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New cemetery owners, old policies,
make Sunday burials expensive at
B'nai Israel and Oakview.

Nurses cnq duty
24 hours a day

Dementia care
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Phone., Z444683.1010

Never On
Sunday!

Alan Hitsky
Associate Editor

_ —

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www.,RegentStreetofWestBloons

Id.com

Orchard Lake Rd. South of Low fine Rd., West Illoomiteld, MI

1 046930

FAR 11 41111KAH!

am Kossack's daughters
thought everything was
set when the 88-year-old
West Bloomfield man died Oct.
27 after a long illness.
With their parents in nursing
homes and in poor health for the
last four years, Karen Kossack of
West Bloomfield and her sister,
Marilyn Tomaszewski of Livonia,
made burial arrangements with
Dorfman Chapel two years ago.
When their mother died in April,
she was buried at B'nai Israel
Memorial Gardens without a
problem.
B'nai Israel is a section of
Oakland Hills Memorial Gardens
on 12 Mile Road east of Novi
Road and across from the Twelve
Oaks Mall. Ownership of the
cemetery has been changing
hands, most recently in August
2004.
When Mr. Kossack died
Thursday evening, Oct. 27, the
family thought a Sunday burial
would allow cousins in California
and Toronto to attend the funer-
al. When they found that the cost
of a Sunday funeral would dou-
ble the interment cost, they wait-
ed all day Friday, Oct. 28, while
funeral director Jonathan

Dorfman argued with the ceme-
tery and its holding company.
By the time the company gave
its firm refusal Friday afternoon,
Kossack and Tomaszewski didn't
feel they had a choice. "It wasn't
even the money; it was the prin-
ciple of the thing," Kossack said
last week.
Tomaszewski added, "We
decided the cemetery owners
were trying to put a gun to our
heads, and we just couldn't do it:'
Mr. Kossack was buried Monday,
Oct. 31, and the out-of-town rela-
tives were unable to attend.
B'nai Israel has a regular fee of
$1,215 for opening and closing a
grave. Their charge is $2,500 for
Sunday funerals.
The cemetery forwarded calls
on the issue to Tracy Fowlkes,
area director for the holding
company. She identified the com-
pany as Indian Nations LLC of
Oklahoma and said the charge
was a local policy for the 13
cemeteries it owns in Metro
Detroit. She said there had been
no complaints about the policy.
Fowlkes could not say if the
policy was a national one for her
company, but promised someone
would call back the Jewish News
with an answer.

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November 10 • 2005

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