Mt. Sinai Memorial Park is a Jewish cemetery nestled between Griffith Park and Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Like most American cemeteries, it is lush and green. “It’s a concept that was introduced in the 1920s to have these lawn-type cemeteries in Southern California,” Len Lawrence, general manager of Mt. Sinai, told Press Play.
“Really it’s a place for the living,” Lawrence told Press Play. “It’s a place of memory and a place of life,” he said. Mt. Sinai is “warm and welcoming and, in our case, green.”
The cemetery depends on a computerized system of water management. They only water at night and only with recycled water. But will cemeteries have to move away from green lawns, period? Possibly. “Today when we look at developing new areas of our cemetery we look at drought resistant plants,” said Lawrence.