New Jewish section at Rookwood
THE availability of land for Jewish burial in Metropolitan Sydney is fast running out, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD) CEO Vic Alhadeff warned on Tuesday as Rabbi Yehoram Ulman consecrated a new Jewish section at Rookwood Cemetery.
THE availability of land for Jewish burial in Metropolitan Sydney is fast running out, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD) CEO Vic Alhadeff warned on Tuesday as Rabbi Yehoram Ulman consecrated a new Jewish section at Rookwood Cemetery.
The new area, Lot 27, will allow for more than 1600 additional graves and will be the last significant allocation of Jewish land at Rookwood. It will allow the community about four additional years of burial space.
The allocation comes after the community agreed to transfer the previously allocated Lot 10 to the Muslim community, who faced an urgent need for additional space.
Speaking at the consecration of the new Jewish area, Alhadeff praised the excellent relationship JBOD enjoys with the Lebanese Muslim Association.
“When asked whether we would be willing to cede the Jewish half of Lot 10 to the Lebanese Muslim Association for urgent Muslim burial, we had no hesitation in agreeing to do so in a spirit of cooperation and support,” he said.
“The cemetery duly proposed the allocation and consecration of what is now Lot 27, so that the Jewish community would be no worse off by having assisted in tackling the more urgent need of the Muslim communities.”
But he said that due to space constraints, Jewish burial will cease at Rookwood within a decade.
“And long before then, there will be no more Jewish burials at the other cemeteries in Metropolitan Sydney as the availability of land for Jewish burial is fast running out,” he said.
He said JBOD had been in “active consultation” with the state government to reach a solution, and thanked Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Minister for Lands Paul Toole, who was present, “both of whom have made it clear that they appreciate the importance and urgency of the issue”.
Alhadeff also acknowledged the efforts of former JBOD president David Knoll, who has built relationships with other faith communities, cemetery managers, NSW cemeteries and crematories and the state government. “He is confident about the prospects of securing affordable and dignified burials to the end of the century for all faith communities,” he said.
Rookwood General Cemeteries Reserve Trust CEO George Simpson said he was delighted to have been included in the collaboration between the two communities and that the Trust was “committed to ensuring all of our communities have access to suitable land at Rookwood for as long as possible”.
He added that the Trust is looking for a new property to help address the shortage.
GARETH NARUNSKY
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