home page
CEMETERY CONSECRATED

A first for Wollongong

A consecration for a small, but very important, Jewish section at Wollongong lawn cemetery.

By AJN STAFF November 2, 2023, 12:30 pm Edit
Members of the community at the new cemetery. Photo: Supplied HAVE INCLUDED ALL PICS - YOU CHOOSE WHAT WORKS
Members of the community at the new cemetery. Photo: SuppliedHAVE INCLUDED ALL PICS - YOU CHOOSE WHAT WORKS

Rabbi Yehoram Ulman led the consecration of the small but very important Jewish section at Wollongong lawn cemetery last Thursday.

The section is on high ground, set in bushland. There has already been one burial, Yossi Pundik, who was laid to rest in February.

“The Wollongong Jewish community, facilitated by the indefatigable Yoke Berry, has grown to the point where it needed its own burial grounds and Wollongong City Council cooperated beautifully to oblige,” NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) spokesperson David Knoll said.

Members of the community at the new cemetery. Photo: Supplied

At the end of the consecration, Rabbi Ulman movingly led memorial prayers for the victims of terror in Israel and Knoll spoke on behalf of the JBD, thanking those who came from the local community, from Sydney and from the Shoalhaven Jewish community to participate in the important consecration.

Rabbi Yehoram Ulman (left) and David Knoll. Photo: Supplied

The consecration is the last in a series, with Jewish burial grounds for regional Jewish communities having now been consecrated at Byron Bay, Kempsey, Shoalhaven and Maitland, as well as Wollongong.

“The Sydney Jewish community is looking forward very much to the opening of Macarthur Memorial Park near Campbelltown, expected in early 2025,” Knoll said.

Catholic Cemeteries, who manage the Macarthur site, have been working closely with the JBD and will provide sufficient graves to last the Jewish community – on present demographics – through to the end of the century.

read more:
comments