Video: The Gladwyne Jewish Cemetery Project

Those resolving to help with local volunteer efforts in 2013 have the option of assisting the restoration and maintenance of a historic but little-known cemetery.

Community leaders led by Beth David Reform Congregation have organized a nonprofit cleanup of the long-abandoned Jewish cemetery in Gladwyne known as Har Hazeitim.

From Beth David's YouTube video description:

An historic final resting place for hundreds of Jews, "Har Hazeitim" was abandoned many years ago by a Jewish burial society and rediscovered only within the last dozen or so years. It is located in suburban Philadelphia in a thickly wooded area, coincidentally near a synagogue which happened to move to Gladwyne in the early 1980's, Beth David Reform Congregation. Beth David's Board of Trustees successfully petitioned the court to prevent developers from destroying the property. Through the years, the Men's Club of Beth David, now known as Beth David Men, has lovingly cleaned up the area as best they could. Moving forward, the cemetery will now be cared for and hopefully restored by a newly founded charitable organization led by a select group of Beth David members, leaders from other synagogues, as well as local community leaders. The name of this organization is Friends of the Gladwyne Jewish Memorial Cemetery. Your tax-deductible donations are welcome.

Beth David's Neil Sukonik, a co-chair of the cemetery project, mentions in the video comments that the goal is strictly the restoration of the existing cemetery, not to create more burial sites there.

West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd opened a dedicated Jewish burial section in 2011.

For more information about Beth David and the cemetery restoration, visit bdavid.org.