A resident of the central Israeli city of Rehovot who wanted to purchase adjoining cemetery plots for her and her husband met with refusal from the local branch of Hevra Kadisha – the Jewish burial society – which informed her that, as it would create a situation by which she would also be buried next to a man to whom she was not married, the sale could not go through, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
Hevra Kadisha exercises considerable power in Israel given that it is the only religious burial society. Its monopoly on burials is fueled by the somber fact that sooner or later, all would need its services.
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Author and translator Edna Shemesh said that when she contacted the Hevra Kadisha office in Rehovot, a representative agreed to show her available plots in the local cemetery and she soon found a double plot that she liked for her and her husband.
But when the burial society representative sought to finalize the sale, Shemesh was informed that interment in the plots she selected would create a situation by which, while she would be laid to rest by her husband, another man would be laid to rest to her other side. Custom, she was told, forbade unmarried men and women from being buried next to each other, making the sale impossible.
Shemesh then reportedly told Hevra Kadisha that she held a secular worldview and saw its refusal to sell her the plot as religious coercion.
"The discrimination against women in marriage and divorce isn't enough – we face it in death, too?" she asked, according to Ynet.
Shemesh met with the director of the Rehovot branch of the burial society, Rabbi Natan Weinfeld and was again informed that for 80 years, it has been a tradition not to bury mem and women who are not married to each other side by side at that cemetery.
She then filed a lawsuit on the grounds of discrimination.
Weinfeld said that there had been a mistake in Shemesh's case and that the plot in question could not be sold while the people to be buried there were still alive, which is in accordance with National Insurance Institute regulations.
Procedural error notwithstanding, Weinfeld said that while the circumstances of individual cases could be discussed, "We try very hard not to bury unmarried men and women next to each other, because of respect, custom, and Jewish law."
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