Plaza Jewish Community Chapel

What can I say about having to first off depend on reviews for a situation such as death of a loved one, but in this case I feel compelled to share my recent experience. I live in California so having to plan a service in New York is a task in itself. With that in mind I can’t thank Mitch and Anthony enough for their patience and sincerity. Last minute I asked if I could pop in a day early just to make sure our laptop would connect to their projector, and the had no issue accommodating us and giving us the peace of mind we needed a day prior to the already stressful event. Every other detail was taken care of in a professional and courteous manner and I am forever in debt to them for making this difficult time much more manageable. Thanks again !

In what is of course a sad circumstance, the passing of a loved one, the people at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel were terrific. My uncle passed away recently. They were caring, considerate and thoughtful. They asked the rig questions, and, for example, made arrangements for a US Army honor guard in recognition of my uncle’s WWII service. The rabbi they recommended, Rabbi Taub, was outstanding. Through conversations with me and my sister, he captured the essence of my uncle and made the funeral service an appropriate celebration of a long and loving life.
In addition, the driver we had per their arrangements was terrific. He was very thoughtful and compassionate. I highly recommend Plaza Jewish Community Chapel.

2010 my mother and my father died
I buried them together and used plaza Jewish
I chose to have a graveside service and not a funeral at their location
They asked me if I would like a rabbi and I said yes. The rabbi called me and asked me questions about my mother and father so that he could speak about both of them. This was a $ 300 service which I understand
At the graveside service, the rabbi spoke about my mother and father and then let me speak. This took 10 minutes for all talking
When I got the bill I was charged $ 600 for two rabbis
When I called Plaza Jewish to ask about the mistake I was informed there was no mistake
I said I didn’t hire two rabbis. The quote was unbelievable. He said «well the rabbi did speak about your mother and your father «
After six years this still burns my britches
I’m thankful I don’t have any relatives left to bury at Plaza Jewish

Conducted services for my sister at Plaza. The staff were wonderful; every need was taken care of, and their flexibility in scheduling and assisting was unparalleled. ‘No’ is not in their vocabulary; every detail, especially ones we hadn’t thought of, was taken care of and offered graciously. They could not have been kinder. Thanks, Mitch and Eddie!

A few years ago, my Dad’s cousin went to Plaza to make arrangements for her mother. My Dad accompanied her for moral support and the people at Plaza directed their attention to HIM rather than HER, despite efforts to make it clear that she was the one they should be dealing with.
Then the hearse got lost on the way to the cemetery, despite her having given them prior directions. The hearse ended up following her car to the right location.
Last year when my Dad died unexpectedly, my brother called Plaza from the emergency room to make arrangements for his funeral, and they put him on hold… repeatedly! (Later, they tried to justify this by saying there was only one person in the office handling all calls — midday on a Wed.)
By contrast, my call to another, prominent, funeral service was met with nothing but sympathy, patience and a careful and detailed description of the process and choices, with no hard sell for any one service over another. (I’m a woman.)
When I wasn’t sure of the details of the cemetery, they were able to take the info I had (name of shul through which plot was purchased), track down the plot and begin making arrangements for burial, all by the time I got back to them with details in less than two hours.
Relative to an earlier comment, we too had an issue with the death certificate. As I scrambled to think of how to scan Dad’s social security card and fax the copy, the person helping me, calmed me down, suggested I take a picture with my phone and e-​mail it. An obvious solution, but not when I was grieving, trying to take of my 82 yr old mother having lost the man she met when she was 16, and take care of business. The certificate was corrected within 12 hours.
All this between the time of my first call around 2pm on the Wed. to the funeral at 10 am on Friday.
The contrast between the indifference of Plaza and the caring and efficiency of their rival was telling.

They did a great job for my aunts funeral. It went very smoothly. Everyone felt well taken care of. Venue is lovely. Easy to reach by subway or taxi, and there are a few precious parking spots if you ask.

We’re talking death, after all, so I didn’t want to have «Woo-​hoo, it’s as good as it gets» as my rating.
If you got to go, then Plaza Jewish is your ticket. My father died in 2005 and Plaza took care of the arrangements. My mother died four days’ ago, and I am in shock; however, I am grateful that Plaza handled it all, including faxing the death notice to the New York Times. My mother’d be proud — she got her name in the paper two days in a row. I splurged.
Seriously, we are not a religious family, so for me, just having a place that will handle the dirty work is enough. They were kind and helped with the practical matters. So, a big thank you to Michael who took my first call when I knew my mother was going to pass within the week, to Louis who took my mother from the hospital, to Eddie who handled the administrative matters, and to Kayla (sp?) who handled the placing of the obit in the Times.

I don’t have the words to express how awful our experience with them was. My grandmother died recently, and I couldn’t imagine how her funeral could have gotten worse. Because of Plaza Jewish, it did. Due to an inconsistency with the death certificate, the medical examiner wouldn’t issue a burial permit. We had the funeral a day and a half after she passed, and Plaza Jewish didn’t resolve this issue during this time. In fact, they didn’t start to deal with it until the morning of her service. Furthermore, Plaza Jewish didn’t tell us there was any problem until 15 minutes after the funeral was supposed to begin. In the end, they could not resolve it, and we were only able to do a short service graveside, without the burial, and then (because the medical examiner wanted to re-​examine the body) we had to spend three hours on the day of the funeral sitting in the waiting room of the Queens medical examiner, before returning to the cemetery for the burial. This was supposed to be a day of grieving and sharing stories about my grandmother. Instead, it became a day of bureaucratic nightmares. I wanted to write this review to warn other people, so they don’t have to go through what my family went through.

handled a family funeral recently and did a great job. it was just after a holiday so we expected to be rushed and not to have great service, but Plaza did very well. the prices are incredibly reasonable, the staff is attentive and sympathetic and helpful, and everyone we dealt with seemed to have no other concern than our comfort.