Autopsy in Israel of New York Rabbi Provokes Protest; Eyes Removed from Body

Rabbi Shlomo Lorencz, a Member of Parliament from the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Israel, demanded today a special session of Parliament and an immediate investigation of a new autopsy incident involving an Orthodox Jew.

The incident involved removal of the eyes of a former New York rabbi, Moshe Gottesman. for transplant of the corneas to another patient at Tel Hashomer Hospital. Rabbi Gottesman, 80, who settled in B’nai B’rak after coming here from New York, died on the eve of the last day of Passover after having been hospitalized.

Shortly after he died, a patient with rapidly deteriorating eyesight was brought to the hospital and the doctors decided on the cornea transplant. Dr. Chaim Sheba, the hospital director, said that “speed in this case was essential.” Plastic eyes were placed in the head of the corpse.

The Burial Society of Jerusalem, which conducted funeral rites for Rabbi Gottesman, discovered the plastic eyes and notified the family in B’nai B’rak. The family members immediately went to the hospital to protest. After lengthy negotiations, a non-Jewish policeman brought the rabbi’s eyes during the Passover holiday to the B’nai B’rak Yeshiva and they were interred in the rabbi’s grave. Hundred of Orthodox Jews sought to demonstrate yesterday in the hospital compound but were dissuaded from doing so by Yeshiva leaders.

It was the second such incident in the past month. Previously hospital officials had removed the heart of the wife of a B’nai B’raK Yeshiva head and later, after sharp protests, returned the organ to the family in a plastic bag for burial with the body. Rabbi Lorencz made his demand in telegrams to Premier Levi Eshkol and Knesset Speaker Kaddish Luz. He also began gathering the required 30 signatures from Knesset members for a special Knesset session.