Cemetery Transfer FAQs. I didn t even know that Temple Sinai had a cemetery. Tell me about it, please.

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1 Cemetery Transfer FAQs I didn t even know that Temple Sinai had a cemetery. Tell me about it, please. Gladly! Home of Eternity Cemetery dates back to 1865, when the founders of Oakland s Jewish community purchased two acres from the then-new Mountain View cemetery. About ten years later, many of those same founders established Temple Sinai as the first Jewish synagogue in Oakland. Temple Sinai acquired Home of Eternity in the 1880s and has owned and operated it ever since. You can learn more about this fascinating story from our archivist Fred Isaac here. Home of Eternity currently has a limited inventory of graves remaining, but an ample inventory of crypts and niches in the mausoleum. What is happening with Home of Eternity? The Board of Trustees is proposing to transfer ownership of, and responsibility for, the Home of Eternity cemetery from Temple Sinai to Sinai Memorial Chapel ( Sinai Memorial ). Legally, this will involve a transfer of title to the property and buildings from Temple Sinai to Sinai Memorial s solely owned Beit Olam of Contra Costa, Inc. Temple Sinai will also pay Sinai Memorial so that the latter can provide for the cemetery s quality care and maintenance in perpetuity. More about this below. What/who is Sinai Memorial? Sinai Memorial is a Jewish, not-for-profit, charitable religious organization that operates a chevra kadisha and the only Jewish funeral home in Northern California. Founded in 1902, it serves Jews throughout the San Francisco Bay Area from all branches of Judaism, affiliated or not. In addition to providing burial and chevra kadisha services in San Francisco, Lafayette and Redwood City, it also owns and operates Eternal Home Cemetery in Colma and operates Gan Shalom Cemetery in Briones. You can read more about Sinai Memorial on its website here. Why is Temple Sinai proposing this? We identified the need to improve our cemetery operations several years ago and have been taking steps to do so since then. As part of this effort, we have come to believe strongly that Sinai Memorial, rather than Temple Sinai, is the very best guardian of Home of Eternity in the future. There are several reasons for this. First, Sinai Memorial owns and operates Jewish cemeteries as its core competency; Temple Sinai does not. Second, because our cemetery is so small, our comparative cemetery operating costs are high. If Temple Sinai continues to own and maintain Home of Eternity, we anticipate needing a

2 Perpetual Care Fund of somewhere in the range of $4 million to $6 million. The current balance of this fund is a little over $1.5 million. Because Sinai Memorial has economies of scale in owning and operating multiple Jewish cemeteries, it can provide better care for Home of Eternity at a lower cost meaning that Sinai Memorial would need a much smaller Perpetual Care Fund than Temple Sinai needs, with our higher operating costs. Third, Sinai Memorial intends to make capital improvements to the Home of Eternity Cemetery that Temple Sinai does not have the resources to undertake. Finally, transferring Home of Eternity to Sinai Memorial will free up significant administrative time of our Temple Sinai senior staff members, which could be put to other uses (communications, membership, event planning, etc.). How much are we paying Sinai Memorial, and why? Shouldn t they pay us? Transferring ownership of a cemetery is not like selling other real property, like a house or business. When we transfer ownership of Home of Eternity to Sinai Memorial, we will also transfer the obligation to care for the cemetery in perpetuity. Ours is a small cemetery with a small inventory of remaining graves and high operating costs. The revenue generated by future sales will not cover the high costs of operations and maintenance, in perpetuity. For this reason, the transfer of the cemetery itself will be accompanied by an additional transfer to Sinai Memorial of the entire existing Perpetual Care Fund (currently a little over $1.5 million) and additional cash from our operating account, for an aggregate total of $2 million. This amount was reached through extensive discussions and planning, to ensure that Home of Eternity has the resources needed to insure its proper care. The legal documentation for this transfer requires that all amounts paid by Temple Sinai to Sinai Memorial be used exclusively to benefit Home of Eternity. The funds will not be used for any of the other Sinai Memorial cemeteries. What is the process for approving this? Under our Bylaws, this proposal requires approval of the Board of Trustees and the congregation. Acting on the unanimous recommendation of the Executive Committee, the Board voted unanimously at its February 20, 2019 meeting to recommend this proposal for approval by the congregation. We are planning to discuss this proposal at an open meeting at the Temple scheduled for Wednesday, April 10 at 7:30pm. We will then hold a special congregational meeting at Temple on April 14, at 10:00am, to seek approval for this proposal.

3 Congregants will be free to ask questions at the meeting, and can choose to vote either at the meeting or virtually for a period of two weeks thereafter, until April 28. In addition, the transaction must be approved by the Board of Trustees of Sinai Memorial s subsidiary organization. If approved, the transaction will close on April 30, How will this affect the graves of my loved ones who are buried there? This will not affect the graves of your loved ones. Sinai Memorial has been operating Home of Eternity for over a year already. The only substantive changes we anticipate are certain planned improvements, which are explained more below. How will this affect me if I have already purchased a plot, crypt or niche? This will not affect anything you have already purchased. All records will be transferred intact, including any reservations or pre-payments. If you have a current balance due on your purchase, we will be in contact with you to provide future payment information. Will Temple Sinai congregants have any priority to purchase graves at after the transfer? Home of Eternity serves the entire East Bay Jewish community. As such, it operates on a first-come, first-served basis, and Temple Sinai members do not have (and have never had) priority for particular graves. This will not change after the transfer. For years now, Temple Sinai members have purchased fewer than 25% of the annual sales of plots, crypts and niches at Home of Eternity. Will Temple Sinai congregants receive any discounts on plots, crypts or niches purchased after the transfer to Sinai Memorial? Yes. Temple Sinai congregants currently receive a 10% discount on the list price of plots, crypts and niches; Sinai Memorial has assured us that this preferential discount will continue for Temple Sinai members for a period of at least ten years after the transfer. What will happen to the current employees who work primarily at Home of Eternity? Raymond Ulibarri and David Uribe have blessed Temple Sinai with years of dedicated service to Home of Eternity. We are grateful to them and we could not have run the cemetery without them. Temple Sinai, Sinai Memorial, our two cemetery employees, and their union representatives have all reached a mutually acceptable agreement whereby David Uribe will continue to serve

4 Home of Eternity under Sinai Memorial s guardianship, and Raymond Ulibarri will receive a generous severance package from Temple Sinai (in excess of our contractual obligations under the applicable collective bargaining agreement) as a testament to our gratitude for his many years of loyal service. In addition, Temple Sinai is required by applicable regulations to pay a withdrawal liability payment to the union s pension fund. This liability is approximately $450,000, but it will be paid over twenty years so that the yearly cost will be slightly less than we currently pay towards David s and Raymond s pension. How do we know that our cemetery will be cared for? Will there be any changes after the transfer? For over 100 years, Sinai Memorial has a long and well-respected history of serving the Bay Area s Jewish community s funeral and cemetery needs. It is our strong belief that they will take excellent care of Home of Eternity. Sinai Memorial has the expertise, the experience and the resources not only to maintain this community treasure for the future, but also to improve it. Sinai Memorial s leadership has expressed their appreciation for the beauty and the history of our cemetery, and have told us that they plan to maintain the aesthetic guidelines currently in place with respect to gravestone style, size, etc. (The direct ancestor of the current President of the Board of Trustees of Sinai Memorial is buried in Home of Eternity.) In addition, Sinai Memorial s leaders have enthusiastically shared with us some of their ideas for upkeep and improvements. We are convinced that in Sinai Memorial s hands, Home of Eternity will thrive in a way that it will not if Temple Sinai continues to own it. Will clergy still be allowed to conduct funerals in the chapel at Home of Eternity? Yes. We anticipate continued close cooperation between Temple Sinai and Sinai Memorial for years to come. Temple Sinai clergy will have access to the chapel, we will be able to arrange tours of Home of Eternity for our religious school students, and so forth. What happens if this transfer of Home of Eternity from Temple Sinai to Sinai Memorial does not happen? If this transfer does not occur, Temple Sinai leadership will have to work hard to secure an appropriate future for Home of Eternity. This will include raising an additional $ million for the Perpetual Care Fund, investing to arrange appropriate management for the cemetery (by hiring an in-house cemetery director, continuing our management arrangement with Sinai Memorial or finding a different alternative), and identifying the resources financial and otherwise to undertake certain necessary capital improvements to our cemetery. In short, if this transfer is not approved or does not take place, then this project would occupy a significant percentage of

5 the time, talents, and treasure of Temple Sinai, its staff and leadership for the foreseeable future.