On a quarterly basis SINAI MEMORIAL CHAPEL CHEVRA KADISHA takes items like prayer books, siddurim, benchers, machzors, and tefillin that were once used for a holy purpose and now, for any reason, need to be discarded with dignity. Four times a year, Sinai takes these discarded items and places them at Eternal Home Cemetery (1051 El Camino Real, Colma), Home of Eternity (5000 Piedmont Ave, Oakland) and Gan Shalom Cemetery (1100 Bear Creek Road, Briones).
Guidelines:
- QUARTERLY DROP-OFF: Sinai provides this free service four (4) times per year on the last Monday of March, July, October and January, from 9am-4pm. Items will not be accepted at other times. Items may not be dropped off at any of our funeral home offices or otherwise left unattended as it may compromise the respect that the items needing to be buried deserve. Please give us a call if you have an urgent need outside of the quarterly schedule so we can try and work with you.
- SAFETY: All guests to the cemeteries must wear an appropriate face mask and keep adequate social distance to keep our Sinai cemetery staff teams safe.
- BOX IN ADVANCE: Please have all items boxed in cardboard.
- SORT IN ADVANCE: Please sort all items prior to bringing it to the cemetery. There is not adequate dignified space for sorting at the cemetery.
- BIODEGRADABLE: Sinai accepts paper, talesim (prayer shawl) and tefillin (phylacteries). Sinai does not accept plastic or laminate.
- UNNECESSARY ITEMS: Skull caps, Jewish Newspapers, Hebrew language books, flyers, or items that are secular in purpose are not necessary items to drop off.
- FREE: There is no charge to the community to bury these items with innate holiness.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE: Jewish Funerals, Shemot Burial of Sacred Writings + Rabbinical Assembly (RA), Halakhah Teshuvot + My Jewish Learning, Burying the Genizah + Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR)