Chevra Kadisha News - Published by Kavod v'Nichum

Cheshvan 5763 - October 2002  - Over 300 subscribers

Lynn Greenhough, Program Chair, announced the plenary speakers for the Chevra Kadisha Conference of June 22-24,2003. "We're thrilled that so many of the outstanding thinkers, teachers and speakers who work with dying and death issues will be presenting at our conference", she said. The Conference also features workshops and demonstrations. Plenary speakers include Rabbi Arnold Goodman (author of A Plain Pine Box); Rabbi Jack Riemer (story teller and author of Jewish Reflections on Death); Dr. Laurie Zoloth, bioethicist and Talmud scholar; Dr. David Wachtel, researcher at the JTS library; Rabbi Neil Gilman, author of The Death of Death; Dr. Hasia Diner, scholar of American Jewish history; and David Zinner, Executive Director of Kavod v'Nichum. Preview the conference materials. The final conference registration packet will be a special issue of Chevra Kadisha News later in the month.

New links on the Jewish Funerals, Burial and Mourning web site - 21 articles that address Jewish burial and cremation, as well as articles from Muslim, Catholic and Bahai traditions. 6 articles that provide information and guidance on infection control.

Muslim and Jewish groups in England are working together to protest possible burial delays stemming from the requirement that two doctors sign all death certificates.

The Jewish Funeral Directors Association (JFDA) has released a taharah training video titled "The Ultimate Kindness - Chevra Kadisha and Torah."  After a short introduction, a women's group is shown doing a tahara using a mannequin. Gloves and gowns are worn and both the immersion and the pouring methods are shown. The video is short but provides a basic introduction to Kavod Hamet (respect for the dead), washing and Taharah. It was produced in cooperation with the Tri-Partite Commission made up of the JFDA, Orthodox Union and the [Orthodox] Rabbinical Association. Requests from Chevra Kadisha News of the JFDA staff to provide information on the video content, availability or price were met with the comment, "We're not interested in any publicity for this video." We find it odd that JFDA would make a Taharah training video and then be unwilling to share information with Chevrei Kadisha. Calls to a number of JFDA Funeral Director members who had copies of the video resulted in shrugged shoulders.  Maybe public relations should be a topic at the upcoming JFDA meeting in Pittsburgh?

Ethicists draw insights from both religious and feminist scholarship in order to propose creative new approaches to the ethics of medical care. In a new book, Medicine and the Ethics of Care, Prof Laurie Zoloth has written a chapter about Chevra Kadisha. "It is the buckets and the wood, the 2 by 4s that start the grief in my heart, and it is because they are so clumsy, and they are the stuff of the poor laborer, steel buckets for water, wood for under the body, like lumber for a fragile poor woman's shelter."

The Movie Burial Society is a fun who-done-it that keeps the viewer guessing. Sheldon Kasner quits his job as a loan officer at the Hebrew National Bank in order to work for a Chevra Kadisha (Burial Society) in a small town. His reasons are unclear until a story of stolen overseas funds, Jewish mafia and threats of death start to unfold. The violence and deceit of the plot contrasts sharply with the beautiful portrayal of the Chevra Kadisha's activities in preparing bodies for burial, and the sanctity of the process in the Jewish religion. Burial Society had its world première Monday, Oct. 7, in Vancouver.

More from the entertainment world - Jewish themes in the HBO series - Slim, Sexy Rabbi Brings Life to 'Six Feet Under'. And the story we didn't bring you even though it is true - Bikini Clad Models Sell Caskets at Italian On-Line Web Site.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission heard testimony from casket sellers, funeral directors, cemetery owners, cemetery regulators, and consumer representatives during October 9, 2002 hearings on internet casket sales. One of those testifying, Steve Sklar, Maryland Cemetery Regulator, is next in line to be President of North American Cemetery Regulators Association.

Menorah Gardens Cemetery in Florida was forced to exhume a body for DNA testing. In the class action certification, an SCI contractor stated that ground penetrating radar was only accurate to within 6 inches. The participants in the case will reconvene in late October to finish testimony on class certification. So why are we a little skeptical to read that Florida funeral directors and cemetery owners have teamed up to "speak as one voice and address both public and industry concerns and weaknesses in the laws regulating the funeral and cemetery providers in Florida."

The End of Life - Cultural Foundations Of Our Current Ethical Dilemmas And Some Practical Strategies For Addressing The Changing Realities Surrounding Death And Dying, is a Distance Education Mini-Course from the Hebrew Union College. Speakers include Rabbis Bill Cutter, Dayle Friedman, Richard Address and Dr. Lori Zoloth - Wednesday, November 6th, 13th, and 20th, 2002 (2 PM EST). The course is only $75, but is currently limited to rabbis only. We understand that the school is looking into opening up the archive version to the rest of us.

A free online course and a newspaper series "Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America" discusses practical information on end-of-life issues. Currently the on-line course only works with older browsers.

Question 1 of the Month from David Klapper Chair, Beth El Chevra Kadisha in Durham, NC. "As a central synagogue in the area, we have become a repository for old books destined to be buried.  Historically, we have boxed up large numbers of them and buried them in a special site in our cemetery.  Frankly, we're running out of room faster than we are running out of books.  It has been suggested that we put a few in each coffin (with the family's permission) just prior to burial - the problem is that will not account for many books and it makes the coffin that much heavier.  Another thought is to line the grave with books and place the coffin on top of them - we are concerned that it is not acceptable to do that, especially since what we have in mind is to really line the grave (so the books will be touching the soil). Is there such a thing as 'book burial' etiquette?"

Question 2 of the Month is from Larry Grondin. He writes, "I have recently been told that a supreme court ruling or legislation in California now considers it discrimination to have areas exclusively designated for one ethnic group or religion in a cemetery. In other words, it is no longer possible to maintain a Jewish only section and that anyone may be buried in that section. Do you know anything about this, or is it garbage?"

Can anyone help with answers to these questions? E-mail your editor . 

J.J. (Jonathan Joseph) Greenberg, executive director of the New York-based Jewish Life Network since its inception in 1995, was hit by a car Friday morning while riding a bike with his brother David and a friend at Binyamina Junction, near Zichron Yaakov. He died on Shabbat before Yom Kippur. He was in his mid-30's. JJ helped develop landmark programs such as Birthright Israel; the Makor center on the Upper West Side; the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education; Synagogue Transformation and Renewal (STAR); and the Jewish Early Childhood Education Partnership. He was active in the Jewish Life Network and was in charge of running Makor. JJ had also been involved in bringing Judaism to Jewish public school students and volunteering on behalf of Jews with terminal illnesses. His parents are Rabbi Irving (Yitz) and Blu Greenberg. Blu is the co-founder and first president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist alliance and a noted author and speaker. Yitz, an Orthodox rabbi, is former chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and the founder of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. He is currently president of the Jewish Life Network of the Steinhardt Foundation. May the Greenberg family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. More from JTA and Ha'aretz.

Why build a database of Chevra Kadisha groups? To know you exist and to learn how to reach you. Please complete the contact form on our website. If any reader knows of a Chevra Kadisha, help us get in touch with them. Or if you'd like to do a survey of Chevra Kadisha groups in your area, let us know that too. We appreciate any assistance.

Kavod v'Nichum needs individual and organizational support for our work. Our Founding Member Campaign is raising $100,000 to match foundation grants. Founding members will be praised and thanked and listed on our web site. Shomer - $5-10,000 from non-profit funeral homes or $1,000 from Chevra Kadisha groups, bereavement committees or other groups or Chaverim - $360 from individuals. Todah Rabah (thank you) to all of the shomrim (guardians) and chaverim (friends). Please make out your contribution to Kavod v'Nichum and send it to 8112 Sea Water Path, Columbia, MD  20145 or call David Zinner at 410-799-8070 or e-mail to zinner@jewish-funerals.org for more information. We hope to take credit card donations starting next month.