2nd Annual JCANA Conference

To All Attendees:

On behalf of the officers and board of trustees of JCANA, it is a great privilege to welcome you to the second annual conference of the Jewish Cemetery Association of North America. We hope that the time spent in Atlanta will provide the conduit to a new network of cemetery professionals, like you, who face the same ongoing day to day challenges. 

In just two short years JCANA has become nationally recognized as a voice of Jewish Cemeteries with our membership continuing to grow throughout North America. Our conference committee has worked hard to assemble a variety of seminars designed to both stimulate and educate the Jewish cemetery professional.

Please let us know what JCANA can do for you and your cemetery and I look forward to meeting you and discussing how you can become an active member in JCANA.

B’Shalom

Ralph Zuckman
Chairman

CONFERENCE RECAP

The 2nd annual conference of the Jewish Cemetery Association of North America was held in Atlanta, GA on June 6-8, 2010. It was a very intense, gratifying, networking, knowledgable and enjoyable event. Nearly 35 cemeterians from the United States and Canada had a great opportunity to “shmooze” and learn from each other. There was also an exhibit hall which featured good friends of JCANA.

One of the headline plenary speakers was Richard Fishman, the New York State not-for-profit cemetery regulator. Richard gave a very spirited presentation of some of his daily routine within his office in dealing with over 1800 cemetery sites.

Other presenters to the cemetery tract were: David Hoguet, Cincinnati Jewish Cemetery Association, speaking on cemetery financial issues; Amy Koplow, New York Hebrew Free Burial Association, speaking on the mechanisms of their association; Nolan Altman, JewishGen.com, discussing the interaction between genealogy and cemeteries; Al Matherly, of the Al Matherly Design Group, who gave a presentation on the best land use of your cemetery; Sherry Hood, Pontem Software, demonstrating the utilization of Pontem cemetery software; Bob Cutrone, Direct Data Capture, discussing recapturing the data after the Oakland Cemetery Disaster; and David Moore, Oakland Cemetery Foundation, offering a presentation on the historic Atlanta cemetery. There was also a lively customer service presentation featuring several JCANA members–Susan Lefelstein, Lafayette CA; Estelle Raber, Winnipeg Canada; Dan Levy, Hamilton Ontario, Canada; Dr. Mona Shangold, Perth-Amboy, NJ; and Carol Hochstadt, Salt Lake City, UT.

The proposed site for the 3rd annual conference is Chicago. Please check our website regularly for updates.

Thank you all for attending and we look forward to seeing all of you again at our next conference.

Harley Felstein
Amy Koplow
David Hoguet
Co-chairs, Conference Committee