By Thomas A. Parmalee
For Adam Ginsberg, the cemetery profession was never an abstract concept.
Long before he managed hundreds of acres of historic burial grounds or represented cemetery leaders across metropolitan New York, he was a teenager spending his summers cutting grass, helping lay out new burial sections and answering telephones.
“I’ve been working in cemeteries since I was probably 12 or 13,” said Ginsberg, who grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
While his late father was a printer and his mom a nurse, they had a close family friend in the cemetery business, and Ginsberg would often accompany him and his son to work, he said.
“In the summer, I was cutting grass. Eventually, I made my way into the office where I would draw maps, answer the phone and do things like that. I’ve been around it most of my life, it seems,” he said.
That early exposure eventually led him to an unexpected career. After graduating from Binghamton University in Vestal, New York with a degree in mathematics, Ginsberg returned to school to study database technology at Columbia University, preparing for a career in information systems.
Instead, an opportunity at a cemetery – a connection that came through a colleague of that same family friend – changed everything.
“During that time, I was asked to think about helping out at Cedar Grove Cemetery Association and seeing how it went,” he said. “It just ended up being a nice decision for me, and I was able to use my technology skills and influence some change at a time when the cemetery’s management was going through a substantial change.”
That decision has now stretched into a quarter century, and since 2020, Ginsberg has served as president of Cedar Grove Cemetery Association, consisting of both Cedar Grove Cemetery and Mount Hebron Cemetery in Queens, New York, while recently adding another leadership role as president of the Metropolitan Cemetery Association.
Taken together, those positions offer him an unusually broad view of one of America’s most distinctive cemetery markets.
Two Cemeteries, One Mission
Visitors entering Cedar Grove Cemetery and Mount Hebron Cemetery might assume they are visiting a single property. The adjacent cemeteries share entrances, roads and management, yet they serve distinctly different communities.
Their intertwined history dates back more than a century.
Cedar Grove Cemetery was established in 1893 as a nonsectarian cemetery. Shortly afterward, its founders recognized that Jewish burial space in New York was critically limited.
“At the time, there were only a handful of Jewish cemeteries in New York City,” Ginsberg explained. “They decided to take about three quarters of the property and make it a Jewish cemetery.”
The result remains unique today.
“We’re somewhat unique because we have a Jewish cemetery adjacent to a non-Jewish cemetery inside the same gates,” Ginsberg said.
The combined property encompasses roughly 225 acres. Mount Hebron accounts for approximately 195 acres and has more than 232,000 burials. Cedar Grove covers roughly 30 acres and has approximately 38,000 burials.
Although the bulk of the work is at Mount Hebron, Ginsberg said managing two cemeteries with different traditions has become second nature.
“We do the same job at both cemeteries,” he said. “We just need to be aware of the different traditional requirements each one has.”
It helps that Ginsberg grew up in a Jewish community, he acknowledged.
“Being Jewish allows me to have an appreciation for the customs and practices and understanding their importance helps me prepare our staff to be successful,” he said. “That background gave me a leg up. When a family comes to us, they’re in one of the hardest moments of their lives, often under real time pressure, and they have very specific feelings about how things should be done. Because of how I grew up, I already understand their needs and can discuss them with my staff to ensure we are better prepared and more effective.”
Collectively, the cemeteries have about four acres that remain undeveloped.
“We just developed a master plan and are moving forward with laying it out and working with that last piece,” he said. “Of the graves we have sold to different organizations, I’d estimate that we’ll be performing funerals for the next hundred years.”
A Living Record of Immigration
Mount Hebron’s greatest distinction lies not only in its size but in how it reflects the history of Jewish immigration to America.
The majority of the cemetery inventory was sold more than a century ago — not to individual families, but to approximately 1,150 burial societies.
For many outside the city, the concept is unfamiliar. For generations of Jewish immigrants arriving from Eastern Europe and Russia, however, burial societies served as essential social institutions.
“Basically, it was a social club, a fraternal club or a family circle,” Ginsberg said. “It could have been connected to a synagogue. People came from the same town in Europe, lived in the same neighborhood here, belonged to the same organizations.”
Those organizations often provided insurance, employment assistance, loans and social support. Membership also included burial rights.
“So, we sold most of the graves to 1,150 different organizations over a 20- or 30-year window in the early 20th century,” he said.
Today those societies continue to define Mount Hebron’s landscape.
Each section is marked by ornate entrance gates inscribed with the names of officers and founders.
“The entrances to the organizations define the character of our cemetery, and they are reminders of how our people acclimated and thrived in the new world after escaping from the old world,” Ginsberg said. “I would argue there’s probably not another cemetery in this country with more burial societies than we have.”
The burial societies also create a powerful visual reminder of immigrant history that visitors experience while walking the grounds.
Serving a Changing Community
Cedar Grove tells a different story — one of neighborhood evolution.
For decades, much of the surrounding area was home to a thriving Armenian community.
“There was traditionally a large Armenian population that lived in this part of Queens,” Ginsberg said. “The Armenian Church has had its grounds at our cemetery for over 100 years.”
As demographics shifted, so did Cedar Grove’s outreach.
“Now there’s a large Asian population in Flushing, so we’ve turned in that direction,” he said.
Rather than viewing demographic change as a threat, Ginsberg sees it as a reminder that cemeteries must continually understand the communities they serve.
Navigating Cremation
Cremation remains a nuanced subject at Mount Hebron, where Jewish tradition and the realities of changing consumer preferences intersect.
Ginsberg noted that while cremation is not accepted from an Orthodox Jewish perspective, Mount Hebron itself is not an Orthodox cemetery. Instead, it serves the broader Jewish community while also accommodating numerous Orthodox burial societies that are free to follow and enforce their own religious bylaws.
“We don’t judge people’s inclination to cremate or not,” Ginsberg explained. “Our role is to serve the Jewish community.”
Although Mount Hebron does not perform cremations, it does provide options for families who choose them. The cemetery has a memorial wall where cremated remains can be interred, and cremated remains may also be buried in graves where permitted under cemetery policy. Demand remains relatively modest, with about 35 cremated remains interred last year.
At neighboring Cedar Grove Cemetery, however, interest has been stronger. The cemetery recently developed a dedicated cremation garden, an addition Ginsberg said has been well received by families. As cremation continues to grow, Cedar Grove plans to explore additional memorialization options that encourage the permanent placement of cremated remains within the cemetery.
New York’s regulatory structure also shapes the cemetery’s approach. State law prohibits cemeteries from operating funeral homes or selling monuments directly, but it generally requires crematories to be owned by cemeteries, with some grandfathered exceptions. As a result, nearly every crematory in the state operates as part of a cemetery.
While several nearby cemeteries have crematories, Ginsberg said Cedar Grove Cemetery Association has no plans to add one.
Finding Capacity
Like many urban cemeteries, Mount Hebron has a limited amount of space.
Only a few acres remain undeveloped.
Yet Ginsberg estimates there are thousands of vacant graves on old society grounds that will never be used.
Recovering those spaces has become a long-term strategic effort.
Over the past century, roughly half of Mount Hebron’s original burial societies have dissolved. Working within New York law, the cemetery has been able to reclaim unused graves from defunct nonreligious societies or purchase back unused graves from organizations that no longer need them.
Those efforts have allowed Mount Hebron to continue serving families without acquiring additional land.
Ginsberg credits state lawmakers and the New York State Association of Cemeteries for helping modernize legislation that made portions of that work possible.
Technology Built by Cemetery Operators
Despite pursuing a career in the cemetery business, technology has remained central to Ginsberg’s leadership philosophy.
In 2001, finding no cemetery software that met the needs of older New York cemeteries, Cedar Grove partnered with developers and other area cemeteries to build its own management platform.
“The technology here is so integrated into what we do, it’s like another employee,” Ginsberg said.
Rather than commercializing the software, the participating cemeteries simply shared it with colleagues.
“We said to our friends, ‘You can have it too,'” Ginsberg said.
Today the custom platform supports 13 cemeteries throughout the region while continuing to evolve alongside changing operational needs.
“We’ve never been interested in licensing it or becoming a technology company,” he said.
Instead, Ginsberg views technology as infrastructure — a tool that allows staff to better serve families.
Safety, Communication and Relationships
Managing approximately 140 employees during peak season — including union laborers, and management personnel — requires a relentless focus on operations.
Safety stands above everything else.
“First and foremost, we want to keep our people safe,” Ginsberg said.
Risk consultants regularly visit the cemeteries, reviewing procedures and helping staff improve workplace practices.
Administrative compliance has become equally demanding.
“Administratively, the laws in New York City and New York State are always changing,” Ginsberg said, noting that in New York, all cemeteries must be nonprofit. “A lot of cemeteries don’t have dedicated HR departments or accounting departments, so we rely on our associations to keep us informed. The Metropolitan Cemetery Association plays a big role in helping cemetery managers run efficiently and lawfully.”
His philosophy also extends beyond cemetery gates.
Relationships with funeral homes, he said, have improved dramatically over the years through one simple principle: communication.
“If we can do our job, communicate really well and hold ourselves accountable, it lends itself to a better relationship,” he said.
He acknowledges that misunderstandings can occur on both sides.
“I know some cemeteries don’t communicate well. I know some funeral homes don’t communicate well,” he said.
His response has been to overcommunicate.
“We focus on doing our part, so when issues do arise, we can hold everyone to a level of accountability that ensures families are being served,” he said.
Looking back over two decades, he sees enormous progress.
“We’ve gone from having rocky relationships with funeral homes to the complete opposite now, where it’s cordial and friendly,” he said.
Beyond Burial
Perhaps Ginsberg’s most forward-looking initiative began in 2019 with the creation of the Legacy Foundation.
Rather than viewing the cemetery solely as a burial ground, the seeks to educate the public on the contributions of the Jewish people who are buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery.
Working with interns from Queens College, students investigate the lives of individuals buried at Mount Hebron.
Among their discoveries are more than 2,600 Jewish war veterans.
Students work with families to collect photographs, military records and personal histories that are shared through digital storytelling.
The project also documents Holocaust survivors and other remarkable individuals whose contributions might otherwise remain forgotten.
One example particularly resonates with Ginsberg.
Among those buried at Mount Hebron is Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish lawyer who coined the word “genocide” and championed the international convention that enabled the prosecution of Nazi leaders following World War II.
“The other fun part,” Ginsberg said, “is researching all the other people buried here. Amazing people contributed to the city, the state, the country — and in some instances, the world.”
The work has become both educational and deeply personal.
Students from diverse backgrounds gain firsthand exposure to Jewish history while preserving stories that might otherwise disappear.
Leading Through Collaboration
This year, Ginsberg assumed another responsibility as president of the Metropolitan Cemetery Association.
His motivation reflects the collaborative culture that distinguishes New York’s nonprofit cemetery community.
“I think the nonprofit portion of our business allows cemetery operators to really become more of a community than competitors,” he said.
Association meetings provide more than networking opportunities.
“There is a lot of information sharing between us. We’re all facing the same challenges and can share best practices,” he said.
Just as important is having experienced colleagues available when unusual situations arise.
“Stuff comes up that you just don’t see every day,” he said. “You want to be sure you’re serving families and putting the cemetery in the position where it needs to be.”
He also believes leadership carries an obligation to give back.
“I firmly believe these associations are only as good as the people and the time they commit to them,” he said. “The Metropolitan Cemetery Association has been doing great work for many years. I wanted to do my part.”
Perspective Through Personal Loss
For all his years helping families navigate loss, Ginsberg said burying his own father recently reinforced the importance of the profession.
“Having gone through the process of burying a family member and relying on a funeral home and a cemetery gave me another perspective on how important the work we do is,” he reflected. “We’re lucky to be in a position to serve families and help them be respected and taken care of on essentially the worst day of their lives.”
It is a perspective that drives his leadership philosophy.
Whether preserving the history of immigrant burial societies, building technology for fellow cemeteries, strengthening relationships with funeral homes or uncovering forgotten stories through the Legacy Foundation, Ginsberg’s work reflects a belief that cemeteries can honor the past while continually evolving to meet the future.
After 25 years, the mathematics graduate who almost chose a career in technology has discovered that innovation and remembrance are not opposing ideas. At Cedar Grove and Mount Hebron, they have become two parts of the same mission.
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