Plans of cemeteries in the Greater New York area to curtail or eliminate weekend burials evoked vigorous protests today from Jewish religious groups. They pointed out that Jewish burials are frequently made on Sundays because of the religious ban on burials on the Sabbath.
The proposed move stemmed from a labor contract clause which became effective on January 1. It calls for overtime pay for cemetery workers for Saturday and Sunday work, Cemetery officials indicated they would simply halt work on weekends, rather than pay overtime, although some indicated they would ask the Cemetery Board to approve overtime pay.
Among the protesting organizations were the New York Board of Rabbis, the Rabbinical Council of America, the Agudath Israel of America and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada.
Rabbi Harold H. Gordon, executive vice-president of the New York Board of Rabbis, said that elimination of Sunday burials “would contravene an important Jewish law requiring the immediate burial of the deceased except on Saturdays and specified religious holidays. Any procedure which would place obstacles in the way of Sunday burials would be deleterious to the interests of the entire Jewish community and would in effect force Jews to violate basic Jewish laws.”
Rabbi Charles Weinberg, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, expressed the hope that “with good will on both sides, it will be possible to continue to have funerals on Sunday as in the past.” He urged cemetery managers and labor unions “to resolve their differences without violating the religious principles of the largest Jewish community of the world.”
Rabbi Morris Sherer, executive vice-president of Agudath Israel, called the new cemetery policy “one of the most serious religious crises that could affect the New York religious community.” He said his organization and other Orthodox Jewish groups had been considering organizing their own cemeteries if the weekend burial plan was carried through. He explained that all Jewish cemeteries in the area were membership corporations under state control.
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