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November 15, 2002
Some questions answered
Cemetery board co-chair encourages plot owners to check their
status.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
Members of the community who bought plots at Schara Tzedeck cemetery
are being encouraged to step forward and have their records checked.
According to Jack Kowarsky, co-chair of the cemetery board, the
Schara Tzedeck cemetery didn't keep records in the past as accurately
as they do today and the cemetery staff are prepared to address
any problems that have come as a result.
Kowarsky made the comment at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue's Shabbat
services Nov. 2, during his annual presentation to show appreciation
for the community's Chevra Kadisha, according to a member of the
Schara Tzedeck congregation.
The congregant told the Bulletin that, after discussing some
land that the cemetery had recently acquired in order to meet the
community's future needs, Kowarsky brought up the article that ran
in the Bulletin on Oct. 18 titled "Unidentified body
in plot."
The congregant said the board chair admitted that there were concerns
raised regarding plots that had been purchased a number of years
ago. Kowarsky said the board has addressed any concerns that have
been raised with regards to any mix ups in plots.
The congregant said that Kowarsky then suggested that if anybody
who had purchased a plot at the cemetery dating back as far as 30
years wished to check the status of their plots, the cemetery board
office would assist them in making sure everything is taken care
of.
The potential for errors
While the cemetery board has not yet responded to the Bulletin's
questions about these issues, the former funeral director of the
Schara Tzedeck cemetery, Harley Felstein, issued a statement to
the Bulletin offering his ideas on how some of the errors
might have occurred.
Felstein, who served the cemetery from 1965 to 1999, described himself
as the "conduit between the various functions performed by
the staff and the members of the cemetery board."
Felstein told the Bulletin that, while he couldn't be certain
as to how the errors that had frustrated several families took place,
he did suggest that there was the potential for clerical mistakes
as the cemetery board and staff made adjustments to their filing
systems in the 1980s and 1990s.
According to Felstein, who now lives in Portland, Ore., until 1987
the cemetery's files were all kept manually in the cemetery board
office. He stated that the groundskeepers kept their own log of
the graves they had dug up while he also kept his own independent
notes. Felstein said that when they transferred the records to computers,
the cemetery board at the time checked meticulously to make sure
the new records were accurate, adding that any known problems were
addressed immediately.
However, Felstein explained, the cemetery board did not have a plot
map until 1997, a project he said he initiated in 1996.
"Without this map as a guide for staff, clerical error could
happen," he said.
Felstein's statement said that there was also the potential for
cemetery grounds staff to confuse previously filled plots that had
yet to be marked with a permanent headstone.
In a Jewish cemetery, traditionally, a headstone is not placed at
a grave until the unveiling one year after burial. Until then, a
small marker identifies each grave site with the name of the person
buried there and when they were buried. If no member of the immediate
family chooses to place a headstone at a grave, a temporary marker
may remain there indefinitely.
"When I oversaw the cemetery, I made sure every grave site
with no headstone continued to have a temporary marker," wrote
Felstein. "Numerous times the temporary markers are moved by
the cemetery staff while they are doing maintenance or lawn cutting.
If the marker is not put back into place, then an unmarked grave
is created."
Some complainants have said that when they visited the cemetery,
they discovered that bodies had been buried in the plots they had
purchased for themselves or their family years before.
Responding to a question from the Bulletin about how that
might have happened, Felstein said only that he had never run across
a problem of that nature when he worked with the cemetery. He did,
however, say that he believed the cemetery had recently done some
reconfiguring of plot numbers.
"If there were or are clerical errors, as pointed out earlier,
[reconfiguring plots] could compound the problem."
When he left Vancouver in 1999 to relocate his body removal service
to Seattle, Felstein said he offered to help the cemetery board
in any way he could if there were problems that might require his
expertise.
"I realized that, prior to me, my father was doing the same
function as I, for 30 years," he said. "Therefore, there
was a lot of experience and knowledge to be conveyed and given to
the board, which I was more than willing to do."
However, in his statement Felstein claimed he had only been contacted
by the board twice since he left.
"Once about a year and a half ago, where they claim they came
across an unmarked grave," he wrote. "I was able to give
them detailed information about who the individual was."
Felstein said once the first story about the cemetery ran in the
Bulletin, he was contacted by the cemetery caretaker about
the latest discovery.
"I made a visit to the cemetery, met with the caretaker and,
after some research, explained who I thought was interred in the
unmarked grave."
With the exception of a few calls from the new funeral director
just after he had left Vancouver, Felstein claims that that was
the extent of his communication with the cemetery's board or staff.
Headstones not allowed
Both Kowarsky's and Felstein's comments served to shed some light
on many of the concern's revolving around the cemetery. But they
don't address Jacob Bichin's.
When Bichin's mother-in-law, Sara Rassin, passed away in June 2001,
his family buried her in plot 294-02, then purchased the plot next
to her, 294-01, for her husband Issai Rassin, who died in February
2002.
Like others who have shared their stories with the Bulletin,
Bichin was informed the day of Issai's funeral that an unidentified
body had been found in the plot next to his mother-in-law.
As of the Bulletin's press time, the marker at plot 294-01
listed the name of a female who had been buried in the mid-1990s.
Eventually, the Rassins were moved to another part of the cemetery
where they could rest in peace side by side.
At the time of both funerals, Bichin was battling cancer and both
he and his wife were only working part-time.
With the price of a plot being $3,000 and the cost of a funeral
at $10,000, Bichin said the cemetery board generously offered his
family a discount of $5,000 off of his mother-in-law's funeral's
cost and offered them, in the form of a letter from the cemetery
board, two years to pay the full amount. The letter also thanked
him for payments he had already made. Bichin said the cemetery board
verbally offered his family the same deal after his father-in-law
died.
Bichin was happy with the cemetery board's generosity and, although
they didn't bury his in-laws where they were originally supposed
to be, he and his family were prepared to move on.
However, Bichin explained, their problems with the cemetery were
not yet over.
In August 2002, Bichin had ordered the headstones for the two graves
and was preparing for their unveilings, which he wanted to have
take place at the same time in order to save money.
However, Bichin said, just a few days before the unveilings were
scheduled, his wife received a call from J.B. Newall Monuments,
who made the headstones. They told her that the cemetery would not
permit the headstones to be placed at their graves because the plot
and funeral bills had not yet been paid in full.
Although he had written permission to pay for his mother-in-law's
fees over two years, Bichin said he found himself with less than
48 hours to come up with almost $14,000 from friends and family
from around the globe. He did find the money in time.
When the Bulletin contacted Schara Tzedeck Synagogue president
Julius Steinberg, who is also a member of the cemetery board, he
said he was not willing to discuss any of the cemetery issues on
behalf of the congregation, stating that only the cemetery board
chairs were empowered to speak to the paper on any cemetery topic.
Kowarsky did not return messages left by the Bulletin. The
board has not yet verified or denied any of the issues surrounding
the cemetery to the Bulletin as all attempts to talk to members
of the board on the record have been unsuccessful.
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