funding has reconfirmed its support for the important mission and work of the JCBA. Key to the JCBA’s long-term success is building an endowment to support organizational operations and maintenance for cemeteries that do not have sufficient funds of their own, and addressing capital needs.

Joining Engel and Rudel in leadership is Louis Kushner, chair of the Federation’s Cemeteries Transition Committee, which was created to guide the implementation of the business plan, Federation’s Assistant Planning Director, Shelly Parver, and Jonathan Schachter, JCBA Administrator.

For more information about the JCBA and its operations,

email: jcbapgh@gmail.com or phone 412-553-6469.

JCBA’s expanded vision is made possible by a grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish Community Foundation

The JCBA is pleased to announce that after an extensive search Barry Rudel has been hired to be the new Executive Director. He began working for the JCBA in mid-March, 2020.

Rudel has dedicated his professional career to Jewish communal service, primarily in the areas of fundraising and development and he has been involved with many campaigns that have enhanced Jewish Pittsburgh.

Barry is looking forward to working with the board and officers to guide the organization as we continue evolving to meet the changing needs of the community.

He and his wife Debra reside in Churchill and are the proud parents of three children.