LENDING LIBRARY
ELAINE R. BIRNBAUM’S GRIEF-SUPPORT LIBRARY
Through the years in helping family’s cope with the grief that comes with the loss of a loved one. Birnbaum Funeral Service, Inc. has established a large volume of books, for children and adults, that deal with issues regarding death. Our lending library is open to the public and free of charge.
In addition to providing honest, thoughtful and caring counseling services for funeral arrangements during an emotional time, Marty and Elaine Birnbaum (Ret.) along with Joel Friedman have offered grief counseling to those in need.
Elaine (Ret.), an elementary school teacher, is especially skilled in helping children understand and cope with death. She has explained death to children at the funeral home and in schools. In connection with her interest in helping children, she has assembled a large collection of books that explain dying, death and grief for children and adults. Bibliographies are available. We will be happy to send you a copy upon request. Elaine (Ret.), also served for many years on the Advisory Board of Hope for Bereaved, in Syracuse.
SINCE I BECAME A FUNERAL DIRECTOR IN 1984
I have wanted to create a lending library of books that could help people facing the end of the life cycle. My husband, Marty agreed to this idea, and with the wonderful help of our daughter, Amy Birnbaum Weisbach we processed over 100 books to lend out to the community. Meanwhile, between then and now, I have purchased another 300 books.
With the help of my sister-in-law, Linda Birnbaum Friedman we processed this additional collection. We followed the plan of Ruth Borsky and Arthur Steinberg who got us started two years ago. Ruth is a librarian for Temple Adath Yeshurun and Art helped her cover the new books there. They were both a fabulous help.
The library is located at Birnbaum Funeral Service, Inc. at 1909 E. Fayette Street. The telephone number is
315.472.5291. Please call before coming.
For a limited time I am offering a challenge to students who read these books. If they return them with a meaningful book report, they will receive a gift Certificate to their synagogue gift shop. I will greatly appreciate hearing about the value of this special project. Thank you kindly. The categories of books include:
