Sydney’s new cemetery consecrated
The largest Sydney cemetery to be established in 100 years will provide 28,000 double-depth graves for the Jewish community.
Rabbi Ulman (yellow cord) consecrates the new cemetery
The Macarthur Memorial Park cemetery, consecrated at the weekend, is in Varroville, close to Campbelltown, and 46 km from Sydney’s CBD.
NSW Minister for Local Government, Ron Hoenig, was among the guests as Rabbi Yehoram Ulman and members of the Beth conducted the ceremony.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip said: “The consecration of a new Jewish cemetery is a rare event of immense significance. Its impact stretches far beyond the present moment” said
This burial space will allow us to uphold our sacred burial obligations and serve generations of our community. It will be a site of immense significance and meaning to so many and a place of memory, of mourning and of profound connection between past, present and future.
“We are proud to have resolved the burial crisis facing our community and secured sufficient burial space to last until the end of the century.”
David Knoll, a former president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, is the community’s cemetery spokesperson.
He told J-Wire: “Varroville is offering much more favourable fees than existing major cemeteries and has been designed to allow Cohanim to attend funerals as part of the mourners. This has been achieved by placing behind a see-through partition.”
The prayer house at Varroville will be significantly larger than the Chevra Kadisha in Woollahra.
With the existing cemeteries in Sydney reaching capacity, David Knoll says that within five or six years, community members will only be able to pre-purchase graves at MacArthur.
He added, “Our plans make it impossible for a Jew not being buried for financial reasons.”
With the lower burial costs, David Knoll believes the cemetery will be in use within a few months.
