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35-614: Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery is the largest Jewish mortuary and Jewish cemetery organization in California, United States. Many notable Jewish people from the American entertainment and arts industry are buried here. Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries , owned by Sinai Temple of Los Angeles, refers to a Jewish mortuary and two Jewish cemeteries in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The original cemetery property

70-462: A synagogue , but can also be in walls or buried underground. They may also be located in cemeteries. The contents of genizot are periodically gathered solemnly and then buried in the cemetery or bet ḥayyim . Synagogues in Jerusalem buried the contents of their genizot every seventh year, as well as during a year of drought, believing that this would bring rain. This custom is associated with

105-461: A Jewish custom. Showing proper respect for the dead ( kevod ha-met ) is intrinsic to Jewish law. The connection between the soul and the human body after death is an essential aspect of Jewish belief in the eternity of the soul . Thus, disinterring the dead, deriving benefit from a corpse or grave, or acting in any way that may be perceived as "ridiculing the helpless" ( l'oeg l'rash ), such as making derogatory remarks or joking, but also partaking in

140-470: A burial service for the books while learning about this ancient Jewish tradition. 34°09′00″N 118°18′54″W  /  34.15000°N 118.31500°W  / 34.15000; -118.31500 Jewish cemetery The land of the cemetery is considered holy and a special consecration ceremony takes place upon its inauguration. According to Jewish tradition, Jewish burial grounds are sacred sites and must remain undisturbed in perpetuity. Establishing

175-451: A cemetery is one of the first priorities for a new Jewish community. A Jewish cemetery is generally purchased and supported with communal funds. Placing small stones on graves is a Jewish tradition equivalent to bringing flowers or wreaths to graves. Flowers, spices , and twigs have sometimes been used, but the stone is preferred because in Jewish religion it is perceived specifically as

210-405: A cemetery. To ensure that the requirements for Jewish burial are met and that each member of the community is afforded a proper burial, Jewish communities establish burial societies known as the chevra kadisha , 'Holy Society', to provide these services free of charge. In larger Jewish communities, cemeteries are sometimes subdivided into sections according to the chevra kadisha that uses and

245-483: A national network of green burial providers. Teva at Mount Sinai Simi Valley is located near Kamenir Chapel, overlooking a protected nature reserve, this beautifully tranquil area is reached by a meandering stone path. Along the path are olive and pine trees, stone walls, and handcrafted wooden benches that create a protected space that envelopes visitors in shaded comfort and peace. Teva's burials only use natural, sustainably sourced containers made of wicker or wood, or

280-622: A natural engraved stone marker commemorates loved ones, and is included in the purchase of every space in the Natural Burial area. Mount Sinai offers a Genizah program where members of the community can drop off worn out siddurim (prayer books), Torah scrolls, tallit , tzitzit , tefellin and other sacred materials which contain the Hebrew name of God, for burial at a later date. Several times each year, Mount Sinai invites school groups to Mount Sinai Simi Valley, where they will conduct

315-494: A natural fiber shroud that is fully biodegradable. There are no concrete vaults or liners placed in the interment space. The green burial area is planted with drought tolerant, native California plants that reflect the hillsides and areas that surround the park. In addition, a special strain of drought tolerant grass and decomposed granite covers the ground areas. As part of their land stewardship, graves at Mount Sinai’s natural burial sites are not marked with bronze markers. Instead,

350-408: A place where one put things, and is perhaps best translated as "archive" or "repository". Genizot are temporary repositories designated for the storage of worn-out Hebrew language books and papers on religious topics prior to proper cemetery burial, it being forbidden to throw away writings containing the name of God . As even personal letters and legal contracts may open with an invocation of God,

385-454: Is a storage area in a Jewish synagogue or cemetery designated for the temporary storage of worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics prior to proper cemetery burial. The word genizah comes from the Hebrew triconsonantal root g-n-z , which means "to hide" or "to put away", from Old Median *ganza- (“depository; treasure”). The derived noun meant 'hiding' and later

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420-480: Is located at 5950 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. The cemetery was originally established in 1953 by the neighboring Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery . In 1959, it became an exclusively Jewish cemetery, and in 1967 it was acquired by Sinai Temple , the oldest and largest Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles, which dedicated its mortuary and cemetery resources to all members of

455-521: Is responsible for that section of the cemetery's care and upkeep. Early Jewish cemeteries were located outside of the city. In the Diaspora , it is traditional to bury the dead with the feet in the direction of Jerusalem . Some findings showed that the dead would be buried with a handful of soil from the Holy Land. The tombstones usually have inscriptions in Hebrew and the regional language. During

490-655: Is the Heritage Mosaic located at Mount Sinai's Hollywood Hills location, which, at 145 by 30 feet (44.2 m × 9.1 m), depicts a panorama of the Jewish experience in America and is made up of more than 2.5 million pieces of hand-cut Venetian glass . The artwork begins with the arrival of a small group of Jews in Nieuw Amsterdam in 1654 and continues with highlights of American Jewish history up to

525-556: Is to document every Jewish burial site in the world. The Lo Tishkach European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative was established in 2006 as a joint project of the Conference of European Rabbis and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany . It aims to guarantee the effective and lasting preservation of Jewish cemeteries and mass graves throughout the European continent. The ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative

560-935: The Chatam Sofer Memorial (part of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Bratislava ). The Jewish cemetery of Siret is considered one of the oldest cemeteries in Eastern Europe , its foundation is dated around 1500. Founded in 1832, the Jewish Cemetery of Coro , in Venezuela is the oldest Jewish cemetery in continuous use in the Americas . The mission of the International Jewish Cemetery Project

595-528: The Holocaust by renowned Jewish artist, Bernard Zakheim . The six three-dimensional figures, all rendered in burnt and tortured wood, represent six heroic Jewish figures: those who resisted-partisan fighters, a woman warrior and the school-girls who martyred themselves, a scholar and a child who could not resist, and one figure stands for those who went passively to their deaths. At Yom HaShoah commemorations, memorial candles are lit in front of plaques bearing

630-705: The Nazi Germany regime, Jewish cemeteries all over Europe were destroyed and desecrated; for this reason, some cemeteries have therefore also become Holocaust memorials, such as the cemetery in the Warsaw Ghetto . The largest Jewish cemeteries of Europe can be found in Budapest , Łódź , Prague , Warsaw , Vienna and Berlin . Other Jewish cemeteries in Europe include the Jewish Cemetery in Khotyn and

665-598: The 19th century. These materials were important for reconstructing the religious, social and economic history of Jews, especially in the Middle Ages. For all practical purposes, the Dead Sea Scrolls , discovered between the years 1946 and 1956, belonged to a genizah. In 1927, a manuscript containing Nathan ben Abraham 's 11th-century Mishnah commentary was discovered in the genizah of the Jewish community of Sana'a , Yemen. Nathan had served as President of

700-665: The Academy under the revised Palestinian geonate , shortly before its demise in the early 12th century CE. In 2011, the so-called Afghan Geniza , an 11th-century collection of manuscript fragments in Hebrew, Aramaic, Judaeo-Arabic and Judeo-Persian, was found in Afghanistan, in caves used by the Taliban . In Germanic lands genizot have been preserved in buildings dating back to the early modern period and till today, dozens of genizot have been saved. Researchers began to study

735-637: The Bet Alpha synagogue was its mosaic floor, reproduced in the Shemot Plaza by members of Kibbutz Eylon in the Galilee at five times its original size, using about four million tesserae. The 12 signs of the Zodiac are arranged in a circular pattern around a cover at the center that accesses the genizah below. Art historian Michael Ave-Yonah comments on the Bet Alpha mosaic: "The simple but strong style of

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770-505: The Hebrew language require genizah , that is, preservation. In Tractate Pesachim 118b, bet genizah is a treasury. In Pesachim 56a, Hezekiah hides ( ganaz ) a medical work; in Shabbat 115a, Gamaliel orders that the targum to the Book of Job should be hidden ( yigganez ) under the nidbak (layer of stones). In Shabbat 30b, there is a reference to those rabbis who sought to categorize

805-597: The Jewish community in and around the city. Numerous stars and celebrities from the entertainment industry are interred in the park, which is located down the street from Warner Bros studios. Throughout the different sections of Mount Sinai Hollywood Hills, one encounters various forms of artwork including mosaics, sculpture, fountains and carvings. The art displayed at the Parks provides an opportunity for Jews who may have grown distant from their heritage to re-acquaint themselves with their roots. The most noticeable artwork

840-609: The books of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs as heretical ; this occurred before the canonization of the Hebrew Bible , when disputes flared over which books should be considered Biblical. The same thing occurs in Shabbat 13b in regard to the Book of Ezekiel , and in Pesachim 62 in regard to the Book of Genealogies ( Sefer Yochasin , a collection of tannaitic exegesis or midrash on the Book of Chronicles ). In medieval times, Hebrew scraps and papers that were relegated to

875-465: The contents of genizot have not been limited to religious materials; in practice, they have also contained writings of a secular nature, with or without the customary opening invocation, as well as writings in other Jewish languages that use the Hebrew alphabet (the Judeo-Arabic languages , Judeo-Persian , Judaeo-Spanish , and Yiddish ). Genizot are typically found in the attic or basement of

910-662: The far older practice of burying a great or good man with a sefer (either a book of the Tanakh , or the Mishnah , the Talmud , or any work of rabbinic literature ) which has become pasul (unfit for use through illegibility or old age). The tradition of paper-interment is known to have been practiced in Morocco , Algiers , Egypt , Yemen and Turkey . The Talmud (Tractate Shabbat 115a) directs that holy writings in other than

945-676: The genizah of the Old New Synagogue in Prague. By far, the best-known genizah, which is famous for both its size and spectacular contents, is the Cairo Geniza . Recognized for its importance and introduced to the Western world in 1864 by Jacob Saphir , and chiefly studied by Solomon Schechter , Jacob Mann and Shelomo Dov Goitein , the genizah had an accumulation of almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments dating from 870 to

980-412: The genizah were known as shemot 'names', because their sanctity and consequent claim to preservation were held to depend on their containing the "names" of God . In addition to papers, articles connected with ritual, such as tzitzit , lulavim , and sprigs of myrtle, are similarly stored. According to folklore, these scraps were used to hide the famed Golem of Prague , whose body is claimed to lie in

1015-507: The mosaic pavement represents a folk art that appears to have developed among the Jewish villagers of Galilee. The figures are depicted frontally and the artist took great pains to make each scene expressive. The mosaics of Bet Alpha are striking in their coloring and stylization and are among the finest examples of Jewish art in the Byzantine period." In 1997, faced with dwindling space at the original Hollywood Hills location and recognizing

1050-572: The names of concentration camps. Rising from the stones of the memorial is a flame that symbolizes the eternal spirit of the six million and the rebirth of Israel from the ashes of the Holocaust. When this 6th century (Byzantine period) Galilean synagogue was excavated, a cavity in the floor of its apse, which almost certainly served as a genizah, was uncovered; an Ark for the Torah Scrolls stood above it. The central decorative feature of

1085-622: The need for Jewish burial properties for future generations, Mount Sinai Memorial Parks expanded by opening its second memorial park, Mount Sinai Simi Valley . In 2024 Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries was certified by the Green Burial Council as both a green funeral home and a provider of green burial services . The Green Burial Council provides national certification for both funeral homes and cemeteries that provide environmentally conscious options for burial and disposition. Green burial has steadily grown in popularity over

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1120-479: The past two decades, reflecting the community’s desire for more natural disposition methods. Joe Sehee, founder of the Green Burial Council explained, “Green burial is a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact that aids in the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health and the restoration and preservation of habitat.” With this certification, Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries becomes part of

1155-445: The pleasures or needs of the living, such as eating, drinking or smoking, are forbidden in the presence of the dead. Showing proper respect for the dead also requires a prompt burial , the waiver of certain rabbinic restrictions on Shabbat and religious holidays to ensure proper care of the dead, the ritual cleaning ( tahara ) and dressing of the body in shrouds ( tachrichim ) before burial, as well laws concerning proper conduct in

1190-579: The time of the founding of the State of Israel. The Gardens of Heritage was dedicated in September 1984, after several years of design and construction. The mosaic has also served as an educational tool for visitors to learn about the story of Jewish settlement and accomplishments in the United States. The park also features a memorial monument dedicated to the six million Jews who were murdered in

1225-685: Was established in 2015 as a German-based nonprofit. It received the initial grant of 1 million euros from German government in 2015 In November 2018 the EJSF received a European Union grant for a mass survey project of Jewish burial sites using drones. In December 2019 further funding was granted for a new 2019-2021 project "Protecting the Jewish cemeteries of Europe: Continuation of the mapping process, stakeholders’ involvement and awareness raising". Genizah A genizah ( / ɡ ɛ ˈ n iː z ə / ; Hebrew : גניזה , lit.   'storage', also geniza ; plural: genizot [ h ] or genizahs )

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