Willamette Valley Jewish Community Burial Society and Waverly Jewish Cemetery
The Willamette Valley Jewish Community Burial Society, a 501(c)3 organization that coordinates with Beit Am’s Chevra Kaddisha, is an incorporated body with chapters in Salem and Corvallis. A Jewish cemetery was established in Albany in the 1870’s, and in the 1920’s turned over to the Masonic Lodge in Albany. An agreement with this Masonic Lodge confers exclusive responsibility for the Jewish section of the Waverly Cemetery, including sale of the burial plots, to the Willamette Valley Jewish Community Burial Society.
The Masonic Lodge retains ownership of the cemetery, and the trust it has established will provide perpetual care.
The Jewish section of the Waverly Cemetery is divided into two sections. One section is for Jews as defined according to Jewish Law (Halakhah). The other is for Jews by patrilineal descent and families who wish burial with non-Jewish spouses. No ashes will be interred in the halakhic section.
Waverly Jewish Cemetery Arrangements
The Cemetery used by the Willamette Valley Jewish Burial Society is the Waverly Jewish Cemetery in Albany. It is owned by the St. Johns Lodge, A.F. and A.M. The governance of the use of the Jewish Cemetery is done by their Cemetery Board in conjunction with the Willamette Valley Jewish Community Burial Society which has two chapters, one in Corvallis, the other in Salem.
The current cost of a burial plot is $1000. Checks are made out to Masonic Cemetery Association.
The assignment of plots for the Jewish portion of the cemetery is done through the Willamette Valley Jewish Community Burial Society.
There are two sections in the Jewish portion of the Waverly Jewish Cemetery. A small Orthodox or halachic section, and a larger liberal Jewish section. Only Jews as defined halachicly may be buried in the Orthodox section. In the non-halachic section, non-Jewish spouses or children, for instance, can be buried.
The Masonic Cemetery Association has asked that Memorial markers be flush with the ground. This both decreases vandalism and makes the maintenance of the cemetery much easier and less costly. The Burial Society is in full agreement with this requirement.
Since a Jewish burial is supposed to have nothing hindering the body from returning to the earth (in Israel no coffins are used at all), the Cemetery Association has agreed that all Jewish burials may have the bottom left off the cement liner of the grave. The cement liner is to keep the cemetery surface from collapsing. The Burial Society has decided that all the burials in both Jewish sections of the Waverly Jewish Cemetery will have the bottom of the liner left off.
In the Halachic section, there is a further restriction. The coffin must be halachically correct (no metal, all wood).
Documents
AGREEMENT_between_WVJC_Burial_Society_and_Waverly_Memorial_Cemetery