The burial in Israel of Jews from abroad is a complicated and expensive business
Practical advice for anyone who plans to be buried in Israel: If you're going to die abroad, it's best not to do it on Saturday or Sunday. Since local health offices and the nearest Israeli consulate are probably closed on weekends, shipment of the body to Israel for burial may be delayed by as much as two days in addition to the usual 24 to 48-hour lapse between death in the U.S. and burial in Israel. The time lapse is particularly trying on relatives of non-Israeli Jews who are having their loved one buried in Israel.
Even under the best of circumstances, it takes a couple of days to get a body to Israel from anywhere in the United States outside the New York area. The delay can be longer from faraway places without direct flights to Ben-Gurion Airport. Surprisingly, more time may elapse for those who die in Europe, a few hours' flying time away. "It takes three days to clear a body out of France," says Chananya Shachor, head of the Kehilat Yerushalayim Hevrah Kadisha, the largest of Jerusalem's 10 non-profit burial societies (others include the Sephardim, the Ma'aravi for Jews of North African origin, Yemenite, hasidic and Lithuanian). "It has to do with legal regulations and paperwork."
The paperwork is prodigious, considering the size of the business: about 1,000 funerals a year, each costing thousands of dollars. Shipping a body to Israel involves an exit permit, a death certificate, a certificate saying that the deceased did not have any communicable diseases, proof that the body had undergone taharah, or ritual cleaning and purification, a paper saying the coffin complies with International Air Transport Association (IATA) regulations, an entry permit from the Israeli Health Ministry, and certification that a funeral in Israel has already been arranged. "Most of this paperwork," says Haim Gelbstein of the Hevrah Kadisha Clalit in Jerusalem, which caters mostly to ultra-Orthodox Jews of Lithuanian origin, "is done through the consulate, with the help of a local hevrah kadisha or funeral home."
"It's much more difficult if the death takes place in say, Mogadishu, where there's no Israeli consulate nearby," adds Shachor. "Then we have to count on the local Jewish community, if there is one, to handle things." It may then take more than a few days to get the body to Israel.
Burial in Israel "is not a common thing to do," says Keith Kronish of the Gutterman Warheit Funeral Chapel of Boca Raton, Florida, and New York. "You have to have a very unique set of feelings." Adds Leo Hack, executive director of Riverside-Gordon Memorial Chapels in Miami Beach: "There has to be some feeling of commitment to Israel a feeling that this is where I belong after 120 years."
Rabbi Jay Karzen of Jerusalem, a former Chicagoan who handles burial affairs as a volunteer for the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, notes that "for thousands of years, Jews have wanted to be buried in Eretz Yisrael, especially in Jerusalem." Most foreigners who buy plots in the AACI sections of the Eretz Hahayim private cemetery in Beit Shemesh, 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital, are being practical. "They have children and grandchildren in Israel."
More than a third of the 1,000 burials of foreigners in Israel each year take place in or around Jerusalem. Kehilat Yerushalayim does about 120 a year, Hevrah Kadisha Clalit about 100, between 50 and 100 are buried at the AACI cemetery, and others are done by the eight other Jerusalem burial societies.
There is no standard cost of burying a foreign resident in Israel although from the United States, it's almost certain to run over $ 5,500, including the plot. That, according to Rabbi Zalman Manela of the Hevrah Kadisha Mortuary in Los Angeles, "is very reasonable compared to some burials in L.A." Amajor component of the expense is shipping the body. Spokesman Nahman Kleiman of El Al, which carries most of the coffins to Israel, estimates the average cost from New York at between $ 1,100 and $ 1,500, according to rates set by IATA. "I can't give you an exact figure," Kleiman says, "because it all depends on the weight." The rate is higher from more distant cities; shipment of a body from California can cost $ 2,500.
IATA also requires special packing. "There are two types of cases," says a knowledgeable source in New York. One is a metal-lined wood coffin, the other complete metal. Either is permissible; either is discarded in Israel." There is also a wrapping inside, the source says, "to make sure there isn't any leakage, both for health reasons, and to prevent any disrespect to the deceased." The shipping coffin adds another $ 700-$ 1,000 to the bill.
El Al is particularly sensitive to Jewish law that prohibits a member of the priestly class from being in the same room as a body. It solves the problem with a special cardboard container, which encloses the wooden coffin and leaves about 9 centimeters (3.5 inches) of air on all sides to create a "room." Kleiman says El Al planes are doubly protected against this problem by having a specially built partition between the cargo hold and the passenger compartment, to allow kohanim or any male named Cohen to fly on its planes at any time.
To protect the sanctity of the dead, El Al also makes sure animals don't fly with bodies. "When we have a coffin on a plane, we inform passengers with pets that we cannot take them," says spokesman Kleiman. "Sometimes we put the passenger and the pet on a different plane, sometimes just the pet. It can be a hassle, but it's the proper thing to do."
In addition to shipping, charges from funeral directors abroad also can run up the bill particularly when there is a funeral home, and not just a non-profit hevrah kadisha involved. Funeral homes surveyed say they billed between $ 495 to $ 1,500 or $ 2,000 for "funeral director services." In the case of the United States, there are also charges from one of two forwarding agents in New York a Brooklyn firm called Ma'alin B'Kodesh and Pincus Mandel. Ma'alin B'Kodesh gets about $ 350 plus expenses for making sure the body gets onto the plane to Israel; Mandel reportedly takes $ 535, plus expenses, which one source says "could be a couple of hundred extra." He adds that "the quality of service is different. It's very personalized. Pinky can charge more because he gets away with it. He's in the truck when the casket goes out to the plane."
The third major element is at the Israeli end. On arrival in Israel, the burial society takes over, handling customs clearance, transportation to the funeral parlor and the cemetery, and burial. Gelbstein of Hevrah Kadisha Clalit says this costs $ 1,000, "plus or minus $ 100," plus $ 3,600 for an average plot. In some other burial societies, purchase of a plot ($ 4,800 from Kehilat Yerushalayim at Jerusalem's Har Hamenuhot cemetery, $ 2,950 for foreigners at the AACI cemetery) also includes funeral costs. None of the prices include a tombstone, usually arranged in Israel for $ 1,000 or more.
In contrast, Israeli citizens are entitled to a free plot in the city of their residence. "It's one of the conditions under which the burial society gets land from the Israeli government," explains Shachor. "We pay for maintenance of the cemeteries by charging foreigners and Israelis who want a special plot for the gravesites." Likewise, the funeral expenses of Israelis currently 2,900 shekels (about $ 970) are covered by the National Insurance Institute, the country's equivalent of the U.S. Social Security.
While funerals in Israel are costly, U.S. funeral directors point to a major saving the casket. In Israel, the dead are usually buried in a shroud, without a casket, which in America can run the bill up by as much as $ 12,000. Hack of Riverside-Gordon says that "the profit motive is not an incentive" in Israeli burials.
A New York source agrees. "What can the undertaker sell? Graves vary in price in Israel, depending on the location. They can be very cheap, even by our standards, or extraordinarily expensive. But that's the same way it is selling graves here in New York." o Reporting by Larry Yudelson/New York, Marilyn Marks/Florida, Sheli Teitelbaum/Los Angeles, and Ephrat Livni/Jerusalem Jerusalem's Har Hamenuhot: Price of some plots includes the funeral ELLIOT HOOL