Finally, a resting place specifically for Jews in West Laurel Hill Cemetery

Since its founding in 1869, West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd has consisted only of a mixed, nondenominational burial ground.

That changed Wednesday evening, when the nonprofit cemetery introduced Chesed Shel Emet, a section designated for those of the Jewish faith.

The all-Jewish cemetery within 187-acre West Laurel Hill - sister to Laurel Hill Cemetery, a National Historic Landmark, in Philadelphia - officially opened with a ribbon-cutting Wednesday.

Alexander L. "Pete" Hoskins, president and chief executive officer of West Laurel Hill and Laurel Hill, welcomed a small crowd of Jewish family members to the site and, with Bill Doran, superintendent of both cemeteries, led a brief tour of the new area.

Freddie Barson, a former member of nearby Har Zion Temple whose husband is buried in the nondenominational portion of West Laurel, said the Jewish section was a welcome addition.

"There was such a need for this here," Barson said. "There's such a big percentage of Jewish people and a vibrant Jewish community."

Bala Cynwyd is home to a number of Jewish congregations and synagogues. Because many Jews observe a traditional requirement that they be buried in a dedicated Jewish area, some families had to go to cemeteries a distance away, West Laurel Hill spokeswoman Deborah Cassidy said.

"We've always prided ourselves on not having to turn someone away," Cassidy said. "To not be able to serve those families was something we felt horribly about."

West Laurel Hill representatives met with local rabbis to design the cemetery, built over the last two years on unused property.

It features a special plot for Orthodox Jews. Cassidy said members of other branches of Judaism would likely be buried together.

The cemetery has two main entrances, which will feature plaques with the 23d Psalm and a prayer from the book The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning. Other amenities will include a water basin, for ceremonial hand-washing, and visitation stones, to be placed on a loved one's headstone. The Hebrew phrase Chesed Shel Emet refers to the ritual of preparing the dead for burial, and means "the truest act of kindness," because the dead cannot repay the favor.

Cassidy said West Laurel Hill had been careful to inform families with buried relatives about the development and had received no complaints.

Although the Jewish cemetery was the first special religious section created at West Laurel Hill, Cassidy said, there are other, informal groupings - for example, many graves of Asians are on or near a hill in the cemetery, facing east, in keeping with a common burial custom.

Other Jewish families at the cemetery are buried in the nondenominational area. So far, Cassidy said, no relatives have requested that their loved ones be moved.

Beth Wenger, director of Jewish studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said that Jewish law emphasized protecting the sanctity of individual graves, and that creating separate cemeteries to accomplish that objective was a standard practice for many Jewish communities in the United States dating to the colonial era.

Hoskins said West Laurel's staff was pleased the cemetery could continue that tradition.

"For perhaps the last decade or so, families were increasingly calling to say, 'Can there be a Jewish cemetery?' " he said. "For us, it is a grand moment to be able to finally meet the needs of the very large Jewish community here."