S.F.-based Sinai Memorial Chapel, the only Jewish mortuary in Northern California and home to the Bay Area’s main chevra kadishah, is developing plans to open a branch office on the Peninsula.
It could be established within the next year, said executive director Gene Kaufman.
Currently the Peninsula lacks not only a Jewish funeral home but also a local chevra kadishah, an organization that prepares bodies for Jewish burial in accordance with religious tradition.
“This will be a great convenience for those living on the Peninsula,” said Marianne Pinsler, who was recently hired as Sinai Memorial Chapel’s director of strategic planning for the Peninsula branch office.
“Now when they need our services, they won’t have to go all the way to San Francisco,” she said.
Pinsler said Sinai hopes to buy an existing funeral home located in or around Redwood City. However, if nothing can be negotiated, a facility, to include a chapel and display room for traditional coffins, will be built.
“We’d prefer to buy a location because we want something we can open right away,” she said. “Construction on a new facility would take at least a couple of years.”
Either way, as a nonprofit organization, Sinai will internally fund the venture. As of yet there is no estimate or limit on the cost, but Sinai is seeking between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet with “lots of parking,” said Pinsler.
It will also consider opening two buildings at separate locations on the Peninsula, if necessary, she said.
“We just really want to be there for the community, so we’ll do whatever we can.”
Sinai Memorial Chapel, established as a Jewish holy burial society in 1902, first expanded beyond its primary location at 1501 Divisadero St. in San Francisco to an East Bay branch office at 3415 Mount Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette in 1993.
Following the practices of the East Bay office and the San Francisco facility, the Peninsula branch will provide funeral arrangements, preparation of the body and other services according to Jewish law. But unlike the East Bay office, the Peninsula branch will include a chapel.
Once the expansion is successfully executed, Sinai might consider reaching farther south to the San Jose area, where there are currently two chevrot kadishot, and north to Marin, said Pinsler.
This latest expansion plan has garnered widespread support and cooperation from rabbis on the Peninsula.
“The proximity will make families more willing to go to Sinai,” said Rabbi Gerald Raiskin of Reform Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame. “It will be easier because of mileage, and psychologically as well.”
Raiskin said such services are important for Jews, not only because the chapel performs the Jewish rites and ceremonies, “but also because Sinai is a Jewish community organization.
“The money that it takes in goes back to the Jewish community, especially through the burial of indigent Jews,” he said. “Sinai makes sure that no Jew is buried in a pauper’s grave.”
Rabbi Marvin Goodman of Conservative Peninsula Sinai Congregation also supported Sinai’s planned expansion.
“It would give Peninsula Jews the opportunity to be more involved [in burial rites] in a more hands-on, personal way,” he said. “You can’t be part of a full chevra kadishah when you have to shlep all the way to San Francisco.”
His congregation and others on the Peninsula had discussed establishing their own burial society in cooperation with Sinai Memorial Chapel in 1994, but plans fell through at that time.
Pinsler, formerly the senior vice president of City National Bank and herself a Peninsula resident, is currently trying to find a site for the branch office.
She is working closely with the Sinai board of directors and long-range planning committee to vigorously meet with funeral home owners. They are exploring independent funeral homes as well as larger funeral organizations.
As a backup, they are also meeting with real estate brokers to assist in the possible purchase of a new site.
“The real estate market is softening, which has opened up a lot more opportunities,” said Pinsler. “We would love to find people within the Jewish community who have access to real estate so we can continue with the search.”
No definitive negotiations have been conducted so far, but Pinsler said the prospects seem promising. She remains optimistic that the right spot will be found in the near future.
“We have met with several people from Burlingame to Menlo Park,” said Pinsler. “We are committed and determined to find a location on the Peninsula.”