An idyllic scene at Clover Hill.
reason why that shouldn't double in
six years. That's conservative.
Generally speaking, the manage-
ment of a cemetery is more business-
like in the for-profit, non-sectarian
sector. The Jewish cemeteries in the
Detroit area (there are more than a
dozen) operate under a variety of ap-
proaches — as a private enterprise, as
part of a benevolent society, some as
an extension of a synagogue or frater-
nal organization — but all, in varying
degree, have grown to operate as
businesses.
"If an accountant came in to run
the Hebrew Memorial Park, we'd all
be very upset," says Rabbi Boruch
Levin, assistant executive director of
Hebrew Memorial Chapel. The chapel
and the park are sister organizations
of the Hebrew Benevolent Society.
Founded in 1916, the non-profit
society has 3,500 dues-paying
members. Membership fees ($10 is the
annual minimum) and fund-raising
activities support benevolent work
which includes cemetery accommoda-
tions for those who can't afford it. The
cost of a burial plot at Hebrew
Memorial Park in Mt. Clemens is
$500.
According to Bernard LePage,
past president of the Associated
Cemeteries of Michigan, the average
The frames settle and tilt over
gravesite price among all cemeteries time (a problem intensified by a policy
in southeastern Michigan is around of not using burial vaults), thus re-
$700. That figure includes lawn care quiring raising every few years. With
and maintenance of the site in 16,000 sites to care for, frame tending.
perpetuity. And that kind of longevi- is a near-constant endeavor.
ty is financed by a trust fund.
Since passage of a Michigan trust
Jewish cemeteries
care law in 1956, cemeteries of more
in the Detroit
than ten acres must put 15 percent of
plot fees into a trust fund. The prin-
area operate
ciple is left untouched; interest is us-
under a variety of
ed for perpetual care. The fund is in-
vested in "prudent" issues — usually
approaches —
government bonds which produce a
privately, as a
low yield but are very safe. The law
was directed at non-religious
benevolent
cemeteries, but just about all
society, or as an
cemeteries see the wisdom in such a
extension of a
plan.
So the plot fee at Hebrew
synagogue or
Memorial Park appears reasonable,
fraternal group.
but when perpetual care is also con-
sidered, some might say its burial
sites are dirt cheap. The park
welcomes Orthodox, Conservative
Furthermore, with frames and
and Reform families; its only stipula- upright grave stones, just cutting the
tion is adherence to traditional grass at Hebrew Memorial is a
funeral and burial practices. That monumental task. Small push
tradition extends to cement frames mowers and trimmers take the place
around each burial site — and the of the large, sit-down grass cutters
care of these frames is highly labor that race across Beth El Memorial.
One cemetery superintendent who
intensive.
has managed memorial parks with
and without frames, estimates
maintenance costs double where
burial frames are used.
All this is not news to Michael
Hochheiser, Hebrew Memorial Park's
administrator. "Naturally, we try to
cut costs wherever we can, like on
temporary, seasonal help. But we're
going to do what we have to do:
Jewish law doesn't change, neither do
we."
It is a warm, breezy day. Downy
balls of cottonwood seeds — determin-
ed to spread new life — lurch up and
down but always float towards the
same compass point agreed upon by
the fluttering flags. It is Memorial
Day at Clover Hill Park Cemetery.
Visitors make a careful path
among the markers. Like a child in-
tently avoiding every crack on a
sidewalk, they walk with deliberate,
measured steps until stopping at a
familiar stone.
Nearby, two cemetery workers
walk with a different deliberation.
One carries a thick ledger. He stops
from time to time, pulls out a pencil
and creates an impromptu desk from
a granite • marker, just the right
height. He directs his partner who is
carrying a bucket of stakes. They
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
25