“You cannot say Kaddish.” Had those words had been said with sympathy, or at least respect for my loss, I wouldn’t be writing this. On my first morning in Budapest, October 7, the 24th day of Tishrei, I saw an old man standing in a doorway of the Talmud-Torah behind the Dohany Street Synagogue. I…
A brother and sister are fighting in Britain’s High Court over whether their late mother should have a Jewish or Christian burial. Susanna Levrant wants a traditional Church of England funeral for Iris Freud, while David Freud is seeking a Jewish funeral, the Daily Mail reported on Friday. According to the Daily Mail, High Court…
The body of a Lithuanian Jewish woman who died in Germany 78 years ago was exhumed for reburial next to her husband in Chicago. Wednesday’s exhumation of the woman, whose family asked not to be named by the media, was a rare exception to Jewish religious laws that forbid disturbing graves under all but very…
Susan Ahyed’s long fight for justice, culminating in an Supreme Court victory last week, began with a rather morbid thought. A former New Yorker, Ahyed had been attending an old friend’s funeral in her hometown of Netanya in early 2011, when she suddenly noticed the signs pointing women in one direction and men in the…
Israel’s burial association charged each of the families of the Paris kosher supermarket victims nearly $13,000 for their Jerusalem burial plots and funerals. The charges were levied by the Chevra Kadisha, part of the Religious Services Ministry, after the families refused to bury the men in multi-story tombs, which would have been free, Ynet reported…
An Orthodox Jewish man is suing a Chicago-area hospital for cremating his amputated leg instead of preserving it for burial as he requested. Moshe Lefkowitz, 43, had surgery to remove his left leg below the knee in March 2011. He said in a lawsuit filed in court in Cook County that he made his wishes…
The Seesaw is a new kind of advice column in which a a broad range of columnists will address the real life issues faced by interfaith couples and families. Join the discussion by commenting on this post, sharing it on Facebook or following the Forward on Twitter. And keep the questions coming. You can email…
(JTA) — When his cousin died unexpectedly a few years ago, Hal Miller-Jacobs was recruited to oversee the funeral arrangements and wound up helping with the tahara — the traditional preparation of the body for burial. For the first time in his life, the 76-year-old computer professional joined with other volunteers in carefully washing, cleaning…
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