Cemetery Association

Cemetery

The Keneseth Israel Cemetery Association is a non-profit corporation that exists for the benefit of the Temple membership and the broader Jewish community. The IRS has determined that the Association is exempt from federal income tax under Section 501 (c) (13).

Burial Rights are available for purchase by Jews, whether or not they are Keneseth Israel members. Temple membership includes the benefit of the services of the Keneseth Israel clergy and of the Temple’s facilities.

While this is a Jewish cemetery adhering to the traditions of Reform Judaism, a non-Jewish spouse, family member or partner may be buried in a family plot.

History and Utilization

The Association and the physical cemetery were founded in 1927 with the purchase of five and a half acres of land in South Whitehall Township. Approximately one-half of that land is now developed for burials with the remaining land available for future needs.

There are about 2,100 individual grave sites in the half of the cemetery that has been developed. As of mid-2023 over 1,700 have been purchased and about half of those have been used. The earliest birth year among the people buried is 1855.

The Association accepts cremated remains for burial and provides appropriately sized graves, if a family chooses. (Only ground-level monuments may be used on these graves.)

There are at least 177 men and women veterans in the cemetery: one from the Spanish American War, 23 from World War I, 109 from World War II, 18 from Korea, seven from Viet Nam, and more where the war isn’t known. There are a number of people who served in more than one war.

If a family member served in the armed forces during wartime and that isn’t indicated in the List of Burial Sites, please let us know the appropriate war. This is of particular importance so that a new US flag can be placed on the grave each year prior to Memorial Day.

Planting flags on the graves of Veterans buried at the KI Cemetery in observance of Memorial Day 2024

Find a Burial Site

Occasionally people have asked to be able to locate a burial or to see a plot plan of the cemetery. You can click the List of Burial Sites to see a list of burials and their locations. To see the layout of the cemetery and plot owners (current as of June 2022), there are two separate pdf files:

• Original Section
• New Section

If you discover an error in these files, please fill out the form at the bottom of the page with the proper information.

There is a Web site operated by Ancestry.com that might be of interest to anyone searching for information relating to the cemetery. It has photos of most of the grave markers in the cemetery:

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/45223/keneseth-israel-cemetery.

Disposition of Burial Rights:

Please click here for a pdf document concerning the policy on disposition of burial rights by right holders (effective 2/1/2023.

IRS Exemption Letter:

Click here to read the IRS Exemption Letter.

Cemetery Office:

2227 W. Chew St.
Allentown, PA 18104

Cemetery Location - For GPS, use:

2438 Coolidge St.
Allentown, PA 18104

List of Burial Sites

Contact Form

The Women of Keneseth Israel (formerly Sisterhood) invite you to honor the memory of your loved one on a Memorial Plaque displayed in our sanctuary.  The cost for a plaque is $300. For questions or further information, visit this page.