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Victim Denied Jewish Buria

Rabbinic ruling that a
Russian immigrant
killed by terrorists was
not a Jew sparks new
uproar in Israel over
Orthodox control of
funerals.

LARRY DERFNER

ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

An Israeli woman weeps in the Mount Herzl Cemetery.

said kaddish himself, and
Mrs. Haikov was buried.
Anatoly Haikov under-
stands very little Hebrew,
and he did not know what
was going on. Last week,
while sitting shiva, he told
the Yediot Aharonot news-
paper that at the funeral,
people asked the chevrah
kadisha representatives
why Olga was being
interred in the chambered
wall.
"They answered that it
was an honor to be buried
this way. That reply
removed all the doubt from
my heart," Mr. Haikov said.
"When I saw that religious
people were burying her, I
felt sure they were doing
what was supposed to be
done. After all, we went to a
Jewish cemetery.
"Now I realize that they
did not tear my shirt and
didn't have me say prayers
in Hebrew," he continued.
"They didn't say I have to
sit shiva, and no rabbi or
religious person has come to
comfort me. They simply
lied to me, they cheated
me...It's worse than insult-
ing — it's cruel."
Rabbi Kolitz insisted that
Olga Haikov had been
buried properly.
However, former Chief
Ashkenazi Rabbi Shlomo
Goren argued that
Halachah gave the right of
Jewish burial to anyone
killed because he or she was
thought to be a Jew, which
clearly applied in Mrs.

Haikov's case.
In reaction, Meretz is
preparing a proposal requir-
ing the state to provide the
means — land for cemeter-
ies and licenses for burial
societies — so non-Orthodox
Jews can be buried here as
they wish.
At present, the only
Israeli cemeteries with non-
Orthodox burials are on kib-
butzim, but these are just
for members, except for a
couple of kibbutz cemeteries
that will also bury non-
members, but only at a
steep price.
The Orthodox Shas and
Agudat Israel parties now
say they will back the
Meretz proposal. This may
sound surprising, until one
hears their reason: They do
not want to be buried near
those they consider heretics.
Agudat Israel's newspa-
per, Ha'modiah, explained:
"If there are people who,
even at the gate of hell, do
not want to repent, what
reason do we have to force
them? No Jew who observes
the Torah and mitzvot will
be sorry that such deceased
are not in their midst."
This may, however, be
sour grapes. Shas and
Agudat Israel realized a
year ago that Orthodox con-
trol of Israeli funerals was
about to end. The signal
came when the Supreme
Court ruled that non-
Orthodox Jews were enti-
tled to be buried as they
choose.

Photo by RNS/Reu ters

T

he shock over
Hamas's murder of
two Jerusalem
women on July 1
was just beginning to sub-
side when, the following
week, a new horror came to
light:
One of the victims, a
Russian immigrant, had
been denied a Jewish burial.
As a result, Israel's
always simmering contro-
versy over the Orthodox
monopoly over funerals has
flared up anew. This time,
however, it appears that the
monopoly may soon be bro-
ken.
The story of Olga
Haikov's death and burial
was particularly appalling.
At 47, she died on the first
anniversary of her immigra-
tion to Israel, shot in the
head by llamas terrorists
who commandeered the
Jerusalem bus she was rid-
ing.
The following day, as her
body lay shrouded on a
stretcher in a Jerusalem
funeral parlor, about to be
taken to the cemetery for
burial, an anonymous caller
told a chevrah kadisha (bur-
ial society) employee: "Olga
Haikov is not Jewish."
A few hundred mourners
were present, ready to join
the funeral procession, and
the men of the Jerusalem
Community Chevrah
Kadisha were in a
quandary.
They questioned her hus-
band, Anatoly, about his
wife's religious background.
Later, he said, that while
Olga could not "document"
her Judaism, she had a
Jewish grandmother, was
preparing to convert, and
that "she felt more Jewish
than I do, and I'm a Jew
beyond any doubt."
Chevrah kadisha officials
called Jerusalem Ashkenazi
Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Kolitz,
who instructed them to bury
her in the chambered wall
built at the edge of Har
Hamenuchot cemetery for
those whose Judaism is in
doubt.
After the eulogies, burial
officials were preparing to
inter her body, when Rabbi
Nissim Ze'ev, deputy mayor
of Jerusalem, demanded to
know why kaddish had not
been said. The chevrah
kadisha men did not
answer. Rabbi Ze'ev then

The legal challenge was
brought by an organization
called "Proper Resting
Place," which has chapters
in every major Israeli city,
preparing to build their own
cemeteries. Jerusalem
attorney Avraham Gal,
head of the organization, is
pressing the government to
make good on the Supreme
Court's ruling, and says
passage of the Meretz bill
would further strengthen
what is already a powerful
movement.
With backing from the
high court, most of the
politicians, and, after the
Haikov scandal, an aroused
public opinion, Mr. Gal
believes that in a matter of
months, non-Orthodox buri-
als for the general Israeli
population will, for the first
time, be available.
Her family is poor. Mrs.
Haikov was a teacher by
profession who cleaned
houses and cared for the
aged in Israel. Mr. Haikov
is a 62-year-old, disabled,
unemployed electrician who
now has sole care of their
12-year-old daughter Daria.
Olga's $10,000 life insur-
ance policy expired seven
hours before she died, but
the Migdal insurance corn- cy,
pany decided to give the
money to the family any- -
way. According to the letter
of the law, Migdal could >-
have refused, but because of
the circumstances, the
insurance company, decided
to look the other way. ❑

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