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September 12, 2009 | 1:21 pm

Jewish cemetery accused of desecrating 500 graves

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Eden Memorial Park isn’t L.A.‘s biggest Jewish cemetery, but it’s up there. And this week it was dragged into Los Angeles County Superior Court, accused of desecrating the final resting places of 500 Jews:

Attorney Michael Avenatti, who filed the suit, told CNN that his investigation revealed that as many as 500 graves may have been torn up without the families’ permission.

“We allege that Eden Memorial Park and its management for the better part of 15 years were engaging in improper burial practices, including the desecration of graves and the improper disposal of human remains,” he said.

The lawsuit is filed by F. Charles Sands, whose parents are buried at Eden Memorial Park, against the cemetery and its owner, Service Corporation International, based in Houston, Texas. The company is the largest owner of cemeteries and funeral homes in the United States.

This is not the first time Service Corporation International has faced allegations of digging up graves and moving bodies to make room for new remains. It reached a $100 million settlement with families of people whose remains were desecrated at Menorah Gardens in Florida. The company also reached a $14 million settlement with the Florida state attorney’s office over issues related to those claims.

The CNN report goes on to mention that Groucho Marx and Lenny Bruce are buried at Eden, but somehow offers no perspective on Jewish burial customs. It closes with a quote from the lawsuit that states “the deceased are typically required to be interred within 24 hours, thereby leaving little time to obtain consent to move an encroaching vault in an adjacent plot and giving defendants a motive to desecrate human remains and commit other immoral acts rather than comply with the law.”

Suffice to say, disturbing the dead is not kosher. Baruch dayan emet.

14 Comments — Leave your comment

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My 3 family members are at Menorah Gardens in West Palm Beach….I told them my daughter’s grave was moved…and I am part of the group they shpuld have settled with…does anyone have any info regarding this cemetary in Florida or the owners or Lawyers?

Comment by Florence on 9/13/09 at 9:17 am

Don’t you wonder what kind of comments this mess would provoke from Groucho and Lenny? Both, of course, being buried at Eden Memorial. Again, with the desecrations! The desecrations at Oak Burr, the African-American cemetery outside of Chicago, is still being investigated—they’ll never have all of the answers or find all of the bodies because the records were destroyed. And now it’s jewish graves in Mission Hills, CA. Similarities? Cemetery owners instructed workers to removed bodies from graves (backhoes crushing cement vaults)so that plots could be resold. Read more at:

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/09/more-grave-desecrations-eden-memorial-park-where-grocho-lenny-are-buried.html

Comment by Sharon McEachern on 9/13/09 at 11:41 am

This is the second major case of abusing corpses in 2009. The first occurred at their cemetery National Memorial Park and National Funeral Home in Falls Church,Virginia in April

Comment by Robert Burkhardt on 9/13/09 at 11:54 am

I am curious to know if it is possible to find out which graves were allegedly dug up. Both my parents are buried at Eden. Does anyone know?

Comment by linda kern on 9/13/09 at 7:01 pm

What has happened at Eden Memorial Park is horrendous.  But similar things have happened at a Jewish cemetery in Queens NY called Bayside Cemetery owned by Congregation Shaare Zedek in Manhattan.  Graves have been desecrated and vandalized.  Bones have been scattered and likely discarded.  Most of the cemetery’s money has been improperly taken by the synagogue owner in violation of NY State trust and cemetery law.  The cemetery has collected perpetual care money and used it to fix their roof.  And on and on the sorry story of Bayside Cemetery goes.  And very strangely the NY State Attorney General has been investigating Bayside Cemetery for 6 years without conclusion.  Why so long?  What’s the connection between the NY Attorney General and Congregation Shaare Zedek that has been causing such a delayed investigation?  For more information about Bayside Cemetery goto http://www.baysidecemeterylitigation.com.  I hope that someday justice can be done for this disrespected cemetery in Queens NY.

Comment by Bayside Watcher on 9/13/09 at 7:14 pm

Linda, To check on the status of parents with a phone call and |or visit is the best way to proceed. A visit the cemetery would be best. Anything suspicious should be reported to the lawyer AND THE AUTHORITIES.

Comment by Robert Burkhardt on 9/13/09 at 7:32 pm

Both my parents and my brother are buried at Eden. I’d like to know how families can learn more about this.

Comment by Doreen Mulman on 9/14/09 at 3:00 am

I’m so upset, I didn’t notice Robert’s advice above!

Comment by Doreen on 9/14/09 at 3:06 am

My wife Janet and I purchased two crypts at Menorah Gardens in Ft Lauderdale FL.Subsequent to the SCI scandel at that location ,our ownership rights were transfered to Eden Memorial Park on our return to CA.We were assured that nothing of the sort could happen at Eden Memorial Park!We had them put our names and dates of birth on the face of the crypts we own in the hope that at least our names might not be desecrated.I wonder how this will impact the value of our cemetery property?

Comment by Gerald Dashkin on 9/14/09 at 9:56 am

The full lawsuit is now on line, there is a link here:

http://yourfuneralguy.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/in-new-sci-suit-won-38-1-mil-in-florida-case-your-funeral-guy/

Comment by Robert Burkhardt on 9/14/09 at 3:11 pm

1st off the press does blow some of this out of place.  Did you know SCI bought the cemetery in FL.? And just a couple of months later they found out about all this problems the former owners did.  And SCI corrected it and paid this money to the families. SCI did do it, the former company did.  Don’t always believe what you read, there’s always a back story.

Comment by Korky on 9/18/09 at 11:37 pm

One small problem Korky, the back story you mention did not make it into the lawsuits or the court records. In FL.bones got dumped in a swamp. At Eden Memorial Park mentioned in the article bones were buried in an on site dump.

Comment by Robert Burkhardt on 9/19/09 at 12:30 am

I dont buy this…after all SCI went through, AND there is PLENTY of space left at Eden (look at the top section…there are very few occupied spaces). I’m Jewish, but I’m not buying this…the law firm isnt even Jewish…

Comment by Sorrel Beilkin on 9/24/09 at 12:11 pm

It may surprise you to know that SCI has high management turn over at the corporate and middle management level. This contributes to a culture of mismanagement.

I have had contact with many folks who have had problems(moved loved ones graves) on my blogs-

Yes it is not a Jewish Law Firm but it is the firm that won the million dollar settlement in Florida.

http://yourfuneralguy.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/in-new-sci-suit-won-38-1-mil-in-florida-case-your-funeral-guy/

Comment by Robert Burkhardt on 9/24/09 at 12:40 pm

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