A Commitment to Honoring Legacy, Preserving Sacred Ground
At the Sabes Family Foundation, our mission is rooted in enduring values—family, tradition, dignity, and responsibility.
The Sabes Family Foundation has gone to great lengths to care for the spaces that shape our collective identity. Through our philanthropic initiatives, we support projects that preserve heritage, strengthen community infrastructure, and ensure that sacred places remain for future generations.
In 2024, the foundation kicked off an initiative to restore and revitalize the Adath Yeshurun Cemetery, a quiet sanctuary nestled along Minnehaha Creek in Edina, Minnesota. This historic Jewish cemetery, established over a century ago, holds deep meaning for generations of families in the Twin Cities. It is also the eternal resting place of Moe and Esther Sabes, the founders of the Sabes Family Foundation.
A Personal Journey That Sparked Action and Purpose
This story begins with Jon Sabes, a board member of the Sabes Foundation and grandson of our founders. In the spring of 2023, Jon lost his beloved mother. In preparing for her burial at Adath Yeshurun Cemetery, Jon visited the site to ensure everything was in order—only to find the grounds in disrepair. Overgrown buckthorn, fallen limbs, and a general sense of neglect made clear the need for urgent care and attention.
True to his nature and his philosophy, Jon didn’t wait for someone else to fix the problem. He rolled up his sleeves, went to the hardware store, and transformed the landscape himself—creating a garden setting worthy of the person she was and the memory she left behind.
Whether this would be a one-time act of personal resolve to ensure the site of his mother’s gravesite was befitting of her memory became a journey of discovery and opportunity. Through a due diligence review, Jon found a cemetery that was financially solvent with new board leadership sharing an equal passion to improve a sacred space that held loved ones and memories for so many in the community. With these facts in hand, Jon joined the board of the cemetery and began working with fellow members to reimagine what long-term stewardship of this sacred place could look like.
The Sabes Foundation’s Commitment to Enduring Values
Moved by need and leadership, the Sabes Foundation made a significant philanthropic commitment to support the revitalization of Adath Yeshurun Cemetery.
In the spring of 2025, the Sabes Family Foundation made an initial financial commitment that kicked off what we hope will be a long-term effort by the Board of the Adath Yeshurun Cemetery to fund:
- Landscape and infrastructure improvements that honor our ancestors and welcome visitors
- Ongoing grounds maintenance and seasonal restoration
- Long-term sustainability planning and how to fund into eternity
- Community engagement to reconnect descendants with their family’s history
With Jon Sabes participation on the board of the Adath Yeshurun Cemetery, the Sabes Family Foundation’s commitment to restoring and improving the cemetery is not only financial, but personal with a directional point of view of what the future of the cemetery will look like. Jon Sabes is a passionate landscape gardner. Working at the cemetery offers an opportunity to practice what he calls “Gardening At Scale” which simply means applying the modern landscape garden techniques and practices to improve the physical environment we live in.
As part of our broader work in cultural preservation and community-based philanthropy, the Sabes Family Foundation is proud to partner with forward-looking boards and dedicated individuals to protect and renew spaces that matter.
The Sabes Foundation’s Commitment to Enduring Values
Across the country, many small independent cemeteries are facing difficult challenges—financial instability, aging infrastructure, and declining local engagement. These spaces, meant to be eternal, are often left vulnerable as families move away or younger generations lose connection with ancestral history.
Through this project, the Sabes Foundation is reaffirming our commitment to building for generations, not just reacting to needs in the present. This work is part of our ongoing effort to invest in enduring institutions that reflect our values of continuity, care, and community.
Together, we can cultivate a future grounded in dignity, remembrance, and care.
The Sabes Foundation
www.sabes.foundation
Preserving Legacy. Cultivating Community. Building for Generations.