Forest Hills Woman Won't Return 5K Jewish Cemetery Plots: Lawsuit

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A Forest Hills woman is refusing to return thousands of Jewish cemetery plots to an organization that helps the Bukharian Jewish community arrange funerals, a new lawsuit contends.

The United Bukharian Congregation accused Svetlana Nektalova of refusing to return 5,000 deeds and titles concerning plots of land in Jewish cemeteries in New York granted to her in a marital dispute, court records show.

Nektalova's 92-year-old husband, Roman Nektalov, is an agent for the UCB whose duties included providing "the cemetery documents to cemeteries and loved ones to arrange funeral services for members," according to the lawsuit.

Patch reached out to Nektalova's attorney but did not receive an immediate response.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the influx of deaths in the community and limited access to city offices led Nektalov to transfer the deeds and titles from a UCB office to his home, the lawsuit states.

Nektalova accused her husband in October of physically harming her and was granted in November a restraining order restricting Nektalov's access to the documents in his home, the lawsuit states.

"Since that date, the UBC has been unable to retrieve the Cemetery Documents because Mrs. Nektalova is refusing to turn them over," reads the lawsuit.

The suit notes Nektalova's attorney claims the deeds and titles were being withheld because they are marital property.

Nektalova is currently holding the deeds and titles to plots in Bet Moses Cemetery, New Montefiore Cemetery, Mount Carmel Cemetery, and others.