Bayside Cemetery — Local services in New York

Why Was A ‘Righteous Gentile’ Turned Away From The Cemetery He’s Trying To Save? Ari Feldman July 23, 2018 Wikimedia

Richard Levin, a reproductive surgeon in Louisville, Kentucky, has been researching his family history for over two decades. Several years ago, he uncovered the name of a relative — the brother of his great-great-grandmother — in New York City archives. But Levin’s busy schedule kept him from going to the relative’s grave in the dilapidated Bayside Cemetery, in Queens, which has been the subject of a protracted legal squabble over who is responsible for its repairs. Then, a couple months ago, Levin connected with Anthony Pisciotta on Facebook. Pisciotta, who is Catholic, has spent most of his Sundays for ten years bushwhacking through Bayside, cleaning headstones and repairing mausoleums. Pisciotta promptly found the marker for Levin’s ancestor: It was tipped over, half-buried in the dirt, cracked in two. But when Pisciotta returned to Bayside last Sunday to lift the headstone up and glue it back together, the cemetery’s guard turned him away at the gate. He said he was under orders from “the big boss.”

“He said they had orders not to let anyone in to do any work,” Pisciotta said. “I’m the only person who goes in there. So it was basically pointed at me.” ...

Levin says that regardless of the outcome of the turf war, Pisciotta doesn’t deserve to get lost in the shuffle. “They talk, in Israel, about the righteous gentile,” Levin said. “Anthony is doing the work that Jews, and a synagogue, should be doing, should have been doing.” Shaare Zedek, a congregation that was formed in 1837, is the lawful owner of Bayside. Michael Firestone, the synagogue’s president, declined to comment on Pisciotta being turned away at the gate. ...

Pisciotta may be something of an unsung hero in the Jewish world. But at least in local New York City media, he has received attention for years for his unwavering dedication to Bayside, despite not being Jewish and having a full-time job. (He works for the Port Authority.) He found the cemetery over twenty years ago while driving a delivery truck through its neighborhood in Queens. “Every stone has a story,” he said in June. “And that’s why I think it’s important that the place be saved and preserved.” Pisciotta said that when he went last Sunday to repair the headstone for Levin’s relative, the guard told him he was under orders not to let anyone in to do groundskeeping work. Pisciotta said he felt the order must have been directed at him, since the cemetery is normally open to visitors on Sundays and Wednesdays. Levin said that when Pisciotta called him to say that he would not be able to repair the relative’s grave, he sounded “despondent.”

“It’s incredibly frustrating, because I’ve been trying to get that place cleaned up so I can get back to work lifting stones,” he said. “What are they gonna wait for, f... another affidavit on Thursday detailing her concerns. The affidavit, which Cotel shared with the Forward, says the synagogue’s plan “provides no data (and very few specific details) about the actual work to be undertaken.” Cotel writes that the synagogue may have vastly underestimated the price of digging up and resituating thousands of toppled stone monuments throughout the cemetery, some of which weigh well over a thousand pounds and are completely sunken below the ground. Cotel said she filed the affidavit after Shaare Zedek declined to share a detailed budget of their plans for Bayside with CAJAC. ... “$8 million is the bare bones number,” Cotel said. “Our position is that the cemetery really needs $10 to $15 million.” ... He added that the Jewish community at large may be responsible Bayside’s misfortune, and that the fault does not lie only with Shaare Zedek. “They probably didn’t do this with an evil heart,” he said. “I’m perfectly willing to look at the long game, not the short game.” Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at feldman@forward.com or follow him on...

Awesome place...until you fund yourself locked in :/ The site says visitors welcome, daylight hours. We were back at the main gate by 4:30 only to find it chained. If it wasn't for a hole in the fence that we found we'd have been forced to call the police. I will be calling them in the morning lol, and in advance for...

This is a very beautiful park in this locality. I personally love to go for walk in it. The park is always well maintained and there are a lot of places where you can sit for relaxing. Although the site is open for visitors in daylight hours, I like the...