By Stacey Dresner

H

ARTFORD – Weinstein Mortuary, owned and operated in the Greater Hartford area by the Weinstein family for 80 years, has been acquired by Rollings Funeral Service, a company based in Peachtree, Georgia.

The acquisition took place in October and is Rollings’ first acquisition of a funeral home in Connecticut and the first Jewish funeral home to be added to its roster of 50 funeral homes along the East Coast and Midwest.

Morton Weinstein, who owned and operated Weinstein Mortuary with his cousin Michael for 50 years, said that the two had been looking for a way to transition so that they can both retire, while insuring that Weinstein’s remains dedicated to the local Jewish community.

“Michael and I are both in our 70s and none of our children were interested in working in the business,” Mort Weinstein explained. “We had no exit strategy in terms of continuity, to make sure it continued as a Jewish business in the community. As we got older, we started thinking about that.

“It took quite a while to find the right partner because we were looking for the right fit,” Weinstein added. “Rollings is the right fit because they are also a family business  — a husband and wife. It’s not a conglomerate. And they are not hands-on, so there is no one here from Rollings overseeing the day-to-day operations. They told us they want the business to continue as it has, and that was very important to us. They didn’t try to make the community fit them; they are fitting the community.”

Weinstein Funeral Home was founded in 1940 by Herman Weinstein. A graduate of the Cincinnati College of Embalming in Cincinnati, Ohio, he opened the funeral home on Albany Avenue in Hartford. In 1941 Herman’s brother, Paul H. Weinstein, also a graduate of the Cincinnati College of Embalming joined him in business. In 1964, Michael P. Weinstein, Herman’s son joined the family business, as did Paul’s son Mort in 1971.

Greg Rollings, CEO and president of Rollings, grew up working at a family funeral home, and later worked for larger funeral service corporations. He and his wife Debbie founded Rollings Funeral Service in 2001, with the goal, according to their website, of providing “funeral home owners with a great alternative to selling to a large corporation. While operating on family values, each funeral home is still run on a local level with their managers working directly with the Rollings family to develop budgets, set up advertising and PR, determine pricing and establish proper HR practices.”

“For eight decades, Weinstein Mortuary has proudly served Connecticut by providing guidance, understanding, and compassion when the community experienced a death,” Greg Rollings said. “We’re excited to be teaming up and look forward to the next chapter of our partnership.”

Mort said that while Rollings has acquired Weinstein’s assets – the building, property and inventory – the firm has also purchased the Weinstein Mortuary’s name.

“The name of the business won’t change. It will stay as it is. Nothing has changed otherwise,” Mort said.

And for now, Mort and Michael are still involved, but will most likely retire within the next couple of years.

“We’re still here, and we have a young employee, Zachary Zimmerman, who grew up in the funeral business,” Mort said. 

Zimmerman, 29, a member of the family that owns the Springfield-based Ascher-Zimmerman Funeral home, joined Weinstein’s several years ago and has become an integral part of the business.

“He’s our future, so the business will continue,” Mort said. “The idea is to make sure that Zachary is acclimated with the community and the community with him. I think that it will be a wonderful transition for him…We were fortunate to have him join us. I’d adopt him if I could. He is like part of our family.”

Rabbi Yitzchok Adler of Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford who has performed–and continues to perform –funeral with Weinstein’s Mortuary, agrees.

“Zachary is an exceedingly compassionate and very professional young man, and if he is the face of the future the company will have a good future,” Adler told the Ledger.

In terms of the recent sale, Adler said, “Nothing has changed as far as I’m concerned. It’s as Jewish a facility as our community needs, and in bringing Zachary Zimmerman into the operation they guarantee the continuation of the Jewish component of what they are doing. I believe fully that people who have relied on the Weinstein’s in the past can continue to rely on them in the future. My comfort and confidence in the company has not changed.”

Mort said that they are certain that the Jewish community will also share that comfort and confidence with Weinstein’s partnership with Rollings. 

“The most important thing is continuity, and making sure it continues to be a Jewish funeral home,” Mort said. “We wanted to make sure that that continues into the future and Rollings has assured us it will.”