Glen Triest/Benyas-Kaufman
father was gravely ill, Techner re
calls. He said he was in our parking
lot. He was calling on his car phone •
He had come to make arrangements,
but he couldn't bring himself to
come in. He said, can't do it. I'll
call you when he dies.' "
On the day he was interviewed
Techner said of the four funerals he
was arranging, two parties had al
ready made some preliminary prep
arations.
In Jewish custom, coffins are
made of plain, unpolished boards
held together by wooden pegs. There
is no inside or outside lining. The
cover consists of a single, flat
wooden board.
"Traditionally speaking, we
know it's supposed to be a plain pine
box," explains Rabbi A. Irving
Schnipper of Cong. Beth Abraham
Hillel Moses. The whole idea was
like the burial shrouds — that was
the equalizer — the same thing with
the box. In some places in Europe, I
hear they had them on a board and
lowered them into the ground."
In biblical times, coffins were
not used at all. The dead were
buried in tombs rather than in
graves. In wealthy families, the dead
were laid on rock shelves in the fam-
ily chamber. These practices gave
rise to the biblical euphemism to
sleep with one's fathers."
According to custom, coffins are made of plain, unpOlished boards, held together by pegs and covered by a pall.
paying members, by fund raising
and receipts from funerals. Hebrew
Memorial is a full-service establish-
ment, Rabbi Rockove says, and con-
ducts funerals for the entire Jewish
spectrum.
Like Hebrew Memorial, Kauf-
man Chapel, founded in 1941, offers
a full range of services. Co-funeral
director, David Techner, 35, has
been a licensed funeral director since
1974, but says he has been working
at Kaufman's since he was 141/2,
years old. _• ,
"I think ofthe peofile Who are
going into' mortuary school, -about-
half have relations rthelnisiness),
others want a profession, with the
hopes of owning their own funeral
home." Techner is the son-in-law of
funeral director Herb Kaufman.
Techner says advances in
medicine have begun to alter the
way funeral arrangements are made.
Once, he says, "deaths would take
place rather suddenly. Now, three
out of four deaths are so predictable,
it's frightening. A lot of people make
arrangements for the funeral be-
forehand."
. The advent of hospice care has
contributed , to this trend. "The hos-
pice asks you the name of the fun-
horneyou're;going to call."
Techner does not feel that mak-
ing prior arrangements "forces
death's hand," not when doctors can
often pinpoint the time of a termi-
nally ill patient's death.
Sometimes survivors have to act
so quickly that some funeral pre-
planning — providing the funeral
home with biographical information,
for example — can take the "edge
off," Techner argues. When death fi-
nally occurs, much of the paperwork
has already been handled.
Still, not everyone can bear the
thought of entering the funeral
home while a loved one is still alive.
"I got- a -call- from "a- guy" whose
How different are these tradi-
tions of modesty from current trends,
when many survivors seem to vie
with each other by burying their
loved ones in fancier and fancier
caskets.
"People want something more"
than the plain casket, says Rabbi
Levin of Hebrew Memorial. One of
the reasons, he explains, is the re-
cently introduced practice of viewing
the body, an observance without
basis in Jewish tradition.
"I think people are fearful of
what their friends might say if they
see a plain casket," adds Rabbi
Schnipper. "Or, they're afraid it
might imply disrespect by getting a
plain casket. ,
,"(They used to) put a black..pall
over the cagketso :no one ,could see
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