Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery

The Heritage Mosaic at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills

Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries is the largest Jewish cemetery organization in California. The cemeteries are the final resting place for many Jews in the entertainment industry.

History

Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries, owned by Sinai Temple of Los Angeles, refers to two Jewish cemeteries in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The original cemetery property is located at 5950 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. The cemetery was originally established in 1953 by the neighboring Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery. In 1959, it became an exclusively Jewish cemetery, and in 1967 it was acquired by Sinai Temple, the oldest and largest Conservative synagogue in Los Angeles,^[1][2] which dedicated its mortuary and cemetery resources to all members of the Jewish community in and around the city. Numerous stars and celebrities from the entertainment industry are interred in the park which is located down the street from Warner Bros studios.

Artwork

Throughout the different sections of Mount Sinai Hollywood Hills, one encounters various forms of artwork including mosaics, sculpture, fountains and carvings. The most noticeable is the Heritage Mosaic, which, at 45 feet × 30 feet, depicts a panorama of the Jewish experience in America and is made up of more than 2.5 million pieces of hand-cut Venetian glass. The park also features a memorial monument dedicated to the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust by renowned Jewish artist, Bernard Zakheim. The six three-dimensional figures, all rendered in burnt and tortured wood, represent six heroic Jewish figures. Rising from the stones of the memorial is a flame that symbolizes the eternal spirit of the six million and the rebirth of Israel from the ashes of the Holocaust.^[3]

Expansion to Simi Valley, California

In 1997, faced with dwindling space at the original Hollywood Hills location and recognizing the need for Jewish burial properties for future generations, Mount Sinai Memorial Parks expanded by opening a second memorial park at 6150 Mount Sinai Drive in Simi Valley.^[1][2] Mount Sinai Simi Valley sits on 150 acres of land in the Santa Susana Pass which ensures that there will be available burial space to accommodate the needs for the Los Angeles Jewish community for the next 250 years.^[4] A notable section within Mount Sinai Simi Valley is the Caves of Abraham, which is a series of graves that though they appear to be built above ground are actually built directly in to the hillside. The section received the approval from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel for meeting standards of acceptability according to Jewish practice and it is the only place outside of Israel where a person can receive a genuine cave burial.^[5]

Genizah and Book Burials

Mount Sinai offers a Genizah program where members of the community can drop off worn out siddurim (prayer books), Torah scrolls, tallit, tzitzit, tefellin and other sacred materials which contain the Hebrew name of God, for burial at a later date. Several times each year, Mount Sinai invites school groups to Mount Sinai Simi Valley where they will conduct a burial service for the books while learning about this ancient Jewish tradition.

Notable interments

• Irwin Allen (1916–1991), director, producer, writer
• Art Aragon (1927–2008), boxer
• Danny Arnold (1925–1995), film actor/editor/writer
• Eleanor Audley (1905–1991), actress, voice-over artist
• Frances Bay (1919–2011), actress
• Herschel Bernardi (1923–1986), actor
• Zina Bethune (1945–2012), actress^[6]
• Georgia Brown (1933–1992), actress and singer
• Edward Buzzell (1895–1985), director
• Charlie Cantor (1898–1966), American radio and television actor
• June Carroll (1917–2004), lyricist, singer and actress
• Virginia Christine (1920–1996), actress, voice artist
• Lee J. Cobb (1911–1976), actor
• Ruth Cohen (1930–2008), actress (Seinfeld)
• Maxine Cooper (1924–2009), actress
• Stanley Cortez (1908–1997), cinematographer
• Warren Cowan (1921–2008), publicist
• Harry Crane (1914–1999), American comedy writer
• Mack David (1912–1993), composer
• Cass Elliot (1941–1974), singer for The Mamas & the Papas
• Ziggy Elman (1911–1968), big-band musician and composer
• Fritz Feld (1900–1993), actor
• Norman Fell (1924–1998), actor
• Totie Fields (1930–1978), comedian
• Helen Forrest (1917–1999), singer
• Bonnie Franklin (1944–2013), actress
• Karl Freund (1890–1969), cinematographer
• Bruce Geller (1930–1978), producer
• Solomon W. Golomb (1932–2016), mathematician
• Saul Gorss (1908–1966), actor
• Michael Gordon (1909–1993), stage actor, stage and film director, maternal grandfather of Joseph Gordon-Levitt^[7]
• Billy Halop (1920–1976), actor
• Larry Harmon (1925–2008), actor and comedian (aka Bozo the Clown)
• Nat Hiken (1914–1968), award-winning writer, director, producer
• Gregg Hoffman (1963–2005), producer
• Peter Hurkos (1911–1988), psychic
• Eddie Kane (1889–1969), actor
• Leonard Katzman (1927–1996), film and TV writer, producer, and director
• Suzanne Krull (1966–2013), actress
• John Larch (1914–2005), actor
• Sydney Lassick (1922–2003), actor
• Pinky Lee (1907–1993), actor and comedian
• Robert Q. Lewis (1920–1991), television personality, actor, and game show host
• Abraham M. Lurie (1923-2010), real estate developer
• Bruce Malmuth (1934–2005), director
• Ross Martin (1920–1981), actor
• Sid Melton (1917–2011), actor
• Laurence Merrick (1926–1977), director and author
• Irving Mills (1894–1985), composer
• Marvin Minoff (1931–2009), film and television producer, executive producer of The Nixon Interviews
• Bill Novey (1948–1991), Special Effects Master/Head of Special Effects at Walt Disney Imagineering/co-founder of Art & Technology, Inc.
• Daniel Pearl (1963–2002), journalist
• Lefty Phillips (1919–1972), baseball coach and manager
• Ted Post (1918–2013), film director
• Martin Ragaway (1923–1989), motion picture and television writer
• Estelle Reiner (1914–2008), actress and singer
• Don Rickles (1926–2017), comedian and actor
• Mark Robson (1913–1978), director
• Shorty Rogers (1924–1994), jazz musician
• David Rose (1910–1990), composer
• Milton Rosen (1922–2000), prolific composer
• Steven Rothenberg (1958–2009), film studio executive (Lions Gate, Artisan Entertainment
• Mo Rothman (1919–2011), studio executive who persuaded Charlie Chaplin to return to the United States in 1972.^[8]
• Tibor Rubin (1929–2015), Medal of Honor recipient
• Walter Scharf (1910–2003), composer
• Al Sherman (1897–1973), songwriter
• Phil Silvers (1911–1985), actor and comedian
• Sidney Skolsky (1905–1983), Hollywood reporter
• Hillel Slovak (1962–1988), guitarist for Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Howard Smit (1911–2009), film make-up artist who led efforts to establish the Academy Award for Best Makeup^[9]
• Milton Sperling (1912–1988), American film producer and screenwriter
• Wendie Jo Sperber (1958–2005), actress
• Florence Stanley (1924–2003), actress
• Harold J. Stone (1913–2005), actor
• Iwao Takamoto (1925–2007), animator
• Brandon Tartikoff (1949–1997), television executive, former president of NBC
• Irving Taylor (1914–1983), songwriter
• Mel Taylor (1933–1996), musician
• Dick Tufeld (1926–2012), actor, announcer, narrator
• Bobby Van (1928–1980), actor and dancer
• Joseph Wapner (1919–2017), judge, television personality. The first judge to preside over The People's Court
• Danny Wells (1941–2013), actor, voice actor and composer
• Paul G. Wexler (1929–1979), actor
• Jesse White (1917–1997), actor
• Harry Wilson (1897–1978), actor
• Howard Zieff (1927–2009), director, advertising photographer^[10]

References

External links

• Official Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries website
• U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Mount Sinai Memorial Park

Coordinates: 34°09′00″N 118°18′54″W / 34.15000°N 118.31500°W / 34.15000; -118.31500