If you missed it, you should definitely check out this super article on the NYTimes.comabout the Hebrew Free Burial Association, a New York based organization who’s great work goes all the way back to 1888!
Here’s an excerpt from the article by Jim Dwyer entitled:
“On Staten Island, a Jewish Cemetery Where All Are Equals in Death”
“These are the graves of the poor, which, under Judaic law, do not differ from those of the rich. The ritual of burial is a rope across time: families who lived a century ago at 108 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side — now known as the Tenement Museum — are buried at Mount Richmond. The maternal grandparents of Mel Brooks are down one row. In another corner are 23 of the girls and boys who were killed in the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire in 1911.”
Yoav