Remains of Woman Re-buried in Original Grave After It Was Exhumed and Discarded by Grave Robbers

The remains of Teresa Engelovitz were re-buried in her original grave in the Jewish cemetery at Rishon LeZion by order of the Supreme Court yesterday after having been exhumed and discarded by unknown grave robbers who are the object of a police manhunt.

The high court’s order stirred a bitter controversy between the civil and religious authorities. Engelovitz, the wife of an elderly observant Jew, was buried in the Rishon LeZion cemetery a year ago.

Several months later, the local rabbinate demanded that her body be removed and buried elsewhere because, according to unidentified religious informers, her conversion to Judaism in her native Rumania was not in accordance with strict Orthodox practices.

The rabbinate’s order was blocked by a Supreme Court injunction obtained by Mrs. Engelovitz’s family. The matter seemed to have been resolved until the skeleton of a woman, wrapped in a plastic bag, was found recently dumped in a Moslem cemetery at Ramle.

Last Sunday, police forensic experts identified it positively as Engelovitz’s remains. Although the Engelovitz grave appeared to be undisturbed, the police, armed with a court order, opened it yesterday to find it empty.

RELIGIOUS GROUPS ARE ANGRY

The police found tools, plastic bags and rubber gloves which may have been used by the body snatchers. The Supreme Court ordered the Health Ministry to return the skeleton immediately to its original burial place. This aroused the anger of religious groups. Israel’s two Chief Rabbis, the Rishon LeZion rabbinate and the Hevra Kadisha Burial Society said they would obey the civil law but with serious misgivings because their conscience demanded that they abide only by halacha–religious law.

The issue came before the Knesset’s Interior Committee which decided yesterday that in cases of conflict between civil and religious law, civil law took precedence. They noted that it is the civil government which appoints the rabbinical courts and gives them their authority.

The rabbis contended that if such is the case, Israel can no longer be regarded as a "Jewish State." Interior Minister Yosef Burg of the National Religious Party, who is in charge of the police, declined to comment on the controversy. He said, however, that he could not give orders to the Rishon LeZion rabbinate or to the burial society which are autonomous bodies.