Forest Park, IL – Gravestones at Jewish Waldheim Cemetery While Des Plaines River Rises

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    Forest Park, IL – At Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park, a sacred Jewish burial ground, where more than 200,000 Jews are buried, the tombstones in the section near the Des Plaines River are sinking. The area is suffering from occasional flooding and the unkempt sections tell of the struggle to carry Waldheim’s legacy into the future.

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    As a Jewish cemetery, Waldheim faces unique problems because of the Jewish tradition that bodies be buried in a plain wooden coffin with no concrete vault. As the wood decays over the years, monuments atop those graves are more likely to tilt or fall. In addition, the cemetery’s nearness to the river brings sporadic flooding in areas now used primarily to bury the indigent.

    “It’s a very, very difficult cemetery to maintain,” said Irwin Lapping, vice president of Waldheim Cemetery Co., which manages about 85 percent of the area. “We underwent a physical renovation that improved much of the cemetery. But still there’s a great deal to do.”

    Lapping’s firm maintains about 170,000 graves at the cemetery. Silverman & Weiss Cemetery, a smaller business, handles the remaining graves—at least 26,000—including the section near the Des Plaines River that sometimes floods.

    “I have no idea how [the flooding] would be resolved,” said Steve Schwitzman, owner of Silverman & Weiss. “You can’t really build up the land because there are graves there. You’d have to take out every single headstone, monument and redo the land and then put everything back where it’s supposed to be. It would be almost impossible.”

    Monica Karbin, whose parents are buried in the section near the river, calls that response unacceptable and thinks Silverman & Weiss should invest in a drainage system to prevent flooding.
    “How disgusting, how degrading and how disrespectful to the dead, to the people you love, to be underwater,” she said. “It’s senseless. Why should my mom be sinking?”


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    2 Comments
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    Mark Levin
    Mark Levin
    15 years ago

    Not to CHV make light or anything like that but didnt these people know about the area when they bought the land for burial? I mean we know in NJ that the place is one MAJOR swamp. I have been at l’vayas where nebach there is water in the kever and I wonder why they dont provide a life preserver for the mais?!?!??!?

    Matzahlocal101
    Matzahlocal101
    15 years ago

    Florida is just a few feet above the water table and at high tide there is often water in the keverim. It’s not uncommon.

    I was under the impression that the headstone is called a headstone because it goes at the head of the kever, not directly over it. A few suggestions that might not make people happy or might not be in accordance with local codes. but would work. If the cause (and I can’t believe it is) of the stone sinking is the collapse of the wooden coffin six feet under, then take off the lid at the burial, place it on the side of the casket and fill in the box, like in Eretz yisrael where they don’t use caskets. Another cheap fix would be use a larger base for the headstone. The larger footprint would result in more bearing area and less tendency to sink for whatever reason. If the cemetery is right on the river a seawall could be built and installed in sections to prevent some flooding.