Natural (also referred to as green) burial grounds are becoming more available for family and friends to come to honor and remember their loved ones versus the more traditional cemetery settings.  Spurred on by environmentalists to address and better support our earth’s health, these burial grounds continue to be established with increasing frequency throughout the country.  Among them are twelve Jewish cemeteries that include natural burial.  The closest one is in Portland.  

In fact, natural burial is the traditional way we Jews have buried our dead for many, many centuries. The current environmental crisis has highlighted the inherent wisdom of these traditional practices of ours.  What distinguishes natural burial practices from our local current Jewish burial practices are that no cement liner is required, and the body of the deceased is buried no deeper than 4 feet allowing for a more effective return to the earth.

On the short survey below, please give us your feedback on Jewish natural burial.  Your responses will help us prepare for a meeting with the Board of Directors of the Masonic Cemetery who administers our TBH Jewish section.  We will be asking their governing board to consider two proposals:  1) to permit natural burials within the TBH Jewish Cemetery section, or 2) to establish an all-natural Jewish burial ground on undeveloped land currently within the Masonic Cemetery boundaries.

Thank you for your time and responses to help determine our next steps forward. If there is more than one TBH adult member in your household, we encourage each person to complete this survey. Note this survey is about natural burial only, and does not cover cremation or natural organic reduction (“human composting”)