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If someone has died, or is close
Any hour of any day. We aim to call back within fifteen minutes, any hour of any day. Nothing else needs to be decided before you ring.
Chesed shel emes
We run the Bay Area Chevra Kadisha — the Jewish Burial Society of the Bay Area — a concierge service for the end of life. One call arranges the taharah, a shomer, a rabbi, the mortuary, the plot, the minyan and everything after it. For every Jew, whatever their background, and whatever they can pay.
The ritual washing and the dressing in tachrichim — plain white linen shrouds, the same for everybody, with no pockets. It is done in silence but for the verses that are said, by people who did not know the person and will never say who they were. This is the heart of the whole thing.
From the moment of death until the burial, a shomer sits with the body reading Psalms, so that the person is never left alone. Through the night, and for as many nights as it takes.
The mortuary, the cemetery, the plot, the rabbi, the timing, the paperwork, the death certificate, the notices, the transport, and getting family in from out of town. We know what each step costs and how long each one takes, and we will make the calls with you or for you.
A minyan in the shiva house, morning and evening, so that Kaddish can be said. Meals. Somebody to explain the mourning practices as you reach them rather than all at once. What shiva involves and the year of mourning are both written out in full.
Literally the holy society: the group that prepares a Jewish person for burial. It performs the taharah — the ritual washing and the dressing in plain white shrouds — arranges for the body never to be left alone until burial, and sees that the burial itself is done as Jewish law requires. It is the oldest volunteer institution in Jewish life and the only kindness that can never be repaid, which is why it is called the truest kindness of all.
Every Jew in the Bay Area, whatever their background, whatever their level of observance, whatever their affiliation or lack of one, and whatever they can pay. Nobody is asked what synagogue they belonged to, and nobody is turned away.
The taharah and the shmirah are provided by the Chevra Kadisha, and cost is never the reason a Jewish person does not receive them. The mortuary, the plot and the headstone are charged by those businesses, not by us, and we will tell you honestly what each of them runs to and where the cheaper options are.
That is fine, and it changes nothing. We will arrange the taharah for your loved one even where another funeral provider is handling everything else. Call us and say who you are working with.
Call us anyway. Bringing somebody home to be buried, or arranging a proper burial in another city or in Israel, is a normal part of this work and there is a network for it.
We aim to call back within fifteen minutes, at any hour of any day. If it is the middle of the night, ring rather than write.
The taharah and the shmirah are given, not sold. They are paid for by people who will never meet the families who receive them, which is exactly what makes this the truest kindness there is — the one the person it is done for can never repay.
Shrouds, the room, the volunteers’ costs, and the burials of Jews who died with nothing all come out of the same place.
The Chevra Kadisha has its own site at jmemorial.org, and its own address: info@jmemorial.org. Either reaches the same people as 408-910-2034.