Quarterly Sheymot Day is coming up
Four times a year, Sinai Memorial Chapel invites the Northern California Jewish community to drop off sheymot, discarded sacred items, that were once used for a holy purpose and now, for any reason, need to be discarded into a Genizah, a reserved area, with dignity.
The next time to bring in your sacred items for burial will take place on Monday, January 27, 2025 from 9am to 4pm.
Guidelines:
- FREE: There is no charge to inter any of these eligible Jewish items with innate holiness to the residential communities of Northern California.
- DROP-OFF LOCATIONS: Sinai staff will receive sacred items at Colma’s Eternal Home Cemetery, Oakland’s Home of Eternity, and Briones’ Gan Shalom Cemetery. Items may not be dropped off at any of our funeral home mortuary offices or otherwise left unattended as it may compromise the respect that the items needing to be buried deserve.
- QUARTERLY DROP-OFF: Sinai provides this free service four (4) times per year. Items will not be received or accepted at other times. These are the next scheduled dates for drop-off: Monday, April 7, 2025, Monday, July 28, 2025, Monday, October 27, 2025, Monday, January 26, 2026, and Monday, March 30, 2026.
- BIODEGRADABLE: Sinai accepts paper in the form of prayer books (bentcher, birchonim, machzorim, siddurim), prayer shawls & phylacteries (talesim and tefillin). Please do not bring any plastic or laminate items.
- SORT IN ADVANCE: Please sort and place all items into a cardboard box prior to arriving at the cemetery. There is not dignified space for sorting at any of our cemeteries.
- NO UNNECESSARY ITEMS: Skull Caps (Kippot, kippah, yarmulke or koppel), Jewish newspapers, Hebrew language books, flyers, or secular in-purpose items.