Cemetery Options

It is a traditional responsibility of a Jewish community to provide burial space for its members. Burial options have been arranged for Hakafa members desiring them, both at Shalom Memorial Park in Arlington Heights and at Willow Lawn Memorial Park in Vernon Hills. 

Shalom Memorial Park for Traditional In-Ground Burial

Hakafa was founded in 1984 and established a cemetery section in the Mt. Zion section of Shalom Memorial Park in Arlington Heights in 1986. About fifty plots are known to have been purchased by present or past Hakafa members at Shalom, but many of them are not in this section.  At least seven burials have taken place in the section. Only Jewish members of our congregation can be buried in the Hakafa section or anywhere else at Shalom Park. The Park has two Interfaith sections which are sold out. Rosehill Cemetery adjoins Shalom Park and is secular. The Hakafa section in Shalom continues to be available to our members and their families for traditional in-ground burial. Plots can be bought before they are needed with an interest-free payment plan or for full payment at the time of need. Plots can, of course, also be purchased anywhere at Shalom.

As of January 2025, the price of burial rights in a plot in this area is $7850, up from $4950 in 2024. Burial rights in other available areas of the cemetery cost up to $12,000. The additional cost of the actual burial, the opening and closing of the grave, is $4,100 in January 2025, up from $3950 in 2024.  Shalom also requires the purchase of a burial vault, with the least expensive costing more than $1000. The required bronze markers cost a minimum of around $3000.

Willow Lawn Memorial Park for Green Burial 

In 2012, Hakafa looked to find a cemetery where any member of our community could be buried. While searching for such a cemetery, we had the opportunity to help develop a cemetery in which burials would have less environmental impact, a “green” cemetery. 

Green burial uses less resources than traditional American burial in several ways: only simple wooden caskets or those made of other easily biodegradable materials may be used; shrouds alone may be used for burial; the graves are dug by hand instead of by gas-powered machines; no burial vaults requiring cement or other non-biodegradable materials are used around the caskets; fertilizing, watering, and mowing of grass is not done as the area is wooded throughout; and simple boulder markers with optional brass plaques are used. Cremains can also be buried “greenly” with a biodegradable urn and no grave vault. “Flameless cremation” is a more environmentally friendly option to traditional cremation that is now available in Illinois.

Hakafa’s section in Willow Lawn Nature Trails is currently unique in the area both as a Jewish green cemetery and as a Jewish cemetery allowing for the burial of any of the congregation’s members or close family members. The Nature Trails section of Willow Lawn Memorial Park in Vernon Hills opened in 2013 when Hakafa was joined by Lomdim Chavurah to purchase the first plots in this wooded area. Together with Lomdim we consecrated our section as a Jewish area with the provision that all of our members, Jewish or not, as well as Jewish and non-Jewish close relatives of our members, could be buried there. Additional plots were purchased later in 2013 and again in 2014, for a total of fifty plots. These were sold by the end of 2019. In May 2020, the congregation purchased an additional seventeen plots adjoining those we already had, and six more were acquired from the cemetery due to a remapping of the area. As of December 2024, all plots in this area, a total of over 70 plots, have been sold, except for 3 single cremains plots. In December 2024, we learned that there will be new plots made available near our consecrated section. Please contact Deborah Brown if you have interest in acquiring plots.

To purchase plots, please communicate with Deborah Brown to find out how to choose from the available plots. This can be done by either looking at a map or visiting the cemetery. When a plot or plots have been chosen, a check is sent to the congregation. It is possible to pay the full price or to set up a payment plan over a twelve month period. When the plot is fully paid for, there is an additional $25 state-mandated fee, to pay for perpetual care, that is paid when to plots are transferred from Hakafa to the individual owners. The cemetery then provides a form to the buyer indicating that they have burial rights. No burial can take place in a plot until the transfer has been made.

Buying directly from the cemetery will not result in burial within our consecrated section and can be expected to cost significantly more than buying from Hakafa.

If you would like to visit Willow Lawn or get more information, please contact Deborah Brown or Rabbi Elder. 

Here is a link to photos of the green section at Willow Lawn Memorial Park.