Sydney’s new Jewish cemetery?
As it stands, the Jewish community will exhaust the remaining grave sites at Rookwood Cemetery in only six years, but the Rookwood General Cemeteries Reserve Trust (RGCRT) has announced it is hoping to purchase land in Mulgoa.
SYDNEY’S next Jewish cemetery could be located near Penrith.
As it stands, the Jewish community will exhaust the remaining grave sites at Rookwood Cemetery in only six years, but the Rookwood General Cemeteries Reserve Trust (RGCRT) has announced it is hoping to purchase land in Mulgoa.
“Rookwood has been in existence for 150 years, and through that time our land has been diminishing,” RGCRT CEO George Simpson told The AJN.
“We need to make sure that we secure further land for those communities that need burial space.”
Rookwood Cemetery is attempting to buy a site in Mulgoa and the two parties have started conducting due-diligence.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff, who has been working with the state government for several years on this issue, met with Lands Minister Paul Toole last week to discuss the specific needs of the Jewish community and future challenges including capacity at cemeteries.
“Hopefully this development will be the breakthrough that is urgently needed,” Alhadeff told The AJN this week. He said that the shortage of cemetery space facing the Jewish community has reached a “critical level”, and is due to run out within six years.
“Our aim is to ensure that the Jewish community’s burial needs are met until the end of the century, and we are working closely with both the Rookwood Cemetery Trust and Catholic Cemeteries on options for the community,” Alhadeff said.
Simpson said that the RGCRT is dedicated to protecting the land they are looking at buying so that the environment is conserved and the community can continue to use the space in the future.
At present, the site earmarked for the cemetery is used for a range of purposes including equestrian coaching, concerts, accommodation and as a television shooting location.
However, the proposal has been met with backlash from the Mulgoa Progress Association, which claims that building a cemetery on the lawn of a historic homestead will ruin the property’s aesthetics and destroy the significance of the site.
“We are very engaged with the local community in Mulgoa, so we will be embarking on a series of community meetings starting May 16,” Simpson said.
YAEL BRENDER
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