Sinai Mortuary

My fathers funeral was handled by this Mortuary, which is popular with the Jewish community. The service was held in the cemetery. The service was kind of bland, and they hadn’t sought out information about my father to know who he was. When the lackaluster talk was done, the rabbi walked right past me when I stood there with my hand out to shake his, and I was the one who contacted this mortuary. I promised never to use them in the future at that moment. They see their business as secure, obviously. At a later date I attended a funeral in their mortuary in which a powerful member of the Jewish community was in attendance, and then I saw the enthusiasm gush forth in the service. Draw your own conclusions.

Another morbid mortuary review.
I have been to this Sinai many times as this is the Jewish mortuary in Phoenix and they have handled many of my family member’s funerals, etc. This is not a fun nor easy process for anyone and since I had to use Sinai in Lafayette to help me coordinate it was a better process than I could have anticipated.
There is something about 6 degrees of separation, but I have longed joked that in the Jewish community, there is usually a 2 degree separation if you get down to it.
The Sinai’s (not the same business but have affiliation as do most if not all Jewish Mortuaries), did most of the coordination behind the scenes between CA and AZ. Getting my Grandmother’s body to AZ and given the Jewish Holiday that could have prevented some timeline stuff, I was worried. My family lucked out that everyone worked together seamlessly and I flew in to Phoenix, met my Mother and Mark at Sinai and made the arrangements.
My Gram was buried next to my Grandfather and Sinai took care of everything from the police escort (my Gram would have loved knowing all traffic was stopped for her) to the ensuring her obituary was in the paper, etc. There were few decisions we had to make (luckily we were aware of my Gram’s wishes) and though this is not a business that is fun to review, it is important to know that businesses like this exist.

With the size of the Jewish population in the Phoenix area, how is there no competitor to this place? If your loved one wants a traditional Jewish burial, and for the body to be prepared and cared for accordingly, Sinai is the only option.
I’ve now dealt with them twice — and both times SUCKED. I guess the positive is I have no more parents to bury and no siblings I am responsible for carrying out the last wishes for — so I will never have to deal with them again.
Almost ten years ago, my dad died. According to custom, he wanted to be buried in a plain pine box. This is normal and traditional. There is really no excuse for attempting to up-​sell me on the coffin. None. I was quite clear on what he wanted.
That experience left a lingering bad memory, and recently, as my mom was dying, I spoke with the Rabbi about options not involving Sinai. Sadly, there are none. But he assured me it’s a new generation running the place — and they are awesome. He even told me he would share with them my prior bad experience and ensure I was well taken care of this time around.
HA! Not only did the funeral director go out of her way to let me know our Rabbi was overcharging us for his services, but she made a comment that was more than a little insensitive and disrespectful to my mom’s Christian husband.
PLEASE — someone, ANYONE — open a Jewish mortuary to compete with this group. Watch the prices fall dramatically overnight, and force the customer service to improve exponentially.