Will L. J. Greenberg’s Ashes Be Refused Burial in Palestine?: Chief Rabbinate Issues Circular to All

The Chief Rabbinate of Palestine has issued a circular to all Chevra Kadishoth (Jewish burial societies) in Palestine that they must not accept the ashes of any cremated person for burial in Palestine.

The circular is believed to have been issued to prevent the burial in Palestine of the ashes of the late Mr. L. J. Greenberg, the editor of the “Jewish Chronicle”, who was cremated in London on November 17th.

In his will, Mr. Greenberg expressed the wish that his remains should be placed “in an inexpensive casket or box and transported to Palestine to an authoritative organisation there which shall take charge of it and then bury it without any religious ceremony on Mount Scopus, near Jerusalem”.

It has been stated in Palestine that if the ashes were given Jewish burial it would be the first occasion on which the cremated remains of a Jew had been given such burial in Palestine. It has also been stated that arrangements were being made for the deposit of the ashes not on Mount Scopus, as Mr. Greenberg had requested, but in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, beside the grave of Ben Yehuda, the famous Hebrew lexicographer.

JEWS AND CREMATION

The question whether the ashes of Jews who have been cremated may be burled in a Jewish cemetery has been raised repeatedly in recent years. In November there was a controversy in Czecho-Slovakia caused by the action of the Chief Rabbi of Bruenn, Dr. L. Levy, in officiating at the burial of a Jew who had been cremated and the Rabbinical Board in Prague issued a statement ruling that the urn containing the ashes may be buried in the Jewish cemetery in a special vault for urns, but that Jewish religious functionaries must not officiate in the crematorium nor deposit the urn, but may recite the Kaddish.

The ruling led the “Israelit”, the organ of the orthodox Agudath Israel in Germany, to point out that this is not the attitude of Jewish orthodoxy. According to the Rabbinical authorities of Torah-observant Judaism, formulated more than 25 years ago by the Rabbinical Commission of the Federation of Orthodox Jews in Germany, it wrote, the attitude of orthodox Jews on the question of cremation is as follows:

According to our sacred religious law, there is no other way of disposing of the dead than burial. All mutilation of the corpse is strictly prohibited, and on this ground it is also prohibited to burn the body. There is no religious obligation to have the body cremated, because of the wish expressed by the deceased in his last will and testament that he should be cremated. The Chevra Kadishoth must refuse their services in the case of any body which is to be, or has been cremated. The Rabbi must not accompany a body which is to be cremated and he is not to deliver any memorial address in such a case. The ashes of a body that has been cremated must not be buried in a Jewish cemetery.

The “Jewish Exponent” of Philadelphia in its issue of December 25th. also took the opportunity provided by the controversy in Czecho-Slovakia, to set out what appeared in its view to be the Jewish position on cremation. The traditional law, it said, requires burial of the body in the ground, and many authorities regard this of such great importance as to negate the express desire of the deceased person that his body should be incinerated, although it is a general principle that the desires of the deceased should be respected. This is the opinion of Maimonides, who is followed by most of the later authorities. Cremation is looked upon as a heathen practice. The general feeling against cremation is probably based upon the principle that nothing is to be done which would cause mutilation of a corpse, which is the basis of a number of laws regulating burial.

Although traditional Jewish opinion is still averse to the practice of cremation, the “Exponent” went on, many Rabbis have conceded that burial in the ground is not a fundamental law, and that the person who orders his body to be incinerated after his death is entitled to the ministration of religion. Some communities have formulated definite rules to discourage cremation by forbidding the burial societies to lend their aid in case of cremation, and by prohibiting the Rabbis from delivering addresses or even accompanying the body to the crematoriums. Such a stand was taken by several German Jewish Communities and their decisions are included in the responsum on the subject by Dr. Lerner, Chief Rabbi of Altona, published in 1925.

A REFERENDUM SUGGESTED

A referendum of all the Jews in the world on the question whether the cremated remains of Jews may be buried in a Jewish cemetery was proposed in 1926 to the then President of the Warsaw Jewish Community, the late Deputy Kirschbraun, in connection with a controversy which had arisen in Warsaw over the burial of the cremated remains of a Jew. Deputy Kirschbraun, who was the leader of the Polish Agudath Israel, replied, however, that matters of religion are subject to the decision of the Rabbinate and not of any referendum of Jewish laity.

The controversy in question arose over the refusal of the Warsaw Rabbinate to give burial to the ashes of a Warsaw Jewish merchant named Isaac Wiesel, who had died and been cremated in Danzig. The family, demanding that the ashes should be buried in the family vault, brought an action against the Rabbinate, who finally agreed that the ashes should be buried in the Jewish cemetery, but near the fence.

In 1929 there was a lawsuit in Prague between the Jewish Community and the family of Oscar Egerer, an actor, whose ashes the Jewish community refused burial in the family vault, because he had been cremated. The Government, on being appealed to, overruled the Community, declaring that no religious community has the right to refuse honourable burial to any of its members.