A new non-denominational Jewish burial society has replaced an Orthodox one at a Boston-area Jewish funeral home.

Community Hevra Kadisha of Greater Boston, which launched this fall and is part of a growing movement of Jewish burial societies that include non-Orthodox volunteers, began performing tahara – the ritual preparation of bodies for burial – at Brezniak-Rodman Chapel in West Newton, Mass., last week.

Until this month, the Orthodox-run Chevrah Kadisha of Greater Boston, whose membership is by invitation only, had been the sole provider of tahara at Brezniak-Rodman and other area funeral homes.

After Brezniak-Rodman announced that it would provide space for the new group, which has more than 100 volunteers, Rabbi Naftali Horowitz, who is known as the Bostoner Rebbe, sent a letter stating that the Chevra Kadisha of Greater Boston would continue operating there only “if we are the only one using the facilities.” Allowing a nondenominational group to use the funeral home’s facilities would “add great confusion regarding the standards which will be administered,” the letter said.

Last week, Brezniak-Rodman confirmed that the Chevra Kadisha of Greater Boston had stopped working with the funeral home.

David Brezniak, owner of Brezniak-Rodman, said of Horowitz, “I respect his decision, and he needs to respect mine. I thank him for whatever he’s done over the years, and that’s it.”

Officials from the Chevra Kadisha of Greater Boston, including Horowitz, did not respond to inquiries from JTA.

Brezniak said the new group employs the same standards in conducting tahara as the Orthodox one, and that he has been pleased so far with their work.

“The people doing this are very dedicated,” he said. “They’re not cutting any corners.”

Nawaf Athamneh, the 52 year old resident of Kafr Qara, NIF-funded public relations hack, and editor of the far left anti-Israel former Machsom (Checkpoint) website and other outlets was recently convicted of raping a 15 year old Israeli girl.

There are so many bad guys in this story you have to keep score; all deserve your ire.

THE CRIMES

Before Athamneh committed the actual crimes, he stalked his young victim through the personals section of a newspaper. He called himself “Amir,” pretending to be an Israeli, gained her confidence, claimed to obtain an incriminating photograph of her. With that, he had virtually complete control over the terrified girl as he threatened to show her family and community the photos.  He then hounded her, blackmailing her into meeting him and then forcing her to commit various sexual acts. Then he claimed he videotaped those humiliations and promised her still more sexual and other degradations.

The girl finally confided in her sister, the sister told her mother, the mother went to the police, a trap was set and Athamneh was apprehended, tried and convicted.

But there’s more to the story.

Athamneh’s past has not yet been connected to his current crime.  Yes, it is known he was an anti-Israel Arab Israeli, but the particular hypocrisy which has heretofore escaped the media’s notice is that Athamneh himself self-righteously charged others with violent sexual offenses:  Israelis.

Athamneh was the media coordinator of an event entitled, “My Land, Space, Body and Sexuality: Palestinians in the Shadow of the Wall.”

In the language describing the event, Athamneh and his colleagues discuss the brutal sexual control and violence of Israelis towards Arab Palestinians.

In a particularly chilling foreshadowing of the Athamneh’s own deviant behavior, he and his colleagues describe their event as one addressing how “sexuality and bodily rights are an integral part of human rights.”

An example Athamneh and his like-minded “gender studies” activists cited as undermining reproductive and sexual rights, “is the ‘nationality’ law in Israel, affecting people’s right to choose their partners.”

They describe Israel itself, as a whole, as causing “young girls and women” to suffer “serious violations of their bodily, sexuality and reproductive rights.”

2009 NIF SPONSORED CONFERENCE ACCUSING ISRAEL OF SEXUAL CRIMES AGAINST ARABS

The conference itself raised hackles at the time, in particular because of the provocative posters. There were a series of them, one which revealed the body and arm of a male Israeli soldier reaching towards the chest area of an Arab women, the other revealed the body and arm of a female Israeli soldier reaching towards the area of the sensitive body part of a male Arab.

The headline of the poster read: “Her husband needs a permit to touch her.  The occupation penetrates her life everyday.”

The irony continues.  Athmaneh and colleagues completed the description of their conference’s campaign by claiming it “highlights the need to intensify efforts aiming at protecting Palestinian men and women and to struggle against all forms of physical, sexual, psychological, political and social prejudice, oppression, discrimination and violence.”

So when they write they want to struggle against “all forms of physical, sexual, psychological, political and social prejudice, discrimination and violence,” did they also mean against Israeli Jewish girls?

The Jewish Press attempted to speak with Nawaf Athamneh before this story went to print, but his number has been disconnected.

The Jewish Press also attempted to speak with leadership at the New Israel Fund, which funded Athmaneh’s 2009 “My Land, Space, Body and Sexuality” conference as well as his organization, and which defended the organizations’ posters for the conference. There was no immediate response.

HAIFA DISTRICT CT JUDGE RON SHAPIRA SENTENCES ARAB RAPIST PEDOPHILE TO PERFORM MITZVOT

But there is a further ugly piece of this puzzle.

The 15 year old victim who finally was induced to overcome her mortification, who participated in the pursuit, trial and conviction of her torturer, and who implored, in a letter to sentencing judge Ron Shapira that a harsh sentence be imposed so as to deter others from engaging in similar brutalizing behavior.

But instead Haifa District Court Judge Ron Shapira decided to insult the young victim again.

Although Shapira said he agreed with the prosecution that the normal three to six year sentence for such crimes was appropriate, in this case he decided to depart from the appropriate sentence, in favor of attempting to rehabilitate the criminal.

Israel’s Chevra Kadisha (Burial Society) has rejected the government’s plan for mass burials in the event of a mass casualty incident, and submitted an alternative plan to Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilnai on Sunday.

The Chevra Kadisha Forum, in a letter to Vilnai, challenged the Interior Ministry’s 2011 plan, which mandates temporary burial in coffins at temporary cemeteries as well as the option of transferring bodies to cooling facilities until they can be identified and final resting places can be arranged. According to the Interior Ministry’s plan, such transfers would not take place during the national emergency itself.

According to the Forum, which is headed by Wolf Rosenberg and brings together the 12 major chevrot kadisha in Israel, the Interior Ministry’s plans are “problematic from a halachic and humane perspective.”

The Forum wrote that it would be able to provide a proper and permanent burial even during a national emergency, through advanced and standardized planning. Crucial to its plan is the provision of a permanent reserve of 10,000 vacant burial plots designated specifically for national emergencies.  “All work would be performed by chevrot kadisha. Allotment of these reserves would occur on the national level, from the north to the south, and the land used will be from areas adjacent to or nearby existing cemeteries, so that the necessary infrastructure and facilities will be well-prepared for emergencies.” Such a plan would require “the state to unfreeze lands adjacent to cemeteries and designated for expansion, and expedite approvals for designated lands or cemeteries.”

The Forum lamented that “as it stands now, there is no chance that chevrot kadisha would be able to to perform the necessary tasks. The system would collapse within minutes. This is a nightmare scenario of which the chevrot kadisha are not ready to participate.”

The Forum added that “this solution will spare the grieving families the added pain of exhuming the dead from makeshift cemeteries to permanent ones, will spare another burial and all the accompanying trauma. Our solution preserves the dignity of the dead as well as result in significant financial savings.

It is not uncommon for Observant Jews to want to be buried in Eretz Yisroel. While this involved considerable difficulty in the past, the advent of modern day air travel has made burial in Eretz Yisroel a viable option. Those who want to do this often purchase karka (plots) from an organization, such as a Chevra Kadisha, so that after 120 years their final resting place will be ready to receive their remains. This is a story of a family that thought it was doing just that, but discovered to its surprise and chagrin, that their purchase was not really a purchase.

Reb A has been a member of a Chevra Kadisha for many years. He joined while yet a young man, because his father was an active member. Father and son were zoche to do many taharos over the years. In the early Eighties Reb A’s parents and siblings decided to buy a family burial “plot” in Eretz Yisroel, because they all wanted to be buried in adjoining graves. They contacted an organization and, for a considerable sum of money, purchased a family burial place in a cemetery in Yerushalayim.  At the time of the purchase they received official looking documents attesting to their ownership of these plots. These were put away in a safe place, and nothing further was thought about the matter.

(In order for the reader to fully understand the thrust of this article, it is important to point out here that the organization from which Reb A’s family purchased their family burial place is not one of the Chevra Kadishes of Yerushalayim. The burial plots that Reb A’s family purchased were not sold to them by a Chevra Kadisha of Yerushalayim.)

About ten years ago Reb A’s father passed away. After a funeral in the U.S., Reb A flew with the nifter to Eretz Yisroel in order to have his father interred in one of the family plots. At the time of the actual burial Reb A noted that the grave that had been dug for his father was not where he thought it should be. According to the deeds that Reb A had, the grave that had been dug, while in the same row, was adjacent to the plots indicated on his deeds. It did not seem to him to be in the right spot. When Reb A mentioned this, his concerns were dismissed, and he accepted this. After all, he had just lost his father and overcome with emotion. His father was buried in the grave that had been dug, and Reb A thought no more of the matter. Over the years, when he visited Eretz Yisroel, he went to his father’s grave to pay his respects.

About a year ago, Reb A’s mother became quite ill. To save her from dying from infection, it became necessary to amputate one of her legs. Since the limb required burial, Reb A contacted the Chevra Kadisha of Yerushalayim to advise them that he would be sending the limb for burial. It was then that Reb A got the surprise of his life. He was told that his family did not own any graves next to his father!

Reb A was absolutely flabbergasted and dumbfounded. He could not believe what he had been told. “I have certificates for graves next to my father for my mother, my siblings and me,” he said. After a good deal of back and forth the following came out. The organization that had sold Reb A’s family the plots had also sold those same plots to a number of other families!!! Another family had purchased the plots two years before! These buyers had deeds from the Chevra Kadisha of Yerushalayim, whereas the deeds that Reb A had were issued by another organization.  Those with deeds from the Chevra Kadisha of Yerushalayim were the rightful owners. Reb A’s official looking certificates were worthless!

The greed of the representatives of this organization had led to a scam: offer the same plots to a number of people, take money for the sale, and then pocket the funds from the second and third and who knows how many other sales of the same plots. After the first sale this organization contacted and paid the Chevra Kadisha of Yerushalayim for the plots. But they did not, of course, do this for the other sales of the same plots.  No matter that only the first buyer really owned the graves! It is wickedness that is virtually incomprehensible.

At this point it is important for the reader to understand how some organizations raise money through the sale of plots. The Chevra Kadisha of Yerushalayim is the only rightful owner of the Yerushalayim cemeteries. Various organizations contract with this Chevra Kadisha for the right to sell a number of plots in a certain location at a certain price per plot. An organization looking to raise funds sells these plots to individuals at a higher price. The difference between what they get for the sale of the plot and what they have to pay to the Chevra Kadisha is used to support the activities of the organization.

After hearing this, Reb A was completely devastated. He had no place to bury his mother’s leg. Furthermore, his mother and his siblings would never be buried near his father. “I cried for three nights,” he told me. “I could not sleep, I could not eat. We thought that over twenty years ago we had been assured that the family would eventually rest together. Now it will never be. Now it will never be! They sold the plots to others before they sold them to us!”

Reb A contacted the Chevra Kadisha of Yerushalayim.  After all, he was under pressure to have his mother’s leg, which was being kept frozen in dry ice, buried as soon as possible. Furthermore, he wanted to “replace” the plots that the family thought it owned, but really did not. After some discussion, he was told that the required number of graves was available in a spot not far from where his father is buried. Before agreeing to the purchase of these plots, Reb A wanted to see them, so he flew to Eretz Yisroel.

Upon arriving in Eretz Yisroel, he met with a representative of the Chevra Kadisha of Yerushalayim and was shown the plots being offered.  He agreed to take them. But now the question was, “Who is going to pay for the purchase of these new plots?” Reb A naturally felt that the organization that had taken his family’s money for a fraudulent sale of nonexistent graves should pay. At first this organization had the nerve to equivocate about paying! It was only after Reb A threatened to go to a lawyer and go public with this sordid incident that the organization paid for the new plots.

Reb A and his family now have graves near each other and his mother’s leg is buried in one of them. However, he still cannot get over the fact that his family may never, after 120 years, be buried in the same row as his father. He has asked a number of rabbonim, and he has been told that he can, if he wants to, move his father to one of the new plots, but only after a family member passes away and is buried there.  He is reluctant to do this, because his father is buried near a very important person.

Reb A told me, “It does not matter how fancy a ‘deed’ you have to a plot in a cemetery in Yerushalayim. Unless you have a deed from the Chevra Kadisha of Yerushalayim, it could be worthless. Tell everyone who has purchased karka in Yerushalayim to make sure that they have deeds issued by the Chevra Kadisha of Yerushalayim! If not, they could be in for a very rude awakening!”

Apparently, even when it comes to death and burial one must keep in mind “Caveat Emptor.” Beware of grave robbers!

Editor’s Note: Dr. Levine has confirmed this story with a representative of the largest Chevra Kadisha in Yerushalayim.  Indeed, it was this Chevra Kadisha that did everything within its power to help Reb A resolve his problems as quickly as possible. Reb A is grateful to them, because he is certain that, without their assistance, he would not have been able to obtain a new family burial place at no additional cost.

For the record, the Chevra Kadisha that assisted Reb A now refuses to deal with the organization that “sold” Reb A’s family their burial place. The representative to whom Dr. Levine spoke told him that he knows for certain of at least one other person who encountered the same problems as Reb A. Reb A knows of yet another person who found himself in similar circumstances. Furthermore, it seems that there are several others who have encountered these sorts of problems. While it’s unclear how widespread a problem this is, there have been enough incidents to warrant concern.

There are eleven Chevra Kadishes in Yerushalayim. They are under the control of the Israeli Ministry of Religion. The Chevra Kadishes of Yerushalayim are not for profit organizations. They are regulated by an Israeli Non-Profit Board.