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Last update - 22:15 06/02/2008 In attack-conscious Israel, even a crematorium needs protection By Benjamin Hartman, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: cremation, Israel  In terrorism-conscious Israel, security has been beefed up even for the crematorium of a company providing Israelis a choice of burial services, but the potential assailants are apparently Jews. The firm, called Aley Shalechet ("Autumn Leaves"), was the first company in Israel to offer "alternative burial services," notably cremation. I Advertisement n August 2007, a day after the location of the company's crematorium was revealed in an ultra-Orthodox newspaper, unknown assailants broke into the grounds of the firm on Moshav Hibat Zion and torched its facilities, causing serious damage to the crematorium, and igniting a public debate on burial services outside the Orthodox Jewish norm. No one has been charged in the relation to the arson, though Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, founder and public face of the ultra-Orthodox ZAKA rescue service an the self-styled operations officer of the Eda Haredit religious organization, was temporarily detained by police after reports surfaced that he was seen at the site the morning of the crime. The company had kept a low profile until the attack, its offices situated at the end of a hallway in a nondescript mall in central Israel. Since its operations were publicized, however, Aley Shalechet has been the subject of concerted efforts by religious authorities to have its activities banned, saying that it violates Jewish law and desecrates the memory of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, whose bodies were incinerated in Nazi ovens. According to Meshi-Zahav, the viewpoint of ZAKA and the religious authorities on cremation is "clear and very obvious." "Judaism has very clear laws that govern this matter. It's not an issue of democracy, or shmemocracy, even in a democracy there are things that are not allowed. There's no reason for Israel to import every goy tradition," Meshi-Zahav said. After a short hiatus, Aley Shalechet has rebuilt its facilities and returned to business, albeit with a beefed up security system that was lacking before. "We have protection, much more than we ever did before," says Alon Nativ founder and general manager of Aley Shalechet. "Maybe we were naïve, but we never believed someone would go that far. We expected to be taken to court, to be criticized publicly, for there to be some sort of public discourse, but I never thought someone would cross this line." Nativ sees the assailants who torched his business as an aberration, a group of terrorists whose actions fall outside the traditions of the Jewish people. "I don't think they represent Judaism, and if that's what passes for Judaism today, then I don't want to be a part of it. Aley Shalechet was founded by Nativ and a group of Israeli entrepeneurs in 2004, after a two-year marketing survey found a genuine need and a future necessity for alternative burial services in Israel. The company sees itself as being at the forefront of a service industry that in the coming years will be a major force in burial services in Israel, rendering religious or cultural debate on the issue obsolete. Though there is a clear ideological motivation behind the company's raison d' etre, it is by all means a business, and one that clearly stands to profit if it corners the market on an industry destined to grow as Israel runs out of space to perform traditional burials. Nativ pulls out a brochure made by Aley Shalechet showing maps of the Dan region of central Israel over the next several decades, with black, creeping stains representing the projected total acreage of graveyards in Israel. By 2067, the inkblot is shown superimposed over the entire area of the cities of Bat Yam, Savion, Kiryat Ono, Ramat Gan, Givataayim, and Gnei Yehuda. "Where are our grandchildren going to get the land from? In 1948, 5,000 people died each year in Israel, today its 40,000. Everyday, half a dunam is used to bury the citizens of Israel. What are we going to do 20 years from now?" "It's already a moot point," Nativ says. In Israel, burial is paid for by the state as long as the deceased's family members agree to have the burial carried out in a plot chosen by the local authorities. For most families, an alternative burial is not considered an option, largely due to the status quo in regard to state funded burials, and widely held religious and cultural aversions to alternative forms of burial. According to Nativ, even though the overwhelming majority of Jewish burials performed outside of Israel are done in the traditional manner, a growing percentage of Jews abroad are seeking cremation as an alternative. While research has been scarce at best, data has shown that in some countries Jews select cremation at a rate close to that of their gentile neighbors. Furthermore, while Israeli Orthodox Jews voice a universal opposition to the practice, other Jewish denominational strains have argued that the practice is not forbidden by Jewish law. According to the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism's website, there is no text in the Torah or the Talmud that forbids cremation. The Movement for Reform Judaism also presents data and scripture arguing that the practice is not expressly forbidden, and is allowed as long as respect for the deceased's body is ensured. Earlier this month, a Jerusalem court upheld the legality of cremation, with Attorney General Menachem Mazuz permitting the cremation of Shmuel Rosen, 80, a Holocaust survivor, against the wishes of a distant relative who sought to have the procedure stopped. Mazuz argued that as there is no law forbidding cremation in Israel, the court must honor the wishes of Rosen and his wife and children, who went to court to ensure his final wishes were honored. The company continues to perform cremations as well as other options for non-traditional Jewish burial services in cemetery plots owned by the company. The office prominently displays its array of services, including burial in alternative plots in Israel, nontraditional funeral services, and even having the deceased's ashes turned into a diamond or fired into space on a rocket. Although Nativ says the company does not ask customers about their observance or religious background, he estimates that about 80% of his clients are what would be termed "veteran, secular Israelis" and the rest are non-Jewish citizens or residents of Israel. Many are seeking not only a way to honor their loved one's wishes or find their own options for burial, but also to ease the economic burden on their families. One such customer, Elizabeth Blenis, a British-born Israeli, had her husband Kelly cremated by Aley Shalechet in August, just days before the crematorium was destroyed in the arson attack. Kelly, a non-Jewish American and Vietnam veteran, had embraced Buddhism later in his life and was outspoken in his aspersion to a traditional burial. When he died suddenly this past August, the process of shipping the body to the states and performing a burial would have been highly expensive, and leaving his burial in the hands of the religious authorities is something that according to Elizabeth, he would have fought tooth and nail. "He was sick for a long time, and was very clear about how he wanted to leave the world. He never wanted to be a burden and he never wanted to be buried in the ground. He wanted to be cremated, and this company presented the only option that ensured we were able to honor his wishes and not bankrupt ourselves paying for a service he never wanted," Elizabeth says. In the end, the family performed a ceremony at sunset on Palmahim beach south of Tel Aviv surrounded by family and friends. An Israeli-Buddhist monk drove in from Jerusalem and read prayers before presenting Elizabeth and her two children with a flower wreath which they sprinkled with some of Kelly's ashes and walked out into the waves to cast into the sea. Alon Nativ sees the prohibition on cremation, and the difficulties he has faced, as having more to do with "power and money" than Judaism. "The religious struggle to protect their monopoly on things like marriage or death, where they govern and have a vested interest. Still, you can drive from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat and pass a tattoo parlor in every town. "Everywhere you see young people with tattoos out in the open in Israel, and you will never find a single rabbi anywhere who says tattoos are permitted in Judaism. So where's the fight to close tattoo parlors? Why don't they care about this violation? It's all because they have no vested interest in the control of tattoo parlors, they have nothing to lose or gain in outlawing it." More Jewish World news and features Bookmark to del.icio.us   Google N for Nakba Israeli town sues Google over claim it was built on ruins of Palestinian village. A Belgian treat U.S. Jew says he was kicked out of a Bruges cafe because he was wearing a skullcap.   1.   NO CREMATION 15:38  |  CHAIM SOLANKI 05/02/08   2.   DANGEROUS MERCURY POLLUTION FROM CREMATORIUMS 16:21  |  BILL HANDEL 05/02/08   3.   Cremation 16:36  |  MazalUK 05/02/08   4.   No To Cremation In The Jewish State! 16:58  |  Norman F Birnberg 05/02/08   5.   Freedom means just that 17:20  |  Israel 05/02/08   6.   Shoud the US be run by the New Testament? 17:22  |  American 05/02/08   7.   To "Israel" at no.4 17:39  |  Fatima al`Dajani 05/02/08   8.   Fatima al`Dajani 18:05  |  Israel 05/02/08   9.   Yehuda Meshi-Zahav is nothing and nobody in the Edah 18:10  |  Daniel Breslauer 05/02/08   10.   To "Israel" at no.8 18:37  |  Fatima al`Dajani 05/02/08   11.   Daniel#7 18:52  |  Baruch yedidya 05/02/08   12.   Let`s revive the ancient biblical and Canaanite method 19:02  |  Yonatan 05/02/08   13.   #4 Norman F. Birnberg 19:09  |  Yonatan 05/02/08   14.   Yonata - Good! 19:09  |  Israel 05/02/08   15.   Burial Customs 19:26  |  Norman F Birnberg 05/02/08   16.   to fatima al`dajani and her uganda proposal 19:44  |  amihai 05/02/08   17.   A Response To Yonatan In Defense Of Tradition 19:51  |  Norman F Birnberg 05/02/08   18.   to yonathan, burial place and land economy. 19:53  |  amihai 05/02/08   19.   When in Israel do as the Israelis do 19:54  |  Israel 05/02/08   20.   If you must cremate, cremate Iran & Co. 20:39  |  Anup 05/02/08   21.   #17 Norman F. Birnberg 22:54  |  Yonatan 05/02/08   22.   #18 amihai on Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 23:21  |  Yonatan 05/02/08   23.   Judaism`s View Of Death 01:03  |  Norman F Birnberg 06/02/08   24.   Cremation as trefe 04:42  |  Jack Shattuck 06/02/08   25.   Good read 22:00  |  Gilberto 06/02/08   26.   Cremation 19:21  |  Larry Nash 07/02/08   27.   word is bond 09:37  |  og 08/02/08   28.   Spend your money on a nose Job instead! 22:11  |  Yechiel 08/02/08   29.   The UK Reform View 13:28  |  Marc 12/02/08

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