VTMBH Article: Body
To get to her parents graves, Beth Rocke, 77, rides the A train more than an hour from Morningside Heights in Manhattan to Ozone Park, Queens.
Rocke, who sometimes needs a cane, slowly descends the stairs of the shabby elevated train station, then walks past modest homes, industrial buildings and the barbed wire perimeter of Bayside Cemetery until she reaches the entrance.
But its the last part of the journey that is the most difficult. Rocke makes her way through paths overgrown with weeds and strewn with litter and twigs, mausoleums with broken windows and filthy floors, and past countless plots in which the rusted fences are broken and wildflowers and shrubbery have grown so high that only the tops of the headstones peek out. In many plots, the headstones have toppled over.
I get unbelievably depressed every time I come here, says Rocke, a retired businesswoman who has served in management positions at Revlon, Playtex and Clairol.
Although most of this Jewish cemetery has been in bad condition for years, until recently Rocke could count on her familys 15-by-12-foot plot being kept up. After years of paying for annual care, in 1988 she and her cousins decided to purchase perpetual care for $4,750, and she has color photos showing the grass neatly trimmed and free of weeds.
Now the grass and dandelions grow highalthough it is not nearly as bad as in many areas of the cemeteryand a section of the rusted iron fence cordoning off the plot is broken. Near the edge of the cemetery, where Rockes grandparents are buried, the foliage is thicker and a small brass placard from the Jewish War Veterans lies on the ground.
Looking around the cemetery, she says, To me this is not neglectits desecration.
Last year Rocke, who vows to keep pressing for improvement at her family plot when Im 94 and in a wheelchair, took Congregation Shaare Zedek, the Upper West Side synagogue that owns the cemetery, to small claims court and won $2,364. Now, still dissatisfied with conditions at Bayside, she is exploring whether she has grounds for another lawsuit.
Bayside Cemetery has long been overgrown and plagued by vandals and litter. Most observers familiar with the situation say it is in worse condition than virtually any other Jewish cemetery in the New York area.
Shaare Zedeka synagogue that fell on hard times in the 1970s and 1980s and now serves a largely Gen-X constituencyhas sponsored periodic cleanups at the cemetery and says in the past few years it has subsidized the meager cemetery fund with approximately $65,000 a year, 20 percent of the synagogues total operating budget.
But the cemeterys small staff appears to lack the experience, manpower and funding to protect Baysides approximately 35,000 graves from further damage, let alone improve them.
And in recent years, with the death of longtime manager Ethel Sheiker, the cemeterys general neglect has spread even to those few plots that have perpetual careand people like Rocke who visit them regularly.
Now, with Bayside in a condition that many associate with cemeteries in European towns where Jews are long gone, and with Shaare Zedek saying it cannot afford to increase its investment, the question is: Who is responsible for ensuring that the dead of Bayside Cemetery, one of New Yorks oldest Jewish cemeteries, are honored according to Jewish tradition? The members of Shaare Zedek? The descendants of the buried? The larger Jewish community?
Should Shaare Zedek, as some have suggested and as some defunct synagogues have done, sell its buildingworth an estimated $2.6 million according to New York Citys property assessment departmentto pay for the cemeterys upkeep?
<i>The Shaare Zedek Saga </i>
It wasnt always like this. In 1842, Shaare Zedek, then located on the Lower East Side, bought the land for the cemetery, setting aside roughly 5 percent for its members. It sold the remaining plots to individuals and voluntary burial societies, many of which, it is now believed, assumed responsibility for maintenance of their plots.
But by the middle of the 20th century, Shaare Zedek, which in the 1920s moved to its current building on West 93rd Street, began to flounder with the decline of the Upper West Side. By the 1980s, say current activists in the congregation, the synagogue was essentially defunct, with no rabbi and irregular services.
Shaare Zedeks demise coincided with the disappearance of many Jewish burial societies, social groups that had taken an active interest in the condition of the graves. It also coincided with the migration of many New York Jews to the suburbs and beyond, creating a situation in which many descendants of those buried live far away and are unable to visit the cemetery regularly.
In the late 1990s, the synagogue began to bounce back as the Upper West Side became a hub for young Jews. A large minyan that met in Shaare Zedeks basement officially merged with the synagogue in 1994, and the congregation soon hired the young and charismatic Rabbi Hillel Norry, who was credited with attracting a younger crowd.
The newcomers were thrilled to inherit a large, well-located synagogue with lovely stained-glass windows and ceiling and a wooden Art Deco ark two stories high. They were less thrilled about the neglected cemetery, only 20 miles but seemingly worlds away from the bustle of the Upper West Side, that came with it.
For several years, Rabbi Norry was a vocal champion of the cemetery, organizing cleanup days and speaking of the synagogues responsibility for it. But, say insiders, board interest began to wane in the past year and a half, with many arguing that the synagogue needed to focus more of its attention on maintaining the Upper West Side building, which needs a new boiler and possibly a new roof, and on developing more programming for young families.
This summer Rabbi Norry took a job in Atlanta, leaving the board to focus much of its time and energy on finding a new rabbi. Rabbi Norry could not be reached for comment.
Theres a limited amount of dollars. Should I focus on those 200 graves with yellow stickers, or do I focus on the 34,800 graves that dont have stickers? asks Joel Shaiman, who chairs the rabbi search committee, referring to the stickers that designate perpetual care.
Clearing trees from the edge of the cemetery has been one of the top priorities in an effort to deter vandals. But that has come at the expense of maintaining perpetual care plotsand some of the falling trees have toppled over headstones.
<i>A Community Issue? </i>
Just whose responsibility is the cemetery?
Shaiman, who says he is frustrated that the cemetery is not a higher priority for more Shaare Zedek members, says, Personally, I feel the synagogue has a responsibility to the cemetery and that it is also in the long-term interest of the synagogue to resolve the cemeterys problems.
However, he sees the flip side as well.
The question is, because one day I decided to walk into Shaare Zedek rather than Young Israel, why is this problem my problem? I could choose to not be a member and go join Bnai Jeshurun and then it isnt my issue, Shaiman says. To say its a synagogue-only responsibility, given that in this day and age a lot of synagogues dont have continuity of membership, is putting too much of the problem back on the synagogue. Its really a community issue.
Shaare Zedek leaders say they are starting to seek help from the broader Jewish community. They raised $6,000 this yeara tiny percentage of the overall budgetby writing to people who pay annual care and asking them for additional contributions.
Now there is talk also at Shaare Zedek of approaching foundations, Jewish genealogy groups, the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan and UJA-Federation of New York, which helped buy a for-profit funeral home two years ago and convert it into a community-run nonprofit
Manny Behar, executive director of the Queens Jewish Community Council, which has helped coordinate some cleanup days at the cemetery, says that with the economy bad and with Jewish social service and education needs competing for philanthropic attention, Its not realistic to expect that were going to raise the kind of money thats needed to really do the job there.
However, Jewish philanthropists have shown interest in cemeteries overseas. Rabbi Michael Shudrich, who serves as rabbi of Warsaw and Lodz in Poland, is overseeing a new effort in Poland to restore abandoned Jewish cemeteries. Numerous individuals with ancestors in Poland have donated, he said, to ensure their ancestors graves are maintained.
If we can do it in Poland, I certainly hope we can do it in Queens, says Rabbi Shudrich, who spends half his time in Poland and half his time in New York.
Back at Bayside Cemetery, Beth Rockethe only member of her family who still lives in New Yorkappears to be the sole visitor on this warm day in early October, other than a few firemen who have wandered in during a break from doing safety inspections in the neighborhood.
In the distance, the elevated A train rumbles by on the cemeterys northern border and planes roar overhead, bound for nearby Kennedy Airport. Rocke removes a stray plastic cup from her familys plot before laying rocks on her parents and aunts and uncles headstones.
Rocke, who never married and has no children, plans to be cremated when she dies, rather than be buried in the remaining space in the family plot.
Theres nobody to take care of it, she says.
Rocke, who sometimes needs a cane, slowly descends the stairs of the shabby elevated train station, then walks past modest homes, industrial buildings and the barbed wire perimeter of Bayside Cemetery until she reaches the entrance.
But its the last part of the journey that is the most difficult. Rocke makes her way through paths overgrown with weeds and strewn with litter and twigs, mausoleums with broken windows and filthy floors, and past countless plots in which the rusted fences are broken and wildflowers and shrubbery have grown so high that only the tops of the headstones peek out. In many plots, the headstones have toppled over.
I get unbelievably depressed every time I come here, says Rocke, a retired businesswoman who has served in management positions at Revlon, Playtex and Clairol.
Although most of this Jewish cemetery has been in bad condition for years, until recently Rocke could count on her familys 15-by-12-foot plot being kept up. After years of paying for annual care, in 1988 she and her cousins decided to purchase perpetual care for $4,750, and she has color photos showing the grass neatly trimmed and free of weeds.
Now the grass and dandelions grow highalthough it is not nearly as bad as in many areas of the cemeteryand a section of the rusted iron fence cordoning off the plot is broken. Near the edge of the cemetery, where Rockes grandparents are buried, the foliage is thicker and a small brass placard from the Jewish War Veterans lies on the ground.
Looking around the cemetery, she says, To me this is not neglectits desecration.
Last year Rocke, who vows to keep pressing for improvement at her family plot when Im 94 and in a wheelchair, took Congregation Shaare Zedek, the Upper West Side synagogue that owns the cemetery, to small claims court and won $2,364. Now, still dissatisfied with conditions at Bayside, she is exploring whether she has grounds for another lawsuit.
Bayside Cemetery has long been overgrown and plagued by vandals and litter. Most observers familiar with the situation say it is in worse condition than virtually any other Jewish cemetery in the New York area.
Shaare Zedeka synagogue that fell on hard times in the 1970s and 1980s and now serves a largely Gen-X constituencyhas sponsored periodic cleanups at the cemetery and says in the past few years it has subsidized the meager cemetery fund with approximately $65,000 a year, 20 percent of the synagogues total operating budget.
But the cemeterys small staff appears to lack the experience, manpower and funding to protect Baysides approximately 35,000 graves from further damage, let alone improve them.
And in recent years, with the death of longtime manager Ethel Sheiker, the cemeterys general neglect has spread even to those few plots that have perpetual careand people like Rocke who visit them regularly.
Now, with Bayside in a condition that many associate with cemeteries in European towns where Jews are long gone, and with Shaare Zedek saying it cannot afford to increase its investment, the question is: Who is responsible for ensuring that the dead of Bayside Cemetery, one of New Yorks oldest Jewish cemeteries, are honored according to Jewish tradition? The members of Shaare Zedek? The descendants of the buried? The larger Jewish community?
Should Shaare Zedek, as some have suggested and as some defunct synagogues have done, sell its buildingworth an estimated $2.6 million according to New York Citys property assessment departmentto pay for the cemeterys upkeep?
<i>The Shaare Zedek Saga </i>
It wasnt always like this. In 1842, Shaare Zedek, then located on the Lower East Side, bought the land for the cemetery, setting aside roughly 5 percent for its members. It sold the remaining plots to individuals and voluntary burial societies, many of which, it is now believed, assumed responsibility for maintenance of their plots.
But by the middle of the 20th century, Shaare Zedek, which in the 1920s moved to its current building on West 93rd Street, began to flounder with the decline of the Upper West Side. By the 1980s, say current activists in the congregation, the synagogue was essentially defunct, with no rabbi and irregular services.
Shaare Zedeks demise coincided with the disappearance of many Jewish burial societies, social groups that had taken an active interest in the condition of the graves. It also coincided with the migration of many New York Jews to the suburbs and beyond, creating a situation in which many descendants of those buried live far away and are unable to visit the cemetery regularly.
In the late 1990s, the synagogue began to bounce back as the Upper West Side became a hub for young Jews. A large minyan that met in Shaare Zedeks basement officially merged with the synagogue in 1994, and the congregation soon hired the young and charismatic Rabbi Hillel Norry, who was credited with attracting a younger crowd.
The newcomers were thrilled to inherit a large, well-located synagogue with lovely stained-glass windows and ceiling and a wooden Art Deco ark two stories high. They were less thrilled about the neglected cemetery, only 20 miles but seemingly worlds away from the bustle of the Upper West Side, that came with it.
For several years, Rabbi Norry was a vocal champion of the cemetery, organizing cleanup days and speaking of the synagogues responsibility for it. But, say insiders, board interest began to wane in the past year and a half, with many arguing that the synagogue needed to focus more of its attention on maintaining the Upper West Side building, which needs a new boiler and possibly a new roof, and on developing more programming for young families.
This summer Rabbi Norry took a job in Atlanta, leaving the board to focus much of its time and energy on finding a new rabbi. Rabbi Norry could not be reached for comment.
Theres a limited amount of dollars. Should I focus on those 200 graves with yellow stickers, or do I focus on the 34,800 graves that dont have stickers? asks Joel Shaiman, who chairs the rabbi search committee, referring to the stickers that designate perpetual care.
Clearing trees from the edge of the cemetery has been one of the top priorities in an effort to deter vandals. But that has come at the expense of maintaining perpetual care plotsand some of the falling trees have toppled over headstones.
<i>A Community Issue? </i>
Just whose responsibility is the cemetery?
Shaiman, who says he is frustrated that the cemetery is not a higher priority for more Shaare Zedek members, says, Personally, I feel the synagogue has a responsibility to the cemetery and that it is also in the long-term interest of the synagogue to resolve the cemeterys problems.
However, he sees the flip side as well.
The question is, because one day I decided to walk into Shaare Zedek rather than Young Israel, why is this problem my problem? I could choose to not be a member and go join Bnai Jeshurun and then it isnt my issue, Shaiman says. To say its a synagogue-only responsibility, given that in this day and age a lot of synagogues dont have continuity of membership, is putting too much of the problem back on the synagogue. Its really a community issue.
Shaare Zedek leaders say they are starting to seek help from the broader Jewish community. They raised $6,000 this yeara tiny percentage of the overall budgetby writing to people who pay annual care and asking them for additional contributions.
Now there is talk also at Shaare Zedek of approaching foundations, Jewish genealogy groups, the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan and UJA-Federation of New York, which helped buy a for-profit funeral home two years ago and convert it into a community-run nonprofit
Manny Behar, executive director of the Queens Jewish Community Council, which has helped coordinate some cleanup days at the cemetery, says that with the economy bad and with Jewish social service and education needs competing for philanthropic attention, Its not realistic to expect that were going to raise the kind of money thats needed to really do the job there.
However, Jewish philanthropists have shown interest in cemeteries overseas. Rabbi Michael Shudrich, who serves as rabbi of Warsaw and Lodz in Poland, is overseeing a new effort in Poland to restore abandoned Jewish cemeteries. Numerous individuals with ancestors in Poland have donated, he said, to ensure their ancestors graves are maintained.
If we can do it in Poland, I certainly hope we can do it in Queens, says Rabbi Shudrich, who spends half his time in Poland and half his time in New York.
Back at Bayside Cemetery, Beth Rockethe only member of her family who still lives in New Yorkappears to be the sole visitor on this warm day in early October, other than a few firemen who have wandered in during a break from doing safety inspections in the neighborhood.
In the distance, the elevated A train rumbles by on the cemeterys northern border and planes roar overhead, bound for nearby Kennedy Airport. Rocke removes a stray plastic cup from her familys plot before laying rocks on her parents and aunts and uncles headstones.
Rocke, who never married and has no children, plans to be cremated when she dies, rather than be buried in the remaining space in the family plot.
Theres nobody to take care of it, she says.