A sensational development in a dispute between the Reform and Orthodox congregation in Port Elizabeth has rocked the Jewish community there.
The newly-organized Reform congregation obtained a Supreme Court order last Friday forbidding the local Orthodox institutions and the Chevra Kadisha from preventing or obstructing the burial of Mrs. Lilly Richards, wife of the local Reform rabbi. Mrs. Richards was the first member of the Reform congregation to die.
The burial society refused to permit her burial in the Jewish cemetery except in a section separated from the graves of Orthodox Jews. The Reform congregation refused this offer, basing its position on an agreement in 1919 between the Chevra Kadisha and other Jewish congregations providing that the Chevra Kadisha undertake the burial of all Jews, regardless of congregational differences. Many Orthodox Jews attended the funeral.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
