Yale Jewish Community Cemetery

Pursued for several years by members of Yale’s Jewish community, the dream of a Yale Jewish Cemetery has been realized. Located in a serene setting, removed from the commotion of the city yet only a short distance from downtown New Haven, the Yale Jewish Community Cemetery is a place where one can meditate, reflect and remember one’s loved ones while reaffirming ties to persons with whom one has shared work, family, neighborhood, hope and belief.

Joseph Slifka Center has an agreement with Temple Beth Sholom of Hamden, CT to provide space contiguous with yet separate from Beth Sholom’s own site at Walnut Grove Cemetery on the Meriden-Wallingford line – an enclave within an enclave.

Founded in 1876 as a non-sectarian cemetery, Walnut Grove is equipped with a beautiful chapel which may be used for services. Only half of Walnut Grove’s 127 acres are currently in use for burial while the rest is heavily wooded, having been planted with trees native to Connecticut. The Yale section is open to all members of the community, including those who might be denied burial in a more traditional Jewish cemetery. Those who would prefer a stricter interment standard may purchase plots in the contiguous space belonging to Beth Sholom.

“Give me a burial place in your midst,” the words that adorn the Yale Jewish Community Cemetery marker, were originally spoken by Biblical Abraham as he negotiated with the Hittite denizens of Canaan for a plot where he might bury his wife Sara. Though he knew that Canaan was his “promised land,” he also knew himself to be a privileged sojourner, both at home and in exile.

For further information

Information concerning the acquisition of burial plots may be obtained by phone at (203) 432-8523 or by email at slifkacenter@yale.edu

If you need immediate access to burial space, please contact Dan Klein at Weller Funeral home: (203) 624-6912.