He
recently established a Family
Endowment to preserve the memory of lost Jewish culture of Eastern Europe. Chevra Kadisha News - Published by Kavod v'Nichum
Nissan 5763 - April 2003 - 550 subscribers
Hag sameach Pesach. Chevra Kadisha News is decentralizing! David Zinner who has edited this on-line News journal since its inception in his own inimitable manner has agreed to allow others who are equally obsessed with all matters from taharah to tachrichim to matzevot to act as guest editors. Our annual rite of Pesadikkah spring-cleaning caused us to look at some of our own inner chametz – some of which actualized as dependence on the energy, inspiration and indefatigable good will of David and his wife Roz.
Pesach offers us many opportunities for re-thinking our patterns and we realized that we were all responsible for building community awareness about the treasure that our Chevrei Kadisha are in our many varied communities. It is our very sincere hope that allowing different individuals to act as guest editors will bring the tam (flavor) of our many unique experiences to print. Lynn Greenhough, from Victoria BC, is editing this April edition. Our plan is to have the editor for month assist the editor for the next month.
So here is your opportunity! If you have ever dreamed of editing this News journal now is the time to sign up. The deadline for publication is the 15th.of each month. Please, please know you do not require ‘techie’ expertise to do this work. You do not need to know how to assemble links to web pages; you do not have to be a professional web page manager to take on this challenge. If you are reading this, you, like me, have wanted to learn more about our traditions, and also probably lack the opportunity to share you obsession about Chevra Kadisha to the degree you would like.
I think back to last summer when Rena, David and I spent days and evenings together sharing stories, often laughing hysterically about what we had encountered in or years doing this work. Every now and then Rozzy, David’s wife, would wander into the kitchen and listen to us with a decidedly bemused expression on her face. She must have thought we were all delusional! Let’s make the newsletter our kitchen, our opportunity to share our questions, our errors, and our discoveries. Let’s share our first times and our learning. Chevra Kadisha News is the soup pot, the shulchan - it is where we all learn together. I look forward to hearing from future editors who would like to sign up for a month of learning.
Jack Gardner, a Holocaust survivor, retired businessman, philanthropist and prominent member of the Victoria Jewish community, well known as a ‘walking encyclopedia’ of twentieth century Jewish history and for his passionate efforts to educate children and adults about the Holocaust and its costs to humanity died April 9, 2003, 7 Nisan 2003. Jack was 88 and died of a stroke.
Born in Stary Sambor, a small shtetl in Poland, his father a shoemaker and his mother a businesswoman and sheitl maker, Jack received a traditional Jewish education. Later he trained to be an accountant. An early awareness of injustice, including anti-Semitism, resulted in his becoming active in underground political movements. His political activism and a decision to join the Russian Army to fight the Nazi fascists resulted in his surviving the Holocaust. On finding that all but 11Jews in his shtetl, including all members of his large family, had been murdered, Jack immigrated to the United States with his wife and son in 1949. Here Jack began to rebuild a Jewish family as a living tribute to his parents.
His personal triumph over Nazi fascism is best demonstrated by his three married children and his 8 grandchildren, who had tremendous love for their Zayde. After a successful business career in Port Lavaca, Texas, Jack and his second wife Goldie moved to Victoria in 1981, where he became involved in local community volunteer organizations and with Congregation Emanu-El as a board member and treasurer.
Jack’s recent philanthropic
accomplishments include personally supervising and funding the restoration of
previously desecrated Jewish cemeteries as well as dedicating a mass grave of
Holocaust victims in the Ukraine; endowing Hebrew University in Jerusalem for
documenting and digitally preserving abandoned Eastern European synagogues; and
championing and financially contributing to the successful construction of a new
educational building addition to Congregation Emanu-El. He
recently established a Family
Endowment to preserve the memory of lost Jewish culture of Eastern Europe.
Jack also contributed to the support of dozens of needy organizations and individuals around the world. Jack Gardner was also well known to readers of newspapers, local and national, in the Letters to the Editor sections.
Jack always gave much more than he received and his full life exemplified the triumph of love over hate. Jack was predeceased by wives Ray Chana of Stolin, Poland (1965), and Goldie of Victoria B.C. (1996). He is survived by his wife Diana Brigel of Victoria, son Morey Gardner, MD (Tessa) of St. Louis, daughters Freda Gardner (Brewer) MD (Bob) of Houston, Texas and Mina Gardner (Gleiber) (Wayne) of Stevensville, Michigan and his eight grandchildren Elliot, Racquel, Eva, Ari, Miram, Devora, Elan and Stacy.
The early rate of $200 for the Chevra Kadisha Conference is good for two more weeks, until April 30, 2003. After that date advance registration increases to $250. For information on workshops, speakers, hotels and on-line registration and payment for the June 22-24 conference, go to the web site at www.Jewish-funerals.org/conference.htm. Printed brochures have been mailed. If you need more copies, e-mail David: zinner@Jewish-funerals.org. Please pass this information on to others who might be interested. We're looking forward to seeing you.
Dear CKN: An advice column for Chevra Kadisha spouses and their OC partners.
Dear CKN,
Help, my wife is a member of our Chevra Kadisha – I’m very proud of her but I’m going crazy! Everything is about taharah this and where the best source is for shrouds – she is obsessed! She even wants to go on vacation and visit all the CK groups as we drive through the Maritimes. What can I do – I feel as if I’m married to an obsession. It feels a little creepy,
Disgruntled
Dear Disgruntled,
Maybe you could study Kabbala while she visits CK groups?
David recently invited responses regarding Zayin Adar dinners. First, I’d like to give a little history about these dinners. In Europe Zayin Adar was a very special occasion – it was the annual feast held to honour members of the Chevra Kadisha – truly, the most honoured Chevra in the village. Members of the Chevra would fast during the day, recite seleichot, visit the cemetery to honour the memory of those whose bodies they had prepared over he months of the previous year and then that night they would have a dinner, a feast. The date was chosen as a date to commemorate both the birth and death of Moshe Rabbeinu, whose remains were buried by God.
In our community although we have had a Chevra for many years it is only recently that we have taken this custom upon ourselves. This year was special for another reason. For many years our community in Victoria British Columbia has been saving and fundraising to build an addition on the lot we owned next to our downtown synagogue. Our shul, Congregation Emanu-El was built in 1864 and holds a place of honour in Canada as the synagogue that has been in continuous use as a synagogue for the longest period of time. But before the property for our shul was purchased and construction begun, the property for the cemetery was purchased. http://collections.ic.gc.ca/jhs/Pages/Pioneers_Sec_4.htm
We are not a large community and not a wealthy community so the fundraising and the meetings seemed to drag on for years – some of us wondered if we ever would ever see a building. And then this past year we began building. We held our first of several opening ceremonies on Shabbat March 8. On March 10 several of us spent the afternoon in our new kosher kitchen and cooked dinner for 25, which we served in our new social hall. The room was decorated for Purim, which added an element of festivity to the evening. See http://www.congregation-emanu-el.org/ for photos of the stages of building and access to info about the shul.
Ghusal
I had discussed with our rabbi the possibility of inviting members of the local Ghusal group to join us. The Ghusal is the Muslim equivalent of the Chevra Kadisha. The Arabic word for purification is also taharah. See http://webpages.marshall.edu/~laher1/taharah.html.
We had a member of the Ghusal at each of our tables and together we shared stories and questions regarding our customs and traditions. Later our rabbi expressed amazement as the members from the Sunni group and members of the Ismaili group had shared a meal together and shaken hands with each other– which to his understanding had not happened before. We couldn’t help joking that maybe the Haredi and the Reform Jews should meet in the local mosque…
To learn more about Muslim burial customs consult the following pages:
http://www.ifishoulddie.co.uk/religious_traditions.htm
http://www.understanding-islam.com/related/questionsarticles.asp?sscatid=182
http://www.islamic-paths.org/Home/English/Issues/Death/Handbook/Chapter_06.htm
http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/Women/GrowingUp.html
Death and Burial.
In
most Muslim societies in the past, the body was buried. There was a ritual
washing of the body, then it was put in a white shroud (cloth wrapping). At
burial, the face was turned toward Mecca and prayers were said. Muslims believe
in an afterlife: heaven and hell and a Day of Judgment. In Islam, the
behavior in this life determines the future life. Below is a 13th century
Baghdad painting
of a burial
(from IslamicArt),
with mourners dressed in white, grave diggers, and the body in a shroud.
The
Funeral is described (adapted
and shortened from IslamicArt
site, encyclopedia):
"Muslims around the world bury the dead as quickly as possible, preferably
before sundown on the day of death. Cremation is not practiced in Islam. The
corpse is cleaned by a person of the same sex as the deceased and is given a
ritual ablution (washing)...
The body typically is shrouded in a winding cloth. However, martyrs (people
who die for a holy cause)
are buried as they died, in their clothes, unwashed, for their wounds bear
testimony to their martyrdom. A funeral prayer is performed for the recently
dead by the mourners and by anyone present in the mosque at the time. ... As the
mourners carry the corpse (dead
body) through the
streets to a mosque for prayers or to its resting place, the Profession Of Faith
is spoken. As the procession passes people rise, join in the chanting, and help
carry the coffin for a short distance. Lying on the right side with the face
toward Mecca, the body is buried in a grave. Burial is not usually in the
coffin, but burials with the body only in a wrapping are
typical. For
several days after death, it is common to recite prayers in remembrance of the
deceased (the dead
person). When a
deceased person is mentioned, the words rahimahu Allah (for a man) or rahimaha
Allah (for a woman) are spoken. This phrase asks that God be merciful upon the
deceased. Other customary practices exist but differ from community to community
and from nation to nation."
Also read about death and burial in Turkish Odyssey. See a Turkish miniature painting called "Mourning of the Death of Muhammad", Siyer-i Nebi: The Life of the Prophet, Istanbul, 1595 in Topkapi collection.Scroll below to see a Persian miniature probably painted by Shaykh Zadeh, from a Khamsa of Nizami, 1494 in Herat. It is an illustration for a love story.
“WE DO THE BEST WE CAN”
In 2000 I completed my thesis for my Master’s degree in Leadership. Rabbi Neil Gillman was my thesis supervisor and helped guide me through the massive amount of material I was able to gather. I wanted to share some of the findings with CKN readers. My thesis is titled “We Do the Best We Can: Jewish Burial Societies in Small Communities.” I interviewed members of small communities in Canada and the United States – and realized in doing so how much I loved talking with other CK members. (In fact David and I recently shared, wistfully, how we would both love to travel around the country visiting CK groups. Our respective spouses are less than thrilled with the idea!) I am posting the interview section and look forward to comments, feedback from any of you. It was truly an honour to interview these folks – they told me their stories with such humour and reverence, with nostalgia and hope for our futures. I was truly honoured to be the channel by which these stories come to print.
Do you enjoy reading Chevra Kadisha News? Is it helpful and useful? We hope so and also hope you'll contribute to support our work. We need your financial support to continue to provide you services. Contributions of any size are welcome. Make your check out 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 donate@jewish-funerals.org for more information. On-line credit card donations are also gladly accepted.
