Workers marched in protest after the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire, in which hundreds of young women died because of unsafe working conditions. (Kheel Center/HBO)

Everyone, regardless of money, religion or the number of surviving loved ones, deserves the dignity of a respectable funeral. No one’s remains should be deep in a pauper’s grave, unvisited and unknown. And yet, when it comes to how we bury the indigent, little progress has been made.

Next month marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The tragic blaze killed 146 garment workers, many of them recent immigrants to America, all locked into a lower Manhattan tinderbox of a sweatshop. Thankfully, much has changed since (and because of) the fire. Workers today are far safer and better compensated. Unions protect them from abuses like those that led to the 1911 inferno. And modern building codes all but preclude another such catastrophe.

But one lingering problem is how we bury the very poorest and least cared for among us. Many of those who died in the fire had recently emigrated from Eastern Europe and were so impoverished that they had no money for a proper funeral. The Hebrew Free Burial Association buried 22 such victims, while similar societies did the same for others.

That obligation remains necessary today. As at the turn of the 20th century, immigrants frequently land on our shores with no money, family or roots. There are also Americans who don’t have money for a proper burial – nor a family to provide them with one.

Of the 344 burials we provided last year, fully one third of the deceased hailed from the former Soviet Union. The others we buried had outlived their families and funds, or were criminals who had no families – or whose relatives wanted nothing to do with them.

The number of people who die with nothing left is larger than most assume – and has grown since the 2008 financial crisis. People who would not have needed our services three years ago need them now: The number of burials we arranged in 2010 had increased by 28% from 2007.

And those who have no one to take care of them after death? According to Correction Department spokesman Stephen Morello, Rikers Island inmates have dug graves on Hart Island, the city’s potter’s field, for some 800,000 people since the mid-19th century. The corpses there are buried three deep and the graves are unmarked. If you remain unclaimed at a city morgue for a proscribed amount of time, you may be sent for burial there – or transferred to a medical school if your profile fits what is needed for research that week.

Baker Street Cemeteries Flooded

In March, 2010 the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts experienced the worst flooding in over 100 years on the Baker Street Memorial Park Cemetery in West Roxbury. Nearly half of the 50 cemetery complex was underwater and impassable by funeral processions since the roadway was under 20” of water for 4 weeks. And in the cemetery profession, 4 weeks is an eternity!

In Judaism, interments can’t wait for the flood waters to recede. The decedent must be interred by the next day if possible. So JCAM made sites available at our cemeteries on Baker Street unaffected by the flood at no cost to the families. JCAM arranged for Charter Buses (38 seaters) to transport people attending funerals to these cemeteries. We also arranged for a handicap bus to transport the casket separately.

We arranged for 24 hour pumping by 2 heavy-duty water pumps.

All at no cost to the families, yet still it was not enough!

While independent Jewish cemeteries can decide matters on narrow economic issues impacting on them, JCAM cannot. We are viewed through the lens of a higher standard of communal responsibility.

So the Rabbis told us that it was unfair to the families impacted by this act of G-d to pay once for an interment of the decedent in the temporary site and then, to pay again for the re-interment of the decedent in their permanent site when conditions permitted. We are the communal agency of Chesed, the Rabbi’s reasoned, and we must answer the call in times of community need.

Sensitivity means listening to the moral voices within the Jewish community. And so JCAM paid for all the re-interments of these families resting at temporary sites on Baker Street.

It was a good lesson for us. JCAM has built its reputation on doing what is right first and then dealing with the economics later. Half measures, no matter how well intended, just aren’t enough. We must remember this lesson moving forward.

This Baker Street flooding crisis served as a humbling experience for JCAM. We are measured by a whole other set of standards and that’s what sets us apart, I think we’ve got it now.

I intend to ask our Board of Directors to allocate funds to a new emergency account for use during future emergencies so we will have the resources standing by when called upon.

B’Shalom,

Stan Kaplan, JCAM Executive Director

By Stan Kaplan, Executive Director, Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachussetts

Good morning and thank you for coming to JCAM’s 2nd Annual Management Symposium for Massachusetts Jewish Cemeteries.

I’m Stan Kaplan, JCAM’s Executive Director, I will be serving as your moderator this morning. Shalom Aleichem.

What does Judaism say about cremation is our final subject for today.

To begin, I attended a 2-day national Chevra Kadisha conference in Berkeley California this past June.

The key Plenary session was entitled : “Ground Burial and Cremation – Text Study – Historical Trends – Responsa – Impact on Cemeteries – Impact on the Chevra Kadisha – Perspective of Rabbis – Strategies – Etc.”

I reference this conference this morning to establish some credentials on the subject and that even though I am not a Rabbi, I have conducted considerable research on the practice of cremation and the Jewish response.

My task here today is not to tell anyone what to do or not do regarding cremation; my task is only to inform you about what you should know – from the perspective of Jewish burial customs and traditions.

Here’s what I can tell you.

No matter what branch of Judaism you adhere to, (Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist) “in ground burial” is considered a mitzvah and cremation an abomination. This relationship between the body and the ground has molded Jewish law from the Torah and the Talmud for thousands of years.

“By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread until you return unto the ground, from which you were taken: For you are dust, and to the dust shall you return.”

- Bereshit 3:19

When a person decides to choose cremation, for whatever reason, over in-ground burial, they are in fact saying that they do not believe in Judaism’s belief of a bodily resurrection. Resurrection is a fundamental belief of Judaism, as expressed in Maimonides’ classical “13 Principles of Faith.”

“I believe with complete faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead, whenever the wish emanates from the Creator.”

(Based on Deut. 21:23, and Maimonides – Laws of Sanhedrin 15:8).

Having said that, all branches of Judaism accept cremation under certain circumstances. While Reform Judaism calls cremation “a crisis of faith,” their responsa permits cremation as a right of individual choice.

Conservative Judaism takes a stronger position against the practice of cremation. A person who decides to be cremated may do so but a Rabbi must not officiate at the ceremony on the cemetery.

Orthodox Judaism permits cremation only as an “after fact” and never to be planned in advance. That is to say, when the Russian Jewish community came to Boston in large numbers in the 1980’s and 1990’s they brought with them the ashes of loved ones because the custom of Russian Jews was cremation. Those cremated remains were allowed to be buried on Orthodox Jewish cemeteries because it was “after the fact” and not “before the fact”.

As stated by Rabbi Shraga Simmons, of Aish.com, “Jewish tradition records that with burial, a single bone in the back of the neck never decays. It is from this bone—called the luz(luzz) bone—that the human body will be rebuilt in the future Messianic Era when all the dead will be resurrected. With cremation, that bone can be destroyed, and the resurrection process stymied.” (Cremation, Simmons 2009).

That’s the religious perspective—resurrection. But now let’s look at cremation through the lens of a modern geneticist.

DNA—the Blueprint of Your Existence

Consider that all living things have its own set of unique blueprints —its genetic DNA, and human beings are no different. Once a living thing is cremated, the DNA ceases to exist. Not only does the high heat of burning destroy the genetic compound, but also the pulverization of bone fragments, which occurs after the cremation process (the ashes), completely destroys any traces of DNA. So in the physical sense, after cremation the living thing is as if it never existed. There is no trace left of its DNA. It’s like wiping out your spiritual DNA afterlife.

Organ Donation vs. Cremation

While cremation is the destruction of the physical body and DNA, organ donation can be for some, a way of performing “Tikkun Olam” (repairing the world). Organ donations, in a sense, can be one of the highest forms of selflessness, a mitzvah, and in a true sense, a life-sustaining act.

And for those of us who believe that resurrection is possible only if our bodies remain intact (which is the traditional Jewish perspective) might I suggest to you that if Hashem is powerful enough to resurrect a body, surly Hashem would be capable of finding us an eye, a liver or a kidney when the time comes!

The Effects on the Family

The decision to be cremated not only affects the deceased but the family left behind. Rabbi Stuart Kelman, President Kvod v’Nichum (Order and Comfort) said recently at the 7th Annual National Chevra Kadisha Conference, “I can’t tell you the number of times people who have had close relatives cremated come to me and say it’s as if they just disappeared. There’s no closure for them.”

From my own personal perspective, to choose cremation in the post Holocaust world is not only abhorrent but a blind act. The Nazi’s chose cremation for the Jews to destroy any remnants of Jewish civilization forever—to wipe us off the face of this earth. For any Jew to now adopt the practice of cremation ignores the horrors of the Holocaust and the crematoriums of the concentration camps. To which I say Never again!

So there’s a lot to consider on the subject of cremation and the Jewish response. I hope I have succeeded in providing you with a kaleidoscope of thoughts from within our diverse community. Thank you.

Todah Rabbah

B’ Shalom
Stan Kaplan
Executive Director
Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts

Here in St. Louis, several of our Jewish cemeteries observed significant decreases in annual interments between 2008 and 2009. (We’re talking double-digit numbers here!)  Did any of our other members have a similar experience in 2009?  I’d like to hear from any of you, whether your numbers were up or down.

Thanks for pitching in on this matter.

Daniel Brodsky, Executive Director

New Mt. Sinai Cemetery

St. Louis, MO

So Happy New Year to all of you and your families.  Talk to you soon.

Dan Brodsky

New Mt. Sinai Cemetery, St. Louis MO

Give it a shot, everyone!  Let’s see if this works….