Holocaust Memorial dedicated at JJBS Woodland Cemetery

7th June 2026 – 5786

Incoming JJBS Chair Cheryl Petar, JJBS Senior Sexton Mitzi Kalinsky, Rabbi Dr Jackie Tabick, Mayor of Broxbourne Councillor Patsy Spears, JJBS Honorary President Frank Godson and Outgoing JJBS Chair Steve Wynne with the Memorial

The Jewish Joint Burial Society (JJBS) dedicated its first ever Holocaust Memorial, located at the Woodland Cemetery, Cheshunt, with a special service and ceremony.

The stone, created and donated by Gary Green Memorials, stands at the entrance to the Woodland Cemetery. It bears an inscription from the Book of Lamentations: “For those I weep, stream of tears flow from my eyes because of the destruction of my people.”

The service was led by Rabbi Dr Jackie Tabick – with readings from Leo Baeck College Principal Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris and Movement for Progressive Judaism Co-Lead Rabbi Charley Baginsky – the service blended traditional memorial prayers, Yiddish songs, poetry and the writings of Holocaust survivor Rabbi Albert Friedlander OBE.

Steve Wynne, Outgoing Chair of JJBS, said: “It has long been our desire for the Society to have such a memorial on our grounds, and I am pleased that we have now been able to achieve this.

“We just marked the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings. This began the journey which ended with the world learning about the Shoah and stopped the further deaths of so many innocents. This memorial is for all those who died in those horrific times and for years after, their families and descendants.”

Attendees included representatives of many of the 46 Progressive, Reform, Liberal, Masorti and Independent communities served by JJBS and the Mayor of Broxbourne Councillor Patsy Spears.

It is the first Holocaust memorial at a Progressive Jewish cemetery. A weeping willow will be added to the grounds in October to commemorate those murdered by Hamas in the 7 October 2023 terrorist atrocity.

The Woodland Cemetery gives people the choice to be buried in an ecologically-friendly manner with a variety of areas and options to suit the desires of individuals and their families.

It allows couples to be buried together – including Jewish people with their non-Jewish partners – in double-depth graves.

To find out more about the Woodland Cemetery, please click here.