Sherry V. Bensimon

Funeral Director

When she was 16 years old, Sherry Bensimon joined her local Chevra Kadisha (Jewish burial society) in South Florida. “I loved the work so much that I continued being active in different Chevra Kadishas even after moving to New York, getting married, and having my children. After a while I realized that becoming a funeral director would allow me to contribute in a larger way to the holy Jewish commandment of taking care of The Departed.”

Sherry enrolled in school and completed her residency in Nassau County, "I was lucky to have a college that had daycare for my baby while I went to classes during the day and had family watching my kids at night so I could continue my Chevra Kadisha work."

When the metropolitan New York area began to see COVID-19 deaths, Sherry, vice president of the Metropolitan Funeral Directors Association, brought all the local Chevra Kadishas in a collaboration with the local medical examiners to help develop best practices for handling COVID deaths. Later, due to immunosuppressed members and fear of the virus, several Chevra Kadishas could no longer operate. "I recruited my daughter Shoshana who was 18 at the time to help me with Taharas (traditional Jewish washing and dressing of The Departed). She were fearless, I was so proud to see her gently taking care of someone's mother, grandmother, wife. It was amazing."

Her intense passion for Chessed Shel Emet (the Jewish act of Loving Kindness for the Dead) has led her to create educational classes for different Jewish Communities on the importance of what needs to be done when a death happens. To help mitigate the devastating rise of deaths in the Jewish community due to mental illness, she has created educational seminars with Yeshiva University's Wurzweiler School of Social Work and The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Sherry is an active lifelong member of Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America, Vice President of The Metropolitan Funeral Directors Association, a board member of the New York State Funeral Directors Association and a passionate contributor to NechamaComfort. Sherry says, "Community engagement and contribution is a deeply held value in Judaism, we are tasked with being a Light Unto The Nations. It may sound strange but being an advocate and helping The Departed is my way of fulfilling that value."

In Sherry's personal life, she regularly takes her kids on her motorcycle to hike, fish, and explore for fun looking critters and plants in the parks of Rockland County. Sherry's kids love to tease her for her love of all things rainbow, and naming her motorcycle "Frankie” (the name "Yehudis" was outvoted). Her family attends the Chabad of Rockland County.