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Strike of N.Y. Cemetery Workers Ends; Jews End Voluntary Grave-digging

January 27, 1967
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The three-and-a-half-week-long strike of cemetery workers, which had halted most burials in all Jewish and non-Jewish cemeteries in the New York area, was settled here yesterday, with many of the workers returning to work immediately to begin interring the accumulation of bodies that had been stored in cemetery vaults since the start of the walk-out.

During the entire period of the strike, many Orthodox Jewish families chose to dig graves themselves so as not to deviate from the traditional requirement of a proper Jewish burial as soon as possible after death.

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