As part of membership, congregants in good standing and their immediate families are entitled to be interred in the B’nai Tikvah section of Washington Cemetery.

B’nai Tikvah Requirements

• The deceased must be Jewish by birth or by conversion in accordance with the Halachic standards of the Conservative movement. The Rabbi is the final arbiter of those standards.
• Contiguous graves may be reserved by immediate family members at a cost of $50 per site.
• Congregants may transfer ownership of a grave to a family member (if reserved for $50 or purchased for $500) but, it cannot be sold on the open market.
• Congregants may not transfer their entitlement to a grave as a congregant in good standing to anyone else.

Washington Cemetery Requirements

• No material other than Barre granite shall be used for monuments footstones, bases, etc. except by written approval of the [Washington Cemetery’s] Board of Trustees.
• No single headstone greater than four foot six inches in overall height including base and six feet in width whose base is not wider than seven feet will be permitted on any lot, plot, or graves except by written authorization of the Cemetery’s Trustees.
• A monument taller than 4’6″ (fifty-four inches) overall (from ground level) may be erected on the payment of $500 for each foot (12 inches) or portion thereof for a single monument stone not to exceed 28 inches in width. Said price is posted in the Cemetery office. The over-height fee for a double monument stone shall be twice the over-height fee for a single monument stone. Said fee will be deposited into the Cemetery’s Maintenance and Preservation Trust Fund. This fee will not reduce the standard or current foundation charge and Maintenance and Preservation charge.
• No photographs may be attached to any monument or above ground structure.
• No monument, effigy, enclosure, or structure whatever, or any inscription can be placed in or upon any lot, plot, or grave which shall be detrimental, improper, offensive or injurious to the appearance of the surrounding lots, plots, or graves, or grounds. Such violations shall be determined by the [Cemetery’s] Board of Trustees and they shall have the right to enter upon such lot, plot or graves and remove any offensive or improper object, without notice, at the expense of the lot, plot, or grave owner, without liability.

B’nai Tivkah Policy

• Cemetery plots–cannot sell more than 30 graves. August 3, 1993.
• The 400 plot section be divided into 4 strips. One strip allocated for sales and the rest reserved for Congregation. Later Boards to make decision, if and when to see remaining 300 plots. December 5, 1994.
• Only the number of plots in budget to be sold. August 7, 1995.

The policy was updated as follows on October 7, 1996:

1. Members, including their children who are 21 and under or full-time students or dependents, are entitled to free graves.
2. No person, other than people of the Jewish faith may be buried in the cemetery.
3. All funds earned from selling or reserving cemetery plots should be placed in a new fund to be named the Cemetery Fund. The purpose of this fund will be to accumulate funds in order to purchase additional land for grave sites and to offset, dollar for dollar maintenance expenditures to the cemetery. Such purchases will be made at the direction of, and such at such time as deemed necessary by the Board of Directors. The fund may receive donations designated for the Cemetery Fund. It also will receive any interest earned from any investments made with Cemetery Fund monies. The Cemetery Fund will be included in the monthly accounting the Treasurer renders to the Board of Directors.
4. When a member of the Congregation dies, an immediate family member, who is also a member-in-good-standing, may reserve an adjoining grave.
5. The cost of such reservations will be $50 or such amount as the Board of Directors shall determine periodically.
6. An immediate family member shall be defined as anyone who a member would have to sit shivah for.
7. An immediate family member, who is not a member in-good-standing, may purchase an adjoining grave.
8. The cost of such purchases will be $500 or such amount as the Board of Directors shall determine periodically. October 7, 1996.