http://www.plazajewish.org/ 212.769.4400
Helping families at the time of death was traditionally the responsibility of the community acting through a chevra kadisha (burial society).
Most of the family-owned funeral businesses that functioned like a chevra kadisha have been sold to publicly traded corporations that must make a profit and pay a dividend to shareholders.
Vulnerable families were the victims of sales pressure that caused funeral observances to depart from the simplicity and dignity of a Jewish funeral.
New York’s Attorney General determined that SCI was a monopoly that charged unfairly high prices. He forced SCI to sell Plaza Memorial Chapel, inc. to break the monopoly.
Plaza Jewish Community Chapel is a not for profit corporation governed by an unpaid Board of Directors that includes rabbis from all of the major denominations, representatives of Jewish social service agencies, individuals who serve as lay leaders in synagogues and Jewish communal organizations. Our mission is to ensure that every member of the Jewish Community receives a dignified and respectful Jewish funeral; to lower the high cost of funerals by eliminating the profit motive and commercialism so often associated with the funeral industry; and to provide appropriate connections to Jewish communal resources that the bereaved may need to cope with emotional or practical problems.
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Plaza is able to serve families from the entire metropolitan Jewish community, as well as Manhattan, and provides a full range of services including transfer of remains from other states and countries; obtaining death certificates; publishing funeral notices, making cemetery arrangements, hosting Chapel services and pre-need planning.
