It’s not often you go to the funeral of a complete stranger. This past Monday, I did.

Standing with about 15 others, I attended a funeral in Staten Island arranged by the Hebrew Free Burial Association (HFBA), a UJA-supported agency that ensures the neediest of Jews are cared for with dignity — even in death.

We came to bury a man named Richard. Just in his 40s, he’d experienced more than his fair share of life’s challenges — including arranging for HFBA to bury his sister just four months before. At Richard’s graveside funeral, his cousin remarked how comforted Richard had been that HFBA was there to provide for his sister, and how comforted Richard must now be that he, too, was being cared for.

At the conclusion of the funeral, Richard’s cousin (assisted by the Rabbi, a HFBA employee) recited the Kaddish, in the presence of a minyan. But the minyan, unlike the typical funeral, was not comprised primarily of family members and friends. Instead, HFBA depends on volunteers — people with good jobs and busy lives, who regularly carve out time to attend strangers’ funerals so they may be buried in accordance with Jewish tradition.

Today, HFBA buries 300-400 people a year at the cemetery it operates in Staten Island, and tends to the graves of more than 50,000. And while the subject matter may make us uncomfortable, caring for the dead is characterized in the Bible as a “Chesed Shel Emet,” the truest act of kindness, because there is no expectation of any reciprocal benefit.

As those benefitted can never express their thanks, I take this opportunity on behalf of our community to thank HFBA for their heroic and holy work.

On the same day as Richard’s funeral, I went to Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn to visit MJHS, another UJA-supported agency that performs extraordinary feats of caring — providing both adult and pediatric hospice care. The doctors and nurses at the MJHS’s Menorah Hospice facility exhibit a dedication that is profoundly moving and uplifting — and despite the nature of their work, are brimming with optimism and life.

MJHS also currently operates the Mollie and Jack Zicklin Jewish Hospice Residence in Riverdale, which — with UJA’s significant support — was the first-ever New York State-certified residential hospice under Jewish auspices. And we recently collaborated with MJHS to develop a web-based resource initiative called the Center for Jewish End of Life Care, designed to better educate the community about end of life issues.

These topics are certainly not easy. But it is this work that exemplifies the very best of our community. And so, as we approach Memorial Day and honor fallen soldiers, it’s an appropriate moment to reflect on our commitment to give people dignity in death and dying — our final, most solemn responsibility.

Shabbat shalom, and have a great holiday weekend.