The Beth El Memorial Park Foundation (BEMPF) works to maintain at-risk Jewish cemeteries in greater Newark, generally defined as those without an involved synagogue or active burial society. Beth El allocates assets from an endowment fund to make periodic repairs to cemetery fences, perimeter walls, and to upright fallen headstones. In collaboration with Federation’s Community Relations Committee, the Foundation hosts Cemetery visiting day (the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), in order to welcome our elders, and those with family in these cemeteries, to make visits during this time.

By preserving the cemeteries and the graves they contain, BEMPF carries out one of the most important mitzvot in our tradition: chesed shel emet, or an act of kindness done when there is no possibility of repayment.