In response to Jewish community demand, Spring Hill Cemetery and Mausoleum is building a fourth mausoleum containing 80 individual entombment spaces, according to the cemetery’s executive director Michael Schuman.
The cemetery built its first above-ground burial space about 30 years ago, Schuman said. “It’s a commitment the cemetery made to the Jewish community … to give an option that doesn’t exist in any other Jewish cemetery in the Milwaukee area,” said Schuman.
The three such structures the cemetery has, each of which also holds 80 entombment spaces, are now nearly filled, said Schuman. “That tells me there’s a genuine need we are fulfilling,” said Schuman.
The structure was scheduled to be completed by the end of last week, but the final touches, such as landscaping and installation of glass doors, will “take some months” to finish, Schuman said. A formal dedication will be held sometime this summer, he added.
Schuman did not say exactly how much the addition cost to construct, but said it was in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” He also said the project was financed by a fund the cemetery holds dedicated to that purpose.
The building overlooks Interstate 94. Schuman said the cemetery administration is “vigilant” in monitoring any proposals to widen that freeway, and he expects that any changes made will be “not to our detriment.”
The cemetery, whose full name is Spring Hill Cemetery and Mausoleum of the Gilead-Memorial-Shofar Lodge of B’nai B’rith, is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the state, having received its charter in 1867. Schuman said it is “probably one of very few” B’nai B’rith-affiliated cemeteries remaining in the country.
Schuman, who has been executive director for about 25 years, added that the cemetery “prides itself” in having “the most liberal burial policies of any Jewish cemetery in the state. The thrust is that we want to give our community as many options as it is interested in having.”
For more information, call Schuman at 414-352-4777.
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