Civil Burial in Modi'in

Another submission for civil burial in Modi'in

08/02/2023 14:36

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Rabbi Uri Regev being interviewed by reporters following Supreme Court hearing on permitting non-Orthodox military burials in Israel (July 4, 2019)

This week we intend to submit another petition regarding civil burial in the city of Modi'in. We have been dealing with this issue for quite a while. Modi'in is a predominantly secular city, and the refusal of the municipality to inform the residents of their rights regarding civil burial services is puzzling and serious. Recently we received an affidavit from the daughter of a resident of the city who was laid to rest last year. Her words at the end of the affidavit express the challenges and obstacles that the municipality put residents through when they are not interested in a religious burial: “It’s hard to put into words the worry, uncertainty, and difficulties that my family and I had to go through after my father’s death. I

It’s hard to put into words the worry, uncertainty, and difficulties that my family and I had to go through after my father’s death. I had to make repeated phone calls, spent long hours of waiting and needed to be very insistent in order to fulfill my father's wish to be buried in a coffin. I have no doubt that many would have given up under these circumstances."

had to make repeated phone calls, spent long hours of waiting and needed to be very insistent in order to fulfill my father's wish to be buried in a coffin. I have no doubt that many would have given up under these circumstances."

Similar information already surfaced in the past, but unfortunately the powers that be refused to see the right to a dignified civil burial that comforts the grieving families as equivalent to a religious burial, even though the law requires them to do so.

To ensure that no future families experience similar pain and obstacles at this particularly difficult time, once again Hiddush finds itself forced to seek relief from the court against municipal authorities who repeatedly demonstrate insensitivity and often surrender to the pressures of the Orthodox religious establishment.