FIVE STAR DEALER It's Better... We'll Prove It.

CHRYSLER • PLYMOUTH • JEEP

ALAN.I. FOSTER

AL STEINIK

Business Manager

New & Used Car Sales & Leasing

Coffins Or Shrouds?

Israel debates allowing
"alternative cemeteries" and burial practices.

Israel Fund, a U.S.-based group that
in part distributes money to religious
pluralism projects.
Miriam Kunda, who runs Menucha
Nechona from her Tel Aviv apartment,
says there are some limitations even
where her group is concerned. "With
memories of the Holocaust still fresh in
our memories, cremation is out of the
question," she says. "However, should
someone come to us with the ashes of a
loved one who was cremated elsewhere,
we will accept them for burial."
Identification with the Jewish peo-
ple rather than a person's status
according to religious law is what
counts, she continues. "Unlike the

NECHEMIAH MEYERS

Israel Correspondent

Rehovot, Israel
erzliya, a prosperous suburb
of Tel Aviv, is one of the latest
battlegrounds between Israel's
Orthodox and non-Orthodox
over acceptable lifecycle rituals. This
time, the clash is about funerals.
The debate is over a proposal —
supported by the town's left-wing
mayor — that land be allocated for an
"alternative cemetery," where people
can bury their loved ones outside the
bounds of Orthodox ritual.
Until recently, the Orthodox
enjoyed a virtual monopoly in
Israel. This meant that those
who didn't want the funeral of
a loved one to be presided over
by an Orthodox official, or
who, contrary to local custom,
wanted a departed relative to be
buried in a coffin rather than a
shroud, were out of luck.
Their only alternative was to
arrange for interment in a kib-
butz. There, they would likely
have to pay about $4,000 above
the sum provided by the
National Insurance Institute for buri-
als. Obviously, not everyone who
sought such a solution had that type of
money available. Even if they did, few
people wanted someone dear to them
placed to rest in a distant settlement.
But that changed in 1996 when the
Knesset passed a law calling for the
establishment of a string of "alterna-
tive cemeteries," places where people
could be buried in accordance with
their own wishes and lifestyle. While
this has not eliminated opposition to
such burial grounds, one is already
operating in Beersheva and another
will open in Haifa as soon as a road is
built to the site.
Leading the struggle for the new
cemeteries is Menucha Nechona
(Appropriate Final Resting Place), an
association established in 1986 by pri-
vate individuals and the Conservative,
Reform and Secular Judaism move-
ments.
The support of these three streams
is primarily moral; funds for the shoe-
string budget come from the New

IHE

"With memories
of the Holocaust ...
cremation is out
of the question."

GAB! GROSSBARD

New & Used Car Sales & Leasing

MARLA STOLLER

Business Manager

All committed to Five Star customer service

Monday-Thursday, 9 to 9 • Friday, 9 to 6

WE WILL MATCH OR BEAT ALL -
NEW CAR BUYS OR LEASES!

15 Mile

248-354-2950

www.southfieldchryslencom

— Miriam Kunda

,

Orthodox, we will bury the non-
Jewish spouse of a Jew, and if a non-
Jew who saved Jews during the
Holocaust wanted to be interred in a
Jewish cemetery, we would be proud
to honor his last wishes," she says.
But such efforts might be only the
start of changes in Jewish burial prac-
tices in Israel. Prof. Gad Yagil, a
Weizmann Institute scientist who heads
the Menucha Nechona group-trying to
establish an alternative cemetery in
Rehovot, says that Israel's shortage of
land may force a return to the practices
of biblical times. Then, as still can be
seen in places like the Sanhedria neigh-
borhood in Jerusalem and Beit She'arim
in the Jezreel Valley, bodies of the
deceased were placed in urns; some-
times, even the bones of entire families
were placed in a single repository.
"But," Dr. Yagil concludes, "that is
an issue for the future. Today, what
counts is the creation of sufficient bur-
ial places for those who want their
final departure to be consistent with
the way they lived their lives." ❑

used to have Mile
holography expert, o f
years of experien
Lakin-Squire Stu

Hite can now o'
you both of th
best!!! Incredi
print quality an
creativity of on
finest lensrn

T

U Co

0

