Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
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.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1953 |
| Location | Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California and Simi Valley, California |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 34.15210°N 118.31907°W |
| Style | Jewish |
| Owned by | Sinai Temple of Los Angeles |
| Website | Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries |
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 its second memorial park, Mount Sinai Simi Valley.
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
- Berle Adams (1917–2009), music producer[4]
- Irwin Allen (1916–1991), director, producer, writer[5]
- Art Aragon (1927–2008), boxer[6]
- 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[7]
- Georgia Brown (1933–1992), actress and singer
- Edward Buzzell (1895–1985), director
- Brett Cantor (1967–1993), music label executive, concert promoter and nightclub owner
- 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[5]
- Martin Cohan (1932–2010), television writer and producer
- 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[5]
- Ziggy Elman (1911–1968), big-band musician and composer
- Lee Farr (1927–2017), actor
- Fritz Feld (1900–1993), actor
- Norman Fell (1924–1998), actor
- Totie Fields (1930–1978), comedian[5]
- Gerald Finnerman (1931–2011), cinematographer
- Helen Forrest (1917–1999), singer
- Bonnie Franklin (1944–2013), actress
- Karl Freund (1890–1969), cinematographer
- Murray Fromson (1929–2018), journalist
- Bruce Geller (1930–1978), producer[8]
- Benny Goldberg (1918–2001), boxer
- 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
- David Groh (1939–2008), actor
- Fred Grossinger (1936–1995), actor
- 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
- Arthur Hiller (1923–2016), director
- 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[9]
- Walter Kent (1911–1994), composer and conductor
- Ruth Klüger (1931–2020), Professor Emerita of German Studies
- Suzanne Krull (1966–2013), actress
- David Landsberg (1944–2018), T.V. and film comedy writer, producer and actor[10]
- 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
- Michael Masser (1941–2015), musician
- 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
- Laurie Mitchell (1928–2018), actress
- Claudette Nevins (1937–2020), actress
- 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
- Larry Rickles (1970–2011), screenwriter, son of Don Rickles
- Mark Robson (1913–1978), director
- Shorty Rogers (1924–1994), jazz musician
- David Rose (1910–1990), 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.[11]
- Tibor Rubin (1929–2015), Medal of Honor recipient
- Walter Scharf (1910–2003), composer
- Bob Shad (1920–1985), music producer[12]
- Al Sherman (1897–1973), songwriter
- Mitzi Shore (1930–2018), comedy club owner
- Phil Silvers (1911–1985), actor and comedian[5]
- Fred Silverman (1937–2020), Television executive and producer.
- 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[13]
- Milton Sperling (1912–1988), American film producer and screenwriter
- Wendie Jo Sperber (1958–2005), actress
- Florence Stanley (1924–2003), actress
- Dawn Steel (1946–1997), film executive and producer
- Leonard B. Stern (1923–2011), television producer, director and writer
- 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
- Saul Turteltaub (1932–2020), television writer and producer
- Bobby Van (1928–1980), actor and dancer
- Joseph Wapner (1919–2017), judge, television personality. The first judge to preside over The People's Court
- Bea Wain (1917–2017), singer
- 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
- David Winters (1939–2019), actor, dancer, choreographer
- Than Wyenn (1919–2015), actor
- Howard Zieff (1927–2009), director, advertising photographer[14]
References
- Ruth Stroud, "Westward Expansion", Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, March 20, 1997.
- Tracy Valeri, "Mount Sinai Park Dedication Set", Los Angeles Daily News, March 15, 1997.
- photo and additional information
- "Berle Adams dies at 92; co-founder of Mercury Records and an MCA executive". Los Angeles Times. August 29, 2009. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
- Hollywood and the Best of Los Angeles, p. 572
- Los Angeles Times via Legacy.com
- Diorio, Carl. "Steve Rothenberg dies at 50".
- Music Theatre International
- Los Angeles Times
- https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/david-landsberg-dead-cpo-sharkey-actor-cosby-writer-was-73-1132698]
- Barnes, Mike (September 23, 2011). "Mo Rothman, Who Engineered the Return of Charlie Chaplin in the '70s, Dies". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
- "Record Producer Robert Shad Dies". Observer–Reporter. March 18, 1985. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
- Barnes, Mike (August 4, 2009). "Makeup artist Howard J. Smit dies". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2009.
- Jewish Journal