Vilner Lodge Remembers The Dead

Thirteen people gathered at a rain- and wind-swept Westville cemetery to hear the names of more than 500 people who have passed away.

Members of the Independent Vilner Lodge, a Jewish burial society, gathered at noon on Sunday to read those names from their Golden Book. It’s a tradition they have continued for over 30 years on the Sunday between the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

The event kept alive not only the names of the dead, but a tradition that has largely been lost to history — mutual aid societies formed by Jewish immigrants from specific Eastern European cities to support each other in the new world.

Solomon Swiman, Muriel Berger and Ruth Friedland (pictured, left to right) joined the group Sunday in a yearly quest to link the generations to each other.

“In the Jewish faith, it’s important to remember those who have passed on before us, who have established the way,” said lodge President Mark Leventhal. ​“There are many people here who have no family, and it’s a good way between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to remember those who have passed on.”

To be in the book, you need only be Jewish and have died, said Leventhal. It costs $5 per name, but one doesn’t have to join the lodge, said Leventhal, pictured listening to the reading.

But many were members of the Vilner lodge, named after the city of Vilna, now called Vilnius, in Lithuania, from which many hailed.

“The lodge does come from overseas, it is almost 100 years old, brought over here as a fraternal and burial association,” Leventhal said. Lodges were a mainstay of Jewish immigrant life, with many being named for the town or region from which they emigrated.

There are about 100 Vilna lodge members. They pay $25 a year after a $5 initiation fee, and get friendship and an opportunity to serve others, said member Friedland. Those who join before age 60 are guaranteed a burial plot in a lodge cemetery on Jewell Street in New Haven and on Victor Street in East Haven.

Burial plots can go for as much as $800, Leventhal said. He said on the average, a person is a member for 20 years before needing the plot.

The lodge, which will be 99 years old in February, was founded ​“in the business establishment of the late Max Price at the corner of Oak and Dow streets,” according to Friedland. By 1913, the Vilner Lodge had outgrown that space. ​“It was decided to rent a meeting hall, hold scheduled meetings and elect officers,” she said. Meetings now are held in the Jewish Home for the Aged.

On Sunday, as the rain pelted the small shelter erected by Frank and Paula Panzarella, member Lee Liberman conducted the ceremony, as he has for a number of years.

He read from tracts that urged, among other things, that people spend five minutes each night contemplating their actions on the day that just passed. ​“Seize the moment and soar,” another tract suggested.

He read from the Book of Psalms in English and Hebrew and chanted the ancient prayer El Maley Rachamim, a memorial prayer that asks God to grant perfect rest on the wings of the Divine Presence to those who have died.

In the place where the name of one dead person is to go, Liberman, right, intoned the names of the 500-plus people, helped by lodge Cemetery Chairman Bob Bogdanoff. There was little emotion as the names were read, but there was a flash of recognition here, a hint of sadness there, and a tear or two.

The book contains the names to be read in English, with the first name at the right. Here the first person’s English name is Max, and his Hebrew name is Mordechai.

Liberman finished the prayer, to which the soggy but resolute group said, ​“Amen.”

“Look, it’s starting to let up,” someone said as they wished each other a happy year and headed out to prepare for the fast day to come in a few hours.

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, began at sundown Sunday and lasted for 25 hours. Many Jews spend the day in synagogue and abstain from all food and drink, as well as other pleasures. It is said that on that day, one’s fate is sealed for another year.

But that fate can be changed for the better with acts of penitence, prayer and charity and helping others, such as reading the names of those who have died, including those who may not be remembered in any other way.