The Jewish Joint Burial Society (JJBS), founded in 1969, provides funerals and cremations for synagogue members as part of the benefits of belonging to a synagogue. Currently, the JJBS covers over 17,000 members in 46 synagogues (consisting of Reform, Masorti, Liberal and Independent).
The Society provides funerals for congregants of member synagogues. This can be in a conventional grave with headstone in the Western Cemetery at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire where the JJBS has burial rights. This primarily serves the London synagogues; in the rest of the country synagogues use dedicated Jewish areas in municipal cemeteries.
We can bury Jewish and non-Jewish partners in a Woodland or lawn setting in the JJBS Woodland Cemetery at Cheshunt.
Cremations in London normally take place at the Golders Green Crematorium. Ashes can be interred in the columbarium at the Woodland Cemetery.
We also provide burials and cremations for non-members.
When a member dies in the London area, the JJBS, in conjunction with the synagogue, makes all the arrangements for the funeral, whether it is a burial or a cremation, and covers the basic cost of the funeral.
Outside London, the JJBS reimburses the synagogue for the cost of the funeral up to a fixed amount which will provide a substantial contribution toward the cost of the funeral.