Jewish Joint Burial Society adds two new members in 50th year

Hendon and Peterborough added to an increasing portfolio which now includes the Jewish community's first woodland cemetery

The burial society that provides funeral arrangements for Reform, Masorti, Liberal and independent synagogues has announced that it is expanding the number of shuls in its membership.

The Jewish Joint Burial Society (JJBS) this week welcomed Peterborough Liberal Jewish Community and Edgware & Hendon Reform Synagogue (EHRS) to bring its membership up to 39, as it celebrates its 50^th year of operation.

EHRS was formed of a merger between Hendon Reform Synagogue and Edgware & District Reform Synagogue, the latter having been a JJBS founder member.

The merger means Hendon Reform Synagogue members will join the burial society and that Hendon’s own cemetery at Southgate and its burial rights through West London Synagogue at Edgwarebury Lane in Edgware will be taken on by JJBS.

“We are delighted to have made this arrangement with JJBS as it ensures the continued funeral arrangements for our members and removes any concerns about available burial plots,” said EHRS co-chair Philip Bright.

“We particularly welcome JJBS’s willingness to provide benefits for our older members which would otherwise have been difficult to continue.”

JJBS broke new ground in 2013, establishing a woodland cemetery (pictured) in Cheshunt, a first for the Jewish community in Britain, providing an opportunity for Jews to be buried in a natural environment surrounded by trees and with a small memorial stone rather than a large tombstone.

It also has separate dedicated areas where Jewish people can be buried together with their non-Jewish partners in double depth graves, fulfilling a long standing need to help mixed faith couples.