Jewish burial on Long Island

If a death has just happened

1. At home: if hospice was involved, call the hospice nurse. If the death was expected and your loved one's doctor will sign the death certificate, you can usually call the funeral home directly once death has been pronounced. If the death was unexpected, call 911. In a hospital or nursing home, the staff will ask which funeral home to call.
2. Call a Jewish funeral home. It brings your loved one into its care, arranges the tahara and a shomer, works with the cemetery and the rabbi, and files the death certificate and burial permit. You don't need a plot or any decisions to make that first call.
3. Look for plot papers. If the family has graves through a synagogue, a burial society or a family plot — often in Queens or along Wellwood Avenue — tell the funeral home. If nobody can find the deed, the cemetery can look it up.
4. Call your rabbi, or ask the funeral home to find one if the family isn't affiliated.

Nothing has to be settled on the first call. Funeral directors are used to families who have never done this before.

The first 24 hours on Long Island: whom to call, what the funeral home handles, hospital release →

Jewish funeral homes on Long Island

A Jewish funeral home arranges funerals in keeping with Jewish tradition: tahara (the washing and dressing of the body) by a chevra kadisha, a shomer to stay with your loved one until the funeral, plain shrouds and a plain wooden casket, and burial as soon as the family is ready. Practice varies between families and communities; a Jewish funeral home follows the family's wishes and their rabbi's guidance. Ask any home on this list for its General Price List and which chevra kadisha it works with. Each keeps its own number.

Jewish cemeteries in Nassau County

Nassau's Jewish cemeteries are at its western edge: Beth David in Elmont, just over the Queens line, and a Jewish section at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale.

Jewish cemeteries in Suffolk County

Many Long Island families are buried in the cemeteries along Wellwood Avenue in West Babylon — New Montefiore, Wellwood and Beth Moses — and at Mount Ararat on Route 109 in Lindenhurst. Smaller congregational and burial-society cemeteries run east from Huntington and Kings Park to Holtsville and Calverton.

Queens cemeteries Long Island families use

Many Long Island families hold graves in Queens. Their parents and grandparents bought plots through a synagogue or a burial society (a landsmanshaft) while they lived in Brooklyn or Queens, and those plots stayed when the family moved east. Where you live today doesn't decide where you can be buried; who holds the plot does. Long Island's Jewish funeral homes arrange Queens burials every week. Many Nassau families, especially in Great Neck and the Five Towns, also use Jewish funeral homes in Queens, such as Sinai Chapels in Fresh Meadows and Schwartz Brothers and Parkside in Forest Hills.

Every Jewish cemetery in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the rest of the city is in the New York City guide →

Find your town

Town guides: Central Islip · Coram · Dix Hills · Five Towns · Great Neck · Hicksville · Long Beach · North Amityville · Plainview · Selden

The Jewish cemeteries in this guide nearest each town, closest first (straight-line miles). Where a family can be buried depends on who holds the plot, so confirm with the cemetery's office.

Shabbat and Jewish holidays

Jewish cemeteries on Long Island and in Queens generally don't hold burials on Shabbat (Friday sundown to Saturday nightfall) or on the major Jewish holidays, and a Friday burial has to finish well before sundown. A death on Thursday night or Friday often means a Sunday funeral. Jewish funeral homes take calls around the clock; if a death happens on Shabbat, ask the funeral home how it handles the first steps. Customs differ, and your rabbi can guide you.

What a Jewish funeral costs

There are two sets of charges. The funeral home's: its services, bringing your loved one into its care, the casket, tahara and shomer, the hearse and cars, and the permits. The cemetery's: the grave if the family doesn't have one, opening and closing the grave, and later the monument and its setting. Every funeral home must give you its General Price List when you ask in person, and must give prices over the phone, so you can compare before you decide. Cemetery charges come from the cemetery; ask whether there are extra charges for a Sunday burial. If cost is a worry, tell the funeral home and your rabbi — in the New York area the Hebrew Free Burial Association helps families who cannot afford a Jewish burial.

Tahara and the chevra kadisha

Tahara is the washing of the body and dressing it in plain white shrouds (tachrichim), done with prayers by a chevra kadisha — men for men, women for women. Long Island's Jewish funeral homes arrange it with a chevra kadisha they work with; you can ask which one, or ask that your own synagogue's chevra kadisha do it. A shomer stays with your loved one until the funeral, often reading Psalms; it can be a relative, a friend from the community, or someone the funeral home arranges. Customs vary from community to community, and the funeral home or your rabbi can explain the options.