Testimony of threats to hold up burials pending payment of alleged unjust charges was taken at the resumed hearing in Attorney General Ottinger’s investigation into the charge pressed by the Hebrew Religious Protective Association of Greater New York that the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery of Port Richmond, S. I., is organized contrary to law as a business corporation and managed for personal gain.
Assistant Attorney General Robert S. Conklin, presiding, issued a statement saying complaints had been received from all parts of the State declaring cemeteries were being operated for profit. Some cemeteries, he found, were operated as stock companies, large salaries being paid to officers doing little or no service. Prices for the opening or graves, he said, varied according to the individual’s capacity to pay or “the temporary impulse of cemetery officials.”
Philip Gresser, Superintendent of the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, at Port Richmond, S. I., denied on the stand that unjust charges had been exacted from lot owners. Others testified that charges had been unfairly increased and funeral processions halted to demand payment of arrears.
After the hearing Mr. Conklin announced that Mr. Ottinger’s cemetery inquiry would be broadened to include cemetery corporations throughout the State.
The hearing will be continued next Friday.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
