Metro
Sharing Holy Ground
Clover Hill adopts new rules to accommodate non-Jewish spouses and cremains.
Alan Hitsky
Associate Editor
C
lover Hill Park, the cemetery of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek of
Oakland County, has completed
a two-year study and will now allow a
non-Jewish spouse to be buried next to a
Jewish spouse in a new, separate section of
the cemetery. It will also allow the remains
from a cremation in another new separate
section.
Larry Jackier, chairman of the board
of Clover Hill, sent a letter to Shaarey
Zedek members in August. A similar letter
will be sent in the coming months to the
families of non-members buried at Clover
Hill. The cemetery is located on 14 Mile,
between Woodward and Coolidge.
Jackier's letter states, in part:
"We have designated a separate sec-
tion for the burial of cremated remains
that complies with the opinion of the
Conservative Movement's Committee of
Jewish Law and Standards in a unanimous
decision made in 1986 (a copy of this
teshuvah can be found at our Web site,
WWW. cloverhillpark.org ) ...
"Our community will continue to coun-
sel families that cremation does not meet
the mitzvah of k'vod hameit (honoring
the body by burying it in the ground after
death) and is not endorsed by Jewish Law
or by the Shaarey Zedek rabbinate.
"However, the reality is that for many
different reasons, there are circumstances
within families where cremation becomes
the final decision. In these situations, it
becomes our obligation to respond to the
needs of the mourners. Consistent with
balancing these considerations, plots for
cremated remains cannot be purchased in
advance, but only after the fact ...
"Another area has been established as
a separate section to allow for Jewish per-
sons and non-Jewish spouses to be buried
together. Here we are responding to the
demography of blended families in a way
that maintains the traditional require-
ments of Jewish burial while allowing for
the comfort of those who have suffered a
loss.
"Extensive research of best practices in
other communities and correspondence
of the chairpersons of the Conservative
Movement's Committee on Law and
Standards dated November 1964 and
14
September 3 2009
Clover Hill Park Cemetery in Birmingham
February 2003 have guided this decision
and the adoption of standards of practice
that are required for burial in this sec-
tion ..."
Jackier told the Jewish News last week
the decisions are responding "to the needs
of our members. Both of these issues are
becoming more and more common?'
He said intermarriage without conver-
sion is growing. "Maybe the non-Jewish
spouse is just trying to honor his or her
parents [by not converting]. But when it
comes to burial, they want to be next to
their spouse?'
At the same time, Jackier said, Clover
Hill must maintain the sanctity of Jewish
burial areas while also responding to the
needs of the community at large, "within
reason?' Ralph Zuckman, executive direc-
tor of Clover Hill, agreed. "The biggest
issue was to preserve the holy ground of
the cemetery and still accommodate those
who feel part of our community."
Cremations are a growing trend in
America. The National Funeral Directors
Association (NFDA) said that nearly
35 percent of the 2.4 million deaths in
America were cremated. The 10 states
with the most cremations all had 58
percent or more, with Nevada and
Washington having nearly 70 percent.
The NFDA predicts that 39 percent of
all deaths in 2010 will result in cremations
and expects the number to rise to nearly
60 percent by 2025. Cremations are usu-
ally less expensive than funerals.
David Techner, a funeral director at
Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield, said
the trend is growing in the Jewish corn-
munity."A lot of people are transient and
don't have the community history. They
are moving to Florida and say, `Nobody is
going to visit a grave:"
As far as Clover Hill's decision on non-
Jewish spouses, Techner believes it was a
business decision. "If they force the inter-
married to go to Beth El [Memorial Park
in Livonia]," he said, "then they lose two or
three generations. If you send people away,
they don't come back?'
He said the trend will force every syna-
gogue and temple to look at their cem-
etery policies.
Machpelah Cemetery in Ferndale has a
separate section for cremains. The section
was reportedly approved by the Council of
Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit.
Adat Shalom Synagogue in Livonia
inters cremains "as long as the deceased
is of the Jewish faith," said Adat Shalom
Synagogue Executive Director Alan Yost.
Congregation B'nai Moshe in West
Bloomfield has two sections in Oakview
Cemetery in Royal Oak and the issues of
non-Jewish spouses and cremains were
discussed this year. Burying non-Jews
in the sections was voted down, said
Executive Dirctor Chuck Berris. Rabbi
Eliot Pachter ruled that cremains could
be allowed as long as it was the entire
remains buried in a separate grave.
Rabbi Boruch Levin, executive direc-
tor of Hebrew Memorial Chapel in Oak
Park, tries to explain to people who call
him about cremation "that it is prohibited
according to Jewish law. I ask if the issue
is financial, and we try to assist" people to
have a traditional funeral.
"Families that purchased plots at
Hebrew Memorial Park when it opened
in 1916 know that it is the same cemetery
now that it was then," he said.
"We don't get too many calls about cre-
mation and we just don't do them. We are
happy to continue that tradition ... And
we do not do funerals for someone who is
not Jewish?' Lin