United Hebrew Cemetery, at 7855 Canton Ave. in University City, has launched its “Remember Their Names” project, a community-wide mitzvah initiative to raise funds to ensure that all buried individuals in the cemetery are appropriately memorialized.

The project was conceived while updating the database of more than 7,000 burials listed in the records of the 180+ year old cemetery.

Working specifically in the Memorial Garden section, members of the United Hebrew Congregation Cemetery Committee determined that several graves—dating back to 1964—were lacking an appropriate marker identifying the name of the deceased. Further research into cemetery and death records revealed that some of these individuals had died with no known descendants, some were listed as “charity” and others had resided at the former Missouri State Hospital on Arsenal Street.

Understanding that Jewish law requires appropriate burial practices and markers for the deceased, these verses, sourced from the Jewish Virtual Library, particularly resonated with the committee, “Jewish law requires that a tombstone be prepared, so that the deceased will not be forgotten and the grave will not be desecrated … The idea underlying this custom is that the dead will not be forgotten when he is being mourned every day…”

Rosenbloom Monument Company was contacted to provide a cost estimate to design and furnish gravestones for the nearly 40 burials discovered in that section. Current plans are to have the granite markers installed by late spring/early summer and to hold a group Monument Dedication Service, open to the entire community.

Following the initial phase of the project, the committee expects to expand to other areas of the cemetery, including those interred who had been relocated from the original burial grounds in the City of St. Louis in 1880. Updates to the project will be posted on the United Hebrew Congregation website.

For more information or to make a tax-deductible gift for the “Remember Their Names” project, visit the UH website or call 314-469-0700.