French Chief Rabbi Denies Funeral Extort Try
Marseille’s chief rabbi has denied allegations that his employees tried to extort illicit funds from a bereaved family.
The allegations were made in a complaint filed with police last week in connection with the passing of Jeannine Timsit, the La Provance Daily reported Tuesday.
Several of Timsit’s family members said that employees of the city’s Consistoire, the Jewish communal body responsible for providing religious services, including funerals, asked for a $9,100 kickback in exchange for burying her in a family plot at Saint-Pierre cemetery.
The family says the request was made hours after they had agreed to pay the Consistoire $1,300 for Timsit’s burial in a family plot next to other relatives.
Frederic Tismit, the woman’s grandson, told La Provence that the caretakers at Saint-Pierre added burial space in the family plot in 2012. But the Consistoire did not bury the deceased at the designated spot because the family would not pay the larger sum, the daily reported.
Timsit, who reportedly asked to be buried next to her husband, was buried elsewhere by the municipal burial service, in an area designated for Jewish burials by the Consistoire.
Ruben Ohana, the chief rabbi of Marseille, denied any irregularities. He said the family’s burial plot was full “and the Consistoire never promised to extend it. This would have meant an elevation, which is forbidden by Jewish ethics, unless I would have given permission, which I never have,” he told La Provence.
Ohana also said that $9,100 was a normal price for a Jewish burial, the daily reported.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!