DRS Chesed Shel Emes Trip To Silver Lake Cemetery Print
Local News
By Donny Steinberg and Ian Hawk   
on Thursday, November 18, 2010
Two weeks ago, Rabbi Andrew Parver of the Hebrew Free Burial Society came to visit DRS to inform the sophomores that we would be going to the Silver Lake Cemetery, an old, neglected Jewish cemetery located on Staten Island. Rabbi Parver explained to us what a major chesed it would be to clean up a cemetery. This privilege is called a chesed shel emes, a true chesed, because it is a chesed without receiving a thank you.

Rabbi Parver further explained that this is a cemetery for Jewish people who had no family or were not able to afford a burial. He then presented us with an inspirational video on other high school students, just like us, helping out in the cemetery. The students in the video said that after they were done with the job they felt a tremendous sense of satisfaction and accomplishment for what they had done. At the end of the video, Rabbi Parver gave us guidelines and reviewed the halachos for cleaning a cemetery, and we all were ready to go.

When we arrived at the cemetery, we were all very nervous at first, but as time went by, we got the hang of it. We all helped clean up all of the dead leaves, broken branches that were lying on the ground, and assorted garbage. There were also many matzeivos, headstones, that were toppled and needed to be fixed, which took teamwork by a few boys, as they were extremely heavy. Every student on the trip contributed in his own way, whether it was by raking the leaves, getting rid of the old logs, or even bagging the garbage. While at the cemetery, we all noticed the many Jewish names on the stones, and it took us back to an earlier time in American Jewish history. Everyone wanted to stay in the cemetery longer because we had achieved so much, not just physically but spiritually as well.

With three hours of hard work, we managed to rake up over 100 bags of leaves, remove dozens of trees, and fix several gravestones. Afterwards, we got to spend a wonderful lunch with our rebbeim on Main Street in Queens. This trip made a major impression on all of us, and it was a day we will never forget.