For decades, if there was a death in the family, Jewish Virginians might have had to go to Maryland or Washington, D.C., for a Jewish funeral home. Now they don’t have to because Jewish Funerals USA recently opened its doors in Vienna.
Licensed on Feb. 14, Northern Virginia Jewish Funerals is still partially under construction for cosmetic purposes, but the funeral home is up and running. The building features a lobby with furniture and a coffee station, a bathroom, a conference room, an upstairs office and a tahara room where the body is prepared for burial.
“The design of our funeral homes is opposite of what you would think of a funeral home,” Zane Belyea, the owner, said. “If families come in to meet with us, we want it to be as warm and welcoming as possible.”
He knows visitors are likely experiencing the “worst moments” of their lives, so he wants to ensure that the atmosphere isn’t the cold and sterile archetype of a funeral home.
In order to maximize families’ comfortability, Belyea said NVJF staff travel to community members’ homes to meet with them if they so choose — being inside a funeral home can be traumatic for some.
Most funeral services are done at a synagogue or gravesite and NVJF helps families prepare the body according to Jewish ritual and plan the service, funeral proceedings and shiva. NVJF coordinates with the Chevra Kadisha of Greater Washington — a volunteer-based “burial society” that cleanses and dresses the loved one’s body in a traditional linen suit — and can provide a shomer who sits with the deceased until burial.
Belyea and his team also work closely with local clergy members, whom Belyea considers the funeral home’s “board of directors.”
“If we’re not providing the best service to the community, we’re not doing our jobs,” he said. “And none better than the clergy to give us that guidance to ensure that we are providing the best service possible.”
Ellen Suls MacDonald, NVJF’s community liaison, who moved to Reston with her family in 2001, said the lack of a Jewish funeral home in Virginia “caused [her] concern.”
“So now that we’re here, that’s just one more thing off my plate,” MacDonald said.
Gary Henninger, NVJF’s location manager, said the team chose to open in Vienna due to its central location and proximity to Arlington National Cemetery and King David Memorial Gardens in Falls Church, Virginia: “A lot of growth is coming in this direction.”
“We’re able to provide services to the entire DMV,” Belyea added. “We’re conveniently located where we can handle services at any of those locations [in Washington, D.C., Maryland or Virginia].”
One of the challenges typically associated with Jewish funerals is the quick turnaround time — Jewish law mandates a Jewish burial to take place within 24 hours of the death. The team at NVJF brings decades of experience and “plenty of staff” that makes this process relatively easy, Belyea said.
Embedded in both the northern Virginian and Jewish communities, NVJF’s team members entered the funeral industry largely for personal reasons.
MacDonald spoke to her experience with death at a young age: Her mother died when MacDonald was 16 years old and on pilgrimage in Israel. Unable to take the 13-hour flight back to Rockville, she grieved overseas.
“Because I was in a [United Synagogue Youth] group, our leader was a rabbi, so I got very personalized shiva, shloshim, where the rabbi taught me everything about the steps and I had a built-in community with me,” MacDonald said. “[I received] comfort as part of the Jewish grieving process and understanding what was going on even though I couldn’t be back here.
“Understanding how Jewish procedures and rituals benefited me. It’s always something I wanted to be able to give back to our community.”
Jonathan Mitchell, a funeral service assistant at NVJF, similarly turned to the funeral industry with a desire to help others. His grandmother’s death nearly a year ago was the impetus for him to pursue a degree in funeral services, which he’s doing at Brightpoint Community College.
“I saw how both difficult it was for my family and also just how much [my grandmother] had preplanned without telling anybody, and how much that preplan ended up helping our family through that process,” Mitchell said. “I realized that I want to help people and [the funeral industry] was an avenue to do that.”
Belyea said NVJF prioritizes community members: “Our time with them is not over once the burial is complete, because we understand that they still have needs.”
To address these needs, NVJF distributes an email series that walks families through the next 11 months of grieving and explains the various traditions and rituals. A group of staff members send follow-up texts to clients for comfort, answering any questions or concerns they may have.
NVJF keeps community members engaged, such as through a widow and widowers’ luncheon — where some have even found love again.
NVJF aims to serve as a “community fixture” rather than solely a funeral home, which Belyea will accomplish by sponsoring trivia nights, fun runs, pickleball and mahjong tournaments.
“We don’t always want to be associated with death,” he said. “We want the community to be comfortable with us because we get it, people don’t necessarily want to hang out with the ‘funeral people.’ … We want people to know we’re real; we are in the community.”
