A quiet road in Paramus. A modest entrance.
Most people drive past it every day without a second thought. Inside, the names on the headstones tell a bigger story.
An Oscar winner. A Nobel laureate. A woman who built a beauty empire from scratch.
It is not the kind of place that announces itself.
No flashy signs, no guided tours. Just rows of stone markers and a whole lot of history.
You might walk in expecting a quiet walk. You will leave wondering why you had not visited sooner.
Some places keep their secrets locked away. This one leaves them out in the open, written in marble and granite, waiting for anyone curious enough to read them.
You Wouldn’t Believe Who’s Buried Here
Walking through Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries for the first time feels a little like flipping through a cultural encyclopedia. The grounds stretch quietly across Bergen County, shaded by mature trees and lined with carefully placed markers.
Nothing about the entrance hints at what lies beyond.
Yet beneath those trees rest Nobel Prize winners, Oscar-winning actors, celebrated poets, and business legends who shaped entire industries. The list of notable interments here reads more like a Hollywood and literary hall of fame than a standard cemetery registry.
Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries have served the Jewish community of the greater New York metropolitan area for over 75 years. Families from across the region chose this place as a final home for their most beloved.
That long history means the grounds carry an extraordinary depth of cultural memory. Every section holds a story worth knowing, and every visit rewards curiosity in ways that are genuinely hard to predict.
Nobel Winners and Hollywood Stars
Few cemeteries in the northeastern United States can claim both a Nobel Prize winner and Academy Award-winning actors among their permanent residents.
Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries in Paramus can claim exactly that, without any fanfare or signage to announce it.
Isaac Bashevis Singer, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978, is interred here. He wrote primarily in Yiddish, crafting stories that captured Jewish life with warmth, wit, and extraordinary depth.
His presence alone gives these grounds a literary significance that stretches far beyond New Jersey.
Martin Balsam, the Academy Award-winning actor celebrated for his supporting roles across decades of American cinema, also rests within Cedar Park Cemetery. These two names alone would make the cemetery remarkable.
Together with the many other distinguished figures buried here, they form a remarkable constellation of achievement that most visitors never expect to find tucked behind a quiet suburban address.
A Cemetery with Serious Star Power
The entertainment world is surprisingly well-represented at Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries. Beyond Martin Balsam, several other figures from film, theater, and performance arts chose this Bergen County ground as their final resting place.
Julian Beck, a multidisciplinary artist who worked as an actor, director, poet, and painter, is buried here. Judith Malina, an actress and director known for her boundary-pushing theatrical work, also rests at Cedar Park.
Both were central figures in avant-garde American theater. Their presence side by side feels fitting given their shared creative world.
Lou Jacobi and John Marley, both recognizable character actors from classic American film and television, are interred here as well. Add comedian and storyteller Myron Cohen, big-band singer Kitty Kallen, and prolific composer Sammy Fain to that list.
The sheer range of entertainment talent gathered within these grounds is genuinely staggering. For anyone who loves classic American culture, a visit to Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries feels almost like a pilgrimage.
Nothing Ordinary About This Plot
Most people driving down Forest Avenue in Paramus give this place barely a glance. The entrance looks like any other well-kept cemetery in the New York metro area.
But the story inside is anything but ordinary.
Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries offer a range of burial options, from single graves to family plots, along with the Sanctuary of Abraham and Sarah Mausoleum for above-ground interment. The park-like environment was designed to feel serene and welcoming, a place for reflection rather than just remembrance.
What makes it truly extraordinary is the concentration of historical significance tucked within those peaceful grounds. Philosophers, politicians, scientists, and artists all share this space.
Ernst Cassirer, one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, is interred here. Leonard Farbstein, a U.S.
Congressman who represented New York, also rests within Cedar Park. Each name adds another layer to a place that rewards those willing to look a little closer than the average passerby ever does.
Estee Lauder’s Final Resting Place
Estee Lauder built one of the most recognizable beauty brands in the world from the ground up, transforming a small family business into a global empire that still carries her name today.
Her story is one of relentless ambition, creative vision, and genuine entrepreneurial grit.
Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries in Paramus is where she was laid to rest. Finding that connection between a suburban New Jersey cemetery and one of the most powerful businesswomen of the twentieth century is the kind of surprise that makes a visit here feel genuinely memorable.
It adds a completely different dimension to the grounds.
Lauder’s legacy in the beauty industry is immeasurable. Her approach to marketing, product development, and customer relationships changed how cosmetics companies operated worldwide.
Knowing that her final resting place is here, among poets and Nobel laureates and Oscar winners, feels somehow perfectly right. Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries hold a remarkable range of human achievement, and Estee Lauder’s presence is one of its most striking chapters.
Far More Than a Quiet Cemetery
Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries have been serving Jewish families from the greater New York metropolitan area for more than 75 years. That kind of longevity means the grounds have accumulated a remarkable depth of history, culture, and community memory over generations.
The Sanctuary of Abraham and Sarah Mausoleum offers a stunning above-ground interment option, featuring a sun-drenched rotunda with a glass ceiling that fills the space with natural light.
Visitors who step inside describe it as majestic, a two-story sanctuary that feels both solemn and uplifting at the same time.
The cemetery also maintains a park-like setting throughout its grounds, with mature trees providing shade and a sense of calm that feels removed from the busy suburban world just outside its gates.
For families visiting from out of state, staff members have been known to provide photographs of specific grave sites and detailed location information to help loved ones stay connected.
Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries function as a living archive of community and culture.
Names That Will Surprise You
Maurice Tempelsman is not a name most people recognize immediately, but his story is fascinating. A prominent diamond magnate and businessman, Tempelsman became widely known as the long-time companion of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
His final resting place is Cedar Park Cemetery in Paramus.
Manfred Clynes, a scientist and inventor who coined the term “cyborg” and contributed significantly to neuroscience and music theory, is also interred here.
That combination of a diamond magnate connected to American royalty and a scientist who literally invented a word now used in everyday language speaks volumes about the range of people buried within these grounds.
Maxwell Bodenheim, a poet and novelist who was a central figure in the Chicago literary renaissance, and Delmore Schwartz, one of the most respected American poets of the mid-twentieth century, also rest at Cedar Park. Every section of this cemetery holds a name that belongs in a history book.
Coming across them quietly, without fanfare, makes each discovery feel genuinely personal and surprisingly moving.
Isaac Bashevis Singer Lies Here
Isaac Bashevis Singer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978, becoming one of the few authors ever honored for work written primarily in Yiddish.
His stories captured the texture of Eastern European Jewish life with humor, folklore, and a deep understanding of human nature.
Singer was born in Poland and eventually made his way to the United States, where he continued writing and translating his work into English for broader audiences. His novels and short stories earned him a devoted readership that crossed language barriers and generations.
He remains one of the most celebrated Jewish authors in literary history.
Knowing that Singer rests at Cedar Park Cemetery in Paramus gives the grounds a literary weight that few suburban New Jersey locations can claim. His grave is a quiet reminder that greatness does not always announce itself with monuments or museums.
Sometimes it rests beneath the trees of an unassuming cemetery on a regular street, waiting for curious visitors to seek it out and pay their respects to a genuinely extraordinary life.
Bergen County’s Hidden History
Bergen County is known for a lot of things, but most people do not immediately think of it as a repository of American cultural history. Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries quietly challenge that assumption every single day.
The cemetery has served as the final resting place for members of the Jewish community from across the New York metropolitan area for over seven decades.
That reach, spanning New York City and its surrounding suburbs, means the grounds hold the stories of people who shaped art, science, politics, entertainment, and business at a national level.
Ernst Cassirer, the German-born philosopher whose work on symbolic forms and the philosophy of culture remains influential in academic circles worldwide, is buried here. Leonard Farbstein, who served in the U.S.
House of Representatives representing Manhattan, also rests within Cedar Park. These are not footnotes in history.
They are central figures whose contributions still resonate. Bergen County’s hidden history is alive and preserved within the quiet, tree-lined sections of Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries on Forest Avenue.
Fame Lurks Beneath the Trees
There is something genuinely humbling about walking through Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries and realizing how much history is quietly tucked beneath the shade of those trees. The grounds do not advertise their famous residents.
There are no tour buses, no plaques listing achievements, no celebrity maps at the entrance.
That restraint actually makes the experience more powerful. Stumbling across the name of a Nobel laureate, a cosmetics empire founder, or an Oscar winner on a simple headstone creates a moment of real connection.
Fame and legacy feel suddenly very human and very close.
Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries have preserved that sense of dignity and quiet throughout their more than 75 years of operation. The park-like environment, the mature trees, the carefully maintained pathways, all of it creates a space that honors memory without spectacle.
For history lovers, literary enthusiasts, film fans, or anyone curious about the remarkable lives that shaped American culture, a visit to 735 Forest Avenue in Paramus offers something genuinely worth seeking out.
Address: 735 Forest Ave, Paramus, NJ
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