Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries — Local services in Paramus

Posted this 10 years ago, did not repost must be karma !!🤣

My family has been buried here beginning in 1965 with my dad.. since then quite a few of my family members including all of my aunts and uncles, my mother, other family members were buried here as well and actually I am the last one left of basically all of my family… I thought there was perpetual care on these graves until I came up to my mothers funeral few years ago and I was appalled by the condition of the gravesites and the landscaping… I could not afford to pay the prices( once finding out that there was not perpetual care )that they were charging for the upkeep of the grounds and I was denied any means of paying someone privately who works on the grounds to mow or just fix some of the gravesites… I have gone through a very rough time myself financially due to my health and I literally do not have the kind of money they are asking for and it breaks my heart to know the condition of my family‘s graves… Things are so bad for me that in the last few years that I still haven’t even been able to get a stone for my mothers grave due to my own health problems and missing a lot of work and barely being able to get by and it kills me inside every day of my life knowing that my mother does not have a stone yet... my experience with two of the office staff have been very good after refusing to deal with a few of the other non caring, nasty office staff..these two nice people state that their hands are tied but they wish they could do more… I actually got to speak to one of the executives and like other people who have mentioned them in their reviews, Lawrence Rose and Herbert Klapper , if you Google their names they are the problem ..these executives/president of the cemetery and all of the bigwigs that run the cemetery are heartless, horrible people who although I cried my eyes out over the phone to one of them, they will not budge on any of the charges even when you legitimately cannot afford to get the landscaping done or even a stone for your parent because their fees for just opening up the ground for a foundation is so high… Every day of my life I pray to G-d that one day when these people have their day with him, that G-d will remind them of how they treated families of loved ones who were buried in their cemetery and I leave it in G-ds hands to make sure that on their judgement day He reminds them of how cruel they have treated people. These men are making a huge salary larger than any other nonprofit cemetery people and it is all stated on Google if you Google their names… I believe these 2 men are Jewish and as a Jew, I find it disgusting of how cruel and selfish and heartless they are and although they may be living a luxury life on this earth I have to find solace in the fact that on their judgment day God will remind them like I said of how they treated grieving families whose loved ones were buried in their cemetery… Despite my downward spiraling health, I live every day with the goal of making sure that soon I will be able to afford to get my mother the stone that she so deserves… The fact that they will not even budge on the price is is something that is so disgusting to me when someone literally doesn’t have it… But like I said , in my prayers every day is that God will remember these people on their judgment day… That is how I deal with it.... Also again I repeat that the fact that they have such high prices to get the graves and the grounds taken care of is so absolutely disgusting so that they can feed their own pockets , I don’t know how these people live with themselves. I decided to write this review now after holding this in for quite a long time because today is Father’s Day and in a couple of days is the anniversary date of my mothers passing… Which kills me like I said that she has no stone yet and that they will not budge on anything regarding it or the ground keeping… If my review helps anyone by reading it and you do not already have any loved ones buried at this cemetery… Run as fast as you can to...

Our father pre-purchased a niche at Cedar Park Beth El in the mausoleum. While scheduling services and coordinating with our family, I reached out to their office on Sunday, 7-3-2022. I was trying to get as late a time as possible for the services the following Sunday (7-10). The woman I spoke with said the latest was 2:45pm. I was trying to get a later time and asked if we paid an additional fee, would they let us come a little later. She priced out overtime costs at $750. I said it was better that we just take the 2:45pm time that we were told. On Wednesday, July 6, 2022 at 10:00am, I called Cedar Park Beth El to ensure things were complete and to see how to arrange payment. I spoke with Jessica in their office and she had trouble finding my reservation at first but then remembered the call on Sunday 7/3 asking about pricing out overtime. Jessica told me she would email me a form to fill out in about 20 minutes. After 90 min., I hadn’t gotten the email so I called back. Jessica was now telling me that they couldn’t honor the 2:45pm time. I stressfully expressed how unacceptable that was and that would destroy all the reservations and plans we had made based on arriving there by 2:45; they need to honor the reservation I had made 3 days earlier. She said she was talking with the vice president of the cemetery and would get back to me. The vice president, Mr. Laurence Rose, called me a short time later and bluntly and unsympathetically told me they don’t do services after 2:00pm on Sunday and refused to accommodate the original reservation or even acknowledge that a mistake could have been made on their part. He said they had no record of the reservation and asked who I spoke with. I told him I didn’t remember the name of the woman I spoke with on 7/3, but Jessica (who was on the call with us) remembered so maybe it was her. Laurence simply said it couldn’t have been her she wasn’t working that day. Ok……but she remembered the conversation about pricing out overtime that day? I asked Jessica directly to confirm that she had said just a few hours earlier that she had remembered talking about pricing out the overtime, and Laurence Rose interrupted me and said that he would not tolerate me “interrogating his employee”. I offered to pay the overtime costs; Laurence refused to accept that as an option. They know who was working on that day; they could ask who took my call. Laurence Rose reiterated the only other options were to move everything up an hour or shift things to another day. Neither of those options worked; plans had already been put in place on a tight schedule with the funeral home, family and friends traveling from far away. The funeral home has other clients earlier that day, people’s flights in and out of the area are arranged, car services were booked, restaurants were booked and deposits made. In the end, we were forced to forgo the cemetery service on Sunday with the full family and we will be separately going to drop our father off with just a couple of us. To make matters worse, our father’s 93-year-old sister who is struggling to make it to the service will now have to be told that if she wants to be there when her brother is laid to rest, she will have to make the trek from NY City again which is an agonizing feat for her to do once. Failing to honor their original reservation, Laurence Rose has created the situation where most of our family will not be able to be present to say goodbye at the cemetery and prolonging the pain of laying our father to rest.…..thanks to VP Laurence Rose and his staff at Cedar Park Beth El and their refusal to honor the reservation his staff told me on July 3rd that they would hold for our family. Do not do business with this cemetery; the stress and emotional trauma they are putting our family through is beyond words and we would not wish for anyone else to suffer through at an already...

If you have a choice, inter your loved ones elsewhere. I can barely describe how disgusted I am with the careless, cold, and unprofessional ways we've been treated. Is this how all the bereaved families they deal with are treated?!??

There's a "CYA" mentality that permeates every interaction with the staff. No one owns up to mistakes or takes any responsibility. The "reception" area is behind glass with a rope line so you feel like you're at the DMV. Maybe the setup is due to COVID, but you're treated about as warmly as you are at the DMV too. No one came out of the back office to greet us or direct us when we arrived to inter my father in law's ashes, even though we arrived ahead of our appointment and we were a large group waiting in the rotunda for 30 minutes. Eventually, a maintenance worker came to escort us.

It was then we discovered that the urn would not fit in the niche beside the urn of my mother in law.

The funeral home had called previously and checked the measurements so we could select an appropriate urn. The cemetery had told them there would be no problem. The cemetery couldn't possibly have actually measured or it would have been crystal clear the new urn wasn't going to fit.

We don't live in the area. We won't be there when the new urn is placed in the niche. Saying goodbye is hard enough and now we're left with these sour memories on top of an already...