(Courtesy of Jewish Memorial Chapel) In this time of terrible loss for the Jewish nation, everyone needs to do their part. The innumerable victims, both murdered and injured during the terrorist attacks, required many volunteer organizations to step forward and act in a capacity that taxed their infrastructure and capabilities like never before. Notable among those organizations are United Hatzalah, which attended to the injured, and ZAKA, which attended to the dead.
The Jewish Memorial Chapel, whose mission for over 100 years has been to ensure the availability of a traditional halachic funeral for the Jewish communities, wanted to do its part to help those organizations and their brethren in Israel.
In light of the war in Israel, the Jewish Memorial Chapel held its annual installation of officers at an unembellished ceremony absent of the typical joyous occasion. The brunch meeting brings together representatives of over 20 community organizations and synagogues in the North Jersey area that jointly own and operate the nonprofit funeral home. Generally, the representatives break bread and bestow charitable grants to Jewish healthcare and educational organizations.
Daniel Schwartz, president of the Jewish Memorial Chapel and Passaic City councilman, presided over the emergency meeting where the board not only canceled the gala brunch scheduled to be held in the Boutique Event Space at BrookHaven in Passaic, but immediately allocated the budgeted funds of several thousand dollars as a charitable donation to United Hatzalah and ZAKA. Schwartz said: “Before the terrorist attacks, the board was looking forward to hosting all our representatives at our annual gala brunch. Then everything changed and no one could imagine sitting around munching on smoked fish and bagels. We all understood that as an organization that meets the burial needs of our Jewish brethren, our mission should include our brethren in Israel.”
Carol Katzman, treasurer of Jewish Memorial Chapel said: “Recipients of the William and Ida Gurtman charitable trust are local organizations like the Passaic Clifton Hatzalah, yeshivas and Hebrew schools in North Jersey, to which we disburse on average $10,000 annually. In addition, the Jewish Memorial Chapel has disbursed over $55,000 on average from our earnings over each of the past five years.”
Rabbi Ira Kronenberg, past president and retired Colonel, U.S. Army chaplain, highlighted that “the Jewish Memorial Chapel’s stand with victims of terror goes back to the 9/11 attacks. The board erected a memorial of victims of terror both in the U.S. and in Israel in front of the chapel building. The members of the Jewish Memorial Chapel pray and hope that such horrific events never occur again, and stand steadfast to serve our community whenever and however needed.”
