Israeli Burial - Revival of an Old Tradition

There are probably two million Jewish graves in Israel. And another eight million or more who will require burial in the next seventy-five years. Where will you put them all? Most of the population lives in a relatively small area.

Jewish law does not permit cremation. People want to have their loved ones reasonably close at hand, so you cannot send burials from the center of the country to the Negev desert..

The Burial Society of Greater Tel-Aviv alone already has six cemeteries.

The questions of space and the associated economics have come into public awareness more and more in recent years.

In some cemeteries, a couple can be buried "two in a hole." The first is buried deep and the second more shallow with a layer of earth in between. I have seen photographs of Jewish graves like that in Argentina.

Some build what look like multi-story parking lots, with graves on each level. I find them dreary.

Some cemeteries have begun building walls with drawer-like graves, four or six high. Good luck putting a stone on the grave. 

Har Hamenuhot in Jerusalem has built a large multi-story underground cemetery, which some find very artificial.

All these have significant economic ramifications including both burial costs and land-use considerations. And do they even solve the problem or just postpone the reckoning?

In recent years, a new idea has begun to take shape. New but very old. They call it Kevurat Eretz Yisrael, Land of Israel Burial. I am not involved with the organization, but I am on their mailing list and I am definitely interested. The website is in Hebrew as is the mailing list but they are working on English-language pages. (I have seen some of those.)

For those looking for an English-language summary, Hadassah Magazine had an article few years ago.

This initiative is based on something that was common here two thousand years ago. Regular burial, then after a year, moving the bones to a stone ossuary, often in a family plot. Plans and proposals are being drawn up by authorities in the relevant fields - halacha, architecture, design, finance and more.

Examples of proposed ossuaries

In a very few places, this project has begun to take root. I attended such a funeral at Kevutzat Yavneh some months ago. The funeral seems like any other, though it was in its own separate section.

This blog post is not meant to be a comprehensive description, rather to call attention to something which should be of interest to the Jewish genealogy community. I have merely scratched the surface.

I have one issue with this initiative, as with some of the others - the inability to include a tombstone with more than the most basic information. As a genealogist, I believe that there can be great value in an epitaph - not just as a vanity piece. (I don't believe that QR codes are a viable long-term solution.)

One of the leaders of this project is Rabbi Rafi Ostroff, of the Gush Etzion Religious Council. He is an English-speaker. He is happy to receive inquiries.