Seaside Jewish Community

Cemetery Information and Guidelines

The Seaside Jewish Community (SJC) Cemetery is located near historic Lewes, Delaware, near the end of Pilottown Road across from the DeVries Monument. It is physically within, but separate from, the Saint Peter's Episcopal Church (SPC) Pilottown Cemetery. To see a map of the cemetery, go to http://stpeters.episcopaldelaware.org/cemetery/pilottown_cemetery.html. The SJC Cemetery is located in Section B of the overall cemetery grounds.

If you are interested in reserving plots in or want more information about the SJC Cemetery, please contact Harvey at: rehohef@verizon.net or 302-226-2209.

The following guidelines and points of understanding between SJC and SPC exist as of November 21, 2009.

1.      SPC will reserve about 50 plots for SJC’s use. 

2.      Each plot may accommodate two caskets, or one casket and two urns, or four urns. 

3.      SJC would determine who would qualify as an occupant in the SJC area. It would issue a certificate of approval to SPC. 

4.      SPC will charge $600 per plot. This fee may be adjusted in view of economic circumstances. This fee includes perpetual care. Payment for plots will   be made directly to SPC. 

5.      SPC requires no liners for plots, but does allow it’s installation if the client so desires. 

6.      SJC understands that if an SJC client has purchased a plot but later decides not to use it, he or she may sell it back to SPC for the price originally paid. Such a plot cannot be sold to a third party. 

7.      SPC will be forthcoming in its assistance in burying the deceased within 24 to 48 hours after death, as is customary according to Jewish law. 

8.      SPC approves an appropriate designation for the SJC area on a bench, such as “Cemetery of the Seaside Jewish Community.” SJC would pay for the designating bench. 

9.      SPC approves a demarcation of SJC’s area, compromised of spaced pavers in slate color. SJC would pay for the designating pavers and their installation. 

10.  SPC approves that Jewish icons (e.g. Star of David) would appear on some SJC headstones. SPC also accepts script in Hebrew letters on the bench and headstones. 

11.  SPC approves that no non-Jewish religious icons will appear on any of the headstones in the SJC area (but will allow civic, military, Masonic or other such nonreligious icons.) 

12.  SPC prohibits hate symbols of any kind. 

13.  SJC agrees that, after a period of 2 years, the plots that SPC is currently making available to SJC may be cut back due to lack of sufficient demand.

14.  SJC agrees that, should SJC disband without a successor institution, plots may revert back to SPC. 

15.  SJC participants will abide by all provisions of “St. Peter’s Pilottown Cemetery Policy and Operating Procedures.” They concern standard conditions pertaining to purchase procedures, resale of unused spaces, burial and plot maintenance, monuments, headstones and footstones, plantings and placements, procedures for exceptions, and the like. 

16.  Further details and adjustments shall be approved by both SJC and SPC, including those relating to the size and material of the bench and its inscriptions, as well as placement and installation of pavers.

How do I get there?  Go to the "Star" in Lewes below.