Crushed burial stones found in North Woodmere

Updated on Aug. 25 at 12:35 p.m.

When two friends were taking a walk in North Woodmere, the last thing they expected to see were some of the words and symbols they saw written on stones being used for utility work.

North Woodmere resident Tal Mandler and Deborah Gregor, from Hewlett Neck, were walking past Mandler’s home on Flanders Road on Aug. 16. They discovered crushed rocks that resembled what would be used for burial stones.

“Several weeks ago the electric poles that span the bank were updated and a bed of crushed rocks were laid to facilitate the utility trucks,” Gregor said. “Her house backs onto Hook Creek and we walked on these crushed stones, Tal looked down and saw a white stone with a carved Jewish star on it. This was shocking to find.” 

Gregor added that they picked up more stones that had carvings of segments of words, which included “...oved" and “...ther.” 

“In five minutes we gathered seven more carved stones as the letters were clearly a part of the words beloved and “...ther” had to be mother or father,” she said. “Coincidentally, the first stone we found had the Jewish star on it. It was immediately obvious to us that it was from a tombstone.”

Mandler said that PSEG-Long Island had performed work to the electrical line that runs in the back of her house that sits on Hook Creek. “In order to reach the pole the crew have to lay a rose bed so the trucks can drive down the bank,” she said. “They happened to lay these crushed rocks down.” Mandler thinks that PSEG had contracted with a company to do the work.

In her near 30 years of living in the Five Towns, Mandler does not recall seeing anything similar to this. “It was really surprising and shocking to see these crushed rocks,” she said. “The thing is I really wanted to know where this comes from. It’s just unacceptable, these are rocks that you would see in a cemetery or synagogue.”

Gregor said that whatever the explanation is, this shouldn’t have happened. “I don’t know where they buy their material or if this was an innocent mistake,” she said. “But for the life of me, I can’t understand how Jewish tombstones become gravel in a road bed.”

In an emailed statement from PSEG-Long Island, they said that they are investigating the stones used. “A contractor performed this work for us and hey purchased the fill from a local supplier and we are actively working with the vendor to determine how that fill was sourced," PSEG officials said. "We are performing a site visit and will continue to investigate the work that was done by the contractor here to determine if it meets our standards.”

Update reflects statement from PSEG-Long Island.