WELCOME

Welcome to our website — with all of the memories and features of our previous website — and so much more!! If you grew up in a New Jersey Jewish community — or if you had relatives living there, our website will help you reminisce. If you grew up elsewhere and had no connection to the Jewish communities of New Jersey, our website will educate you about some of the New Jersey Jewish communities of yesteryear. Our website is dedicated to the memory of those who built the Jewish communities of New Jersey, and our goal is to honor them by preserving their final resting places — New Jersey’s Jewish cemeteries.  

NEW NAME AND EXPANDED MISSION

In 2019, Friends for Preservation of Middlesex County Jewish Cemeteries, Inc. expanded its mission and changed its name to Friends of New Jersey Jewish Cemeteries, Inc. (a.k.a. Friends for Preservation of Middlesex County Jewish Cemeteries, Inc.). Since inception in 2005, our organization and our website concentrated on the Shaarey Tefiloh cemeteries (in Perth Amboy and Woodbridge, Middlesex County). Most visitors to our website found it to be a trip down Memory Lane for those with roots in the Perth Amboy Jewish Community. As we expanded our mission to include our new cemetery partners and changed our name to reflect our expanded mission, we upgraded and updated our website to include our new cemetery partners. We have created a trip down Memory Lane for all those with roots in the Jewish communities served by all of our cemetery partners, and we plan to continue adding images and stories as we receive them.

BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTOS

Our website intentionally includes both “BEFORE” and “AFTER” photos in an effort to show what our organization has accomplished with the generous contributions of our supporters. No longer overgrown, our cemeteries are now maintained well, providing those interred there with the dignity they deserve. The “BEFORE” photos serve as a constant reminder that your continued support is needed.

OUR CEMETERY PARTNERS

We have upgraded and updated our website to include news, information, and photos about all of our cemetery partners:

• Shaarey Tefiloh Cemeteries (in Perth Amboy & Woodbridge, Middlesex County)

• Newark Jewish Cemeteries (in Newark, Essex County)

• North Arlington Jewish Cemeteries (in North Arlington, Bergen County)

• Samptown Jewish Cemetery (in South Plainfield, Middlesex County)

• Beth David Memorial Park (in Kenilworth, Union County)

CHECK BACK AND CONTACT US

Please check back frequently for updates and more information. We hope you will contact us if you have photos and/or memories of our new cemetery partners to share with us, and we hope you will send us the names of others who may be interested in our cemeteries. (Please use the “Contact Us” button on the menu.)

BETTER AND STRONGER

We want to assure all those with roots in the Perth Amboy Jewish community that our concerns and attention to the Shaarey Tefiloh cemeteries has not diminished at all and has, in fact, been strengthened by our new structure.

CEMETERY TOURS

Take a virtual tour of our New Jersey Jewish cemeteries now, or contact us to schedule a real tour. After postponing all real cemetery tours during 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we resumed our real cemetery tours in Spring 2022 and have continued them since then. Our 2024 cemetery tours took place on the following Sundays at the locations indicated:

• June 2 (12 noon - 2 pm) - Shaarey Tefiloh Cemeteries (in Perth Amboy and Woodbridge)

• June 9 (12 noon - 2 pm) - McClellan Street section of Newark Jewish Cemeteries (in Newark)

• June 23 (12 noon - 2 pm) - Beth David Memorial Park (in Kenilworth)

• August 4 (12 noon - 2 pm) - Samptown Jewish Cemeteries (in South Plainfield) - weather cancellation

• August 11 (12 noon - 2 pm) - North Arlington Jewish Cemeteries (in North Arlington)

• October 6 (10 am - 1 pm) - Newark Jewish Cemeteries (in Newark)
  

We plan to continue our Cemetery Tours in 2025 and will provide the schedule more information about these tours early in 2025. We will provide detailed information by email to all those on our emailing list. We request advance registration for all tours, so that we can provide all details and can notify all registrants of any weather-related cancellations. At our Newark tour, we will join the annual Newark Cemetery Visiting Day sponsored by the Community Relations Committee of Greater MetroWest NJ. We hope you will be able to join us at one or more of our 2025 Cemetery Tours.

Regardless whether you can attend our real cemetery tours or not, we hope you will take a virtual tour of our cemeteries on this website. We also hope you will contact us to tell us how you can help us to preserve the dignity of our ancestors. Friends of New Jersey Jewish Cemeteries, Inc. is a federally tax-exempt organization as determined by the Internal Revenue Service under Section 501(c)(3). All contributions are tax-deductible as provided by law.