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Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery

Coordinates: 34°09′00″N 118°18′54″W / 34.15000°N 118.31500°W / 34.15000; -118.31500
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Not to be confused with Mount Sinai Memorial Park (Toronto).

Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries
The Heritage Mosaic at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills
Map
Details
Established1953
Location
Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California and Simi Valley, California
CountryUnited States
Coordinates34°09′08″N 118°19′09″W / 34.15210°N 118.31907°W / 34.15210; -118.31907
StyleJewish
Owned bySinai Temple of Los Angeles
WebsiteMount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries

Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery is the largest Jewish mortuary and Jewish cemetery organization in California. Many notable Jewish people from the entertainment and arts industry are buried here.

History

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Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries, owned by Sinai Temple of Los Angeles, refers to a Jewish mortuary and two Jewish cemeteries in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The original cemetery property is located at 5950 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. The cemetery was originally established in 1953 by the neighboring Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery. In 1959, it became an exclusively Jewish cemetery, and in 1967 it was acquired by Sinai Temple, the oldest and largest Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles,[1][2] which dedicated its mortuary and cemetery resources to all members of the Jewish community in and around the city. Numerous stars and celebrities from the entertainment industry are interred in the park, which is located down the street from Warner Bros studios.

Artwork

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Warsaw Ghetto Memorial rendered in burnt wood to depict differences among Holocaust victims.

Throughout the different sections of Mount Sinai Hollywood Hills, one encounters various forms of artwork including mosaics, sculpture, fountains and carvings. The art displayed at the Parks provides an opportunity for Jews who may have grown distant from their heritage to re-acquaint themselves with their roots.

Gardens of Heritage- Heritage Mosaic

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The most noticeable artwork is the Heritage Mosaic located at Mount Sinai's Hollywood Hills location, which, at 145 by 30 feet (44.2 m × 9.1 m), depicts a panorama of the Jewish experience in America and is made up of more than 2.5 million pieces of hand-cut Venetian glass.

The artwork begins with the arrival of a small group of Jews in Nieuw Amsterdam in 1654 and continues with highlights of American Jewish history up to the time of the founding of the State of Israel.

The Gardens of Heritage was dedicated in September 1984, after several years of design and construction. The mosaic has also served as an educational tool for visitors to learn about the story of Jewish settlement and accomplishments in the United States.

The Warsaw Ghetto Memorial

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The park also features a memorial monument dedicated to the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust by renowned Jewish artist, Bernard Zakheim. The six three-dimensional figures, all rendered in burnt and tortured wood, represent six heroic Jewish figures: those who resisted-partisan fighters, a woman warrior and the school-girls who martyred themselves, a scholar and a child who could not resist, and one figure stands for those who went passively to their deaths.

At Yom HaShoah commemorations, memorial candles are lit in front of plaques bearing the names of concentration camps.

Rising from the stones of the memorial is a flame that symbolizes the eternal spirit of the six million and the rebirth of Israel from the ashes of the Holocaust.[3]

The Bet Alpha Synagogue Mosaic

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When this 6th century (Byzantine period) Galilean synagogue was excavated, a cavity in the floor of its apse, which almost certainly served as a genizah, was uncovered; an Ark for the Torah Scrolls stood above it.

The central decorative feature of the Bet Alpha synagogue was its mosaic floor, reproduced in the Shemot Plaza by members of Kibbutz Eylon in the Galilee at five times its original size, using about four million tesserae. The 12 signs of the Zodiac are arranged in a circular pattern around a cover at the center that accesses the genizah below.

Art historian Michael Ave-Yonah comments on the Bet Alpha mosaic: "The simple but strong style of the mosaic pavement represents a folk art that appears to have developed among the Jewish villagers of Galilee. The figures are depicted frontally and the artist took great pains to make each scene expressive. The mosaics of Bet Alpha are striking in their coloring and stylization and are among the finest examples of Jewish art in the Byzantine period."

Expansion to Simi Valley, California

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In 1997, faced with dwindling space at the original Hollywood Hills location and recognizing the need for Jewish burial properties for future generations, Mount Sinai Memorial Parks expanded by opening its second memorial park, Mount Sinai Simi Valley.

Simi Valley Green Burial Park- Teva

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Mount Sinai's Simi Valley Certified Green Burial Cemetery.

In 2024 Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries was certified by the Green Burial Council as both a green funeral home and a provider of green burial services.

The Green Burial Council provides national certification for both funeral homes and cemeteries that provide environmentally conscious options for burial and disposition. Green burial has steadily grown in popularity over the past two decades, reflecting the community’s desire for more natural disposition methods.

Joe Sehee, founder of the Green Burial Council explained, “Green burial is a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact that aids in the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health and the restoration and preservation of habitat.”

With this certification, Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries becomes part of a national network of green burial providers.

Teva at Mount Sinai Simi Valley is located near Kamenir Chapel, overlooking a protected nature reserve, this beautifully tranquil area is reached by a meandering stone path. Along the path are olive and pine trees, stone walls, and handcrafted wooden benches that create a protected space that envelopes visitors in shaded comfort and peace.

Teva's burials only use natural, sustainably sourced containers made of wicker or wood, or a natural fiber shroud that is fully biodegradable. There are no concrete vaults or liners placed in the interment space. The green burial area is planted with drought tolerant, native California plants that reflect the hillsides and areas that surround the park. In addition, a special strain of drought tolerant grass and decomposed granite covers the ground areas.

As part of their land stewardship, graves at Mount Sinai’s natural burial sites are not marked with bronze markers. Instead, a natural engraved stone marker commemorates loved ones, and is included in the purchase of every space in the Natural Burial area.

Genizah and book burials

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Mount Sinai offers a Genizah program where members of the community can drop off worn out siddurim (prayer books), Torah scrolls, tallit, tzitzit, tefellin and other sacred materials which contain the Hebrew name of God, for burial at a later date. Several times each year, Mount Sinai invites school groups to Mount Sinai Simi Valley, where they will conduct a burial service for the books while learning about this ancient Jewish tradition.

Notable interments

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References

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  1. ^ Ruth Stroud, "Westward Expansion", Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, March 20, 1997.
  2. ^ Tracy Valeri, "Mount Sinai Park Dedication Set", Los Angeles Daily News, March 15, 1997.
  3. ^ photo and additional information
  4. ^ "Berle Adams dies at 92; co-founder of Mercury Records and an MCA executive". Los Angeles Times. August 29, 2009. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d e Hollywood and the Best of Los Angeles, p. 572
  6. ^ Los Angeles Times via Legacy.com
  7. ^ Music Theatre International
  8. ^ Los Angeles Times
  9. ^ Barnes, Mike (September 23, 2011). "Mo Rothman, Who Engineered the Return of Charlie Chaplin in the '70s, Dies". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  10. ^ Garvey, Marianne (January 14, 2022). "Bob Saget will be laid to rest Friday". CNN. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  11. ^ "Record Producer Robert Shad Dies". Observer–Reporter. March 18, 1985. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  12. ^ Barnes, Mike (August 4, 2009). "Makeup artist Howard J. Smit dies". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2009.
  13. ^ Jewish Journal
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34°09′00″N 118°18′54″W / 34.15000°N 118.31500°W / 34.15000; -118.31500

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