Making Arrangements: Tools and Resources
Cemeteries Owned and Managed by Sinai Memorial Chapel
Eternal Home Cemetery
Options for Families
Eternal Home Cemetery provides a variety of options for families. These include traditional burial to alternative type interments for those choosing cremation. The cemetery provides single grave locations, companion and double-depth interments, and—in designated areas—family sections and estates.
The renovation of our Historic Sections allows for single or double interments among the majestic memorials and monuments of generations past.
Eternal Home Cemetery and Sinai provide a selection of memorials and monuments for each type of interment, from flush marker locations to larger family sections and estates.
There is an on-site chapel at Eternal Home that can accommodate 40 guests.
Special Sections
Congregational sections within the cemetery include Congregation Adath Israel (San Francisco - Orthodox), Congregation Chevra Thilim (San Francisco - Orthodox), and Congregation Beth Sholom (San Francisco - Conservative). Currently, there are very few plots remaining in the sections for Congretation Chevra Thilim and Congregation Beth Sholom.
The section associated with Congregation Adath Israel is exclusively for Orthodox Jews, both members of this congregation and others who wish to be buried there. The families of non-members must make arrangements with the congregation in order to purchase a plot.
In addition Eternal Home Cemetery has created a special section, the Memory Garden, to honor and remember perinatal and infant losses.
Holocaust Memorials
Eternal Home contains two Holocaust Memorials. One was created by members of Congregation Adath Israel who formed the Bikur Cholim Society, consisting of survivors of the Holocaust and their children. The purpose of the memorial is to give families who lost relatives during the Holocaust a place to memorialize them and to provide a focal point for anyone who wishes to mourn people who did not receive a burial when they perished.
On the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the community gathers at this memorial to take part in Kever Avot.
The Odessa Memorial was established by Russian Jewish immigrants from that area as a place where members of that community can come together to mourn the loss of Jews who perished there.
History
Eternal Home Cemetery, located in Colma, CA, was founded in 1901 by Rabbi Isador Meyers of Congregation Ohabi Shalome in San Francisco. The original purchase consisted of two acres and served the needs of the congregation and the Jewish community of San Francisco. At that time, the cemetery was known as the Chevra Kadisha Cemetery and was referred to as “The gate to the eternal home.”
The first recorded interments took place in early 1903 within what is now known as our Historic Sections. In 1926 Sinai Memorial Chapel, then known as the Hebrew Funeral Parlor (Chevra Kadisha) obtained the cemetery and began to operate and maintain it under the leadership of Sinai. It was then that it became permanently known as Eternal Home Cemetery.
Contact Information and Details
Cemetery:
1051 El Camino Real
Colma, CA 94014
Contact:
Thomas V. Halloran, Associate Executive Director, Sinai Memorial Chapel
(415) 921-3636
Lisa Matson, Cemetery Office Manager
(650) 755-5236
Hours:
8:30 am – 4:15 pm
Closed Saturday and Jewish holidays
Gan Shalom Cemetery
Options for Families
Gan Shalom serves everyone who participates in the Jewish community, whether or not someone is affiliated with a synagogue.
The cemetery has its own chapel on the grounds. It seats about 60 people and is available to any family using the cemetery for burial.
The cemetery accommodates family estates.
As a memorial park, Gan Shalom allows for flat grave markers only.
Special Sections
Within the cemetery there are dedicated gardens for:
- Orthodox Jews
- Conservative Jews
- Members of Temple Isaiah, a Reform synagogue in Lafayette
- Members of B’nai Shalom, a Conservative synagogue in Walnut Creek
- Tel Shalom Burial Society, which represents congregations in Western Alameda and Contra Costa Counties
There is also a garden that enables burial and memorialization of cremains for those who have chosen cremation.
History
In the 1980s, several East Bay congregations, representing all streams of Judaism, came together to identify a place to create a new Jewish cemetery, since burial space in that area was running out. They formed a partnership with Sinai Memorial Chapel to plan and develop what became Gan Shalom Cemetery, located in Briones, north of Orinda.
Gan Shalom Cemetery is located on more than 80 acres, nestled among regional parkland and ranches. It was consecrated in 2006 and is managed by Sinai Memorial Chapel.
Gan Shalom Cemetery is overseen by a board of directors, organized as Beit Olam of Contra Costa, Inc.
Contact Information and Details
Business Office:
3415 Mt. Diablo Blvd.
Lafayette, CA 94549
(925) 228-3636
Cemetery:
1100 Bear Creek Rd.
Briones, CA 94553
(925) 962-3636
Contact:
Cathie Cline-Sheldon, Family Counselor
(925) 228-3636
Jay A. Lewis, Managing Funeral Director
(925) 962-3636
Hours:
Monday – Friday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm; Sunday 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Closed Saturdays and Jewish and secular holidays