When a Loved One Dies

• Please notify the rabbi or the executive director before contacting a funeral home. The rabbi can provide you with information regarding funeral arrangements and timing of the service.
• On Yom Tov and Shabbat, even though detailed funeral arrangements should not be made, a staff member on call can be reached at 703-998-6460.
• To arrange for rituals involving traditional Jewish burial practices through our Chevra Kadisha (burial society), please discuss this with the rabbi or executive director. The congregation will offer support for shomrim (people to “watch” or “guard” the deceased at the funeral home), tahara (ritual washing of the deceased), minyan during shivah, as well as observances during the sh’lsohim period (30 days of mourning). Someone from our Bereavement Committee will contact you to offer help with the setup of shivah and to provide support.
• The funeral home will need to know the name of the deceased (both the English and Hebrew names), birth date, Social Security number, parents’ names, mother’s maiden name, and the name of the cemetery with the section and plot number, and all pertinent information for an obituary notice. It is customary to provide the funeral home with the tallit of the deceased for burial.
• The hospital will provide you with a death certificate from an attending physician.
• The Sisterhood will offer to provide a dairy platter within the Washington area for the meal of consolation immediately following the funeral of a congregant or member of the immediate family.

Our synagogue has a cemetery at 701 South Payne Street in Alexandria. 

If you would like to make arrangements to purchase a plot in the Agudas Achim cemetery, please contact the synagogue office at 703-998-6460.