Nevsky Memorial Chapels - “Nevsky” - history began with a project begun by SCI - Service Corporate International. SCI, a well-established funeral home organization, wanted to develop a unique funeral home to serve Brooklyn, New York’s growing Russian population. The project went from a concept to reality when Nevsky opened its doors in 1997 under guidance of Mrs. Alla Lisovetsky. She played a key role in the overall process from developing to launching Nevsky’s unique concept.

In 1994, Alla held a back office position at SCI’s Kirschenbaum Brother’s Funeral Home. There she observed how the cultural differences between Russian families and native New Yorkers led to the Russian families’ being disappointed in their efforts to fulfill the deceased’s last requests. Those families’ constant dissatisfaction led to the genesis of Mrs. Lisovetsky’s idea to create a funeral home focused on serving the Russian community.

While developing Nevsky, Mrs. Lisovetsky attended and graduated Nassau College and then went on to obtain a funeral director’s license. In 2001, Mrs. Alla Lisovetsky fulfilled another part of her idea by becoming Nevsky’s general manager.

In its infant stage Nevsky only had a staff of two - Alla Lisovetsky and veteran funeral director, Domenico Porreto. Mr. Porreto brings just short of 40 years in the funeral business. However, opening Nevsky to serve the Russian community quickly proved to be a wise business decision. In its first year, 1997, Nevsky provided services to about one hundred families. After a few years Nevsky became well-know in the local community, as well as within New York’s entire Russian speaking community.

Since calls to request Nevsky’s services would come at any time, day or night, Alla was on call to the customers 24/7 for the first four years. In 2001, the year she became general manager, Nevsky added several assistants, who were fluent in Russian. They helped to provide and to extend funeral services to the community. That same year Nevsky also began to offer families the ability to select monuments. This helped to secure Nevsky’s financial stability within a short time period.

In 2005, Nevsky responded to the Russian community’s needs by opening chapels in upstate New York and in Queens.

Nevsky remains true to its concept of serving to the Russian community. It still offers funeral services in the English and Russian languages. This provides a great deal of comfort to families, of different cultural backgrounds.

Today, Nevsky remains sensitive to family needs. It now offers services such as transporting families to the funeral home for funerals and pre-need arrangements when needed or will go to the families home to make arrangements if necessary. Nevsky provides families with Yarhrzeit calendars, candles, shiva benches as well as photo and memorabilia displays throughout the funeral service.

Additionally, Nevsky provides Batesville’s Memorial Tree Planting program, gives temporary plot markers to families and sends the message when the monument is already established.