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chevra kadisha

Amy Koplow, executive director of the Hebrew Free Burial Association, and Efrem Reis, assistant director, look through a list of donor names at the association’s Maiden Lane headquarters in New York City, June 2025. (Cathryn J. Prince)
October 31, 2025, 1:29 pm
The haunting history of the Jewish burial society that cares for NYC’s lost and forgotten
Since 1888, the Hebrew Free Burial Association has ensured that in the city that never sleeps, the poor and huddled masses enter their eternal rest with compassion and dignity
By Cathryn J. Prince
Bar Kalaf, who set himself on fire in Netanya, August 1, 2023, and died of his wounds two days later (Courtesy)
August 4, 2023, 12:24 pm
Funeral held for IDF veteran who died after self-immolating
Ceremony for Bar Kalaf held outside Netanya after coastal city’s burial society refuses to bury him; mourners include soldier whose self-immolation 2 years ago drew national focus
By ToI Staff
View of a new underground cemetery at Givat Shaul Cemetery in Jerusalem, on October 30, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
September 7, 2022, 4:04 pm
Israel incentivizes proper burials for stillborns to ‘ease suffering of families’
Advocacy group says new changes to payment policy remove final obstacles keeping burial societies from performing funerals for fetuses
By Judah Ari Gross
Dr. Jonathan Weinkle of Pittsburgh's New Community Chevra Kadisha pours water as part of an October 3 ritual completion of tahara ruchanit, or spiritual cleansing. (Adam Reinherz/ Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle via JTA)
October 16, 2021, 3:59 am
After tweaking rituals during pandemic, a US Jewish burial society makes amends
A chevra kadisha in Pittsburgh returns to the graves of over 100 people who died in 2020-21 to pray and ‘apologize’ for being unable to perform preparation for burial in entirety
By Adam Reinherz
Illustrative photo of Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem on April 13, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
June 22, 2021, 11:08 pm
Chief rabbi: Missionary’s remains should be moved from Jewish Jerusalem cemetery
David Lau says ‘every effort must be made’ to remove the body of Amanda Elkohen, who was unmasked as a Christian posing as a Haredi Jew, following her death
By Amy Spiro
A refrigerated shipping container prepared by the Haifa Chevra Kadisha burial society for holding bodies of coronavirus patients ahead of an expected spike in the pandemic's death toll, September 22, 2020. (Channel 13 screen capture)
September 23, 2020, 10:38 am
Israel’s burial societies gird for wave of coronavirus deaths
Refrigerated shipping container that can hold hundreds of bodies prepared in Haifa as epidemiologists warn number of seriously ill expected to double within three weeks
By ToI Staff
Illustrative: Chevra Kadisha workers wearing protective clothes carry the body of a patient who died from complications of COVID-19 at the Shamgar Funeral Home in Jerusalem, March 29, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
April 26, 2020, 6:59 am
Digging deep: Diaspora Jews are still flying loved ones to Israel for burial
With flights curtailed, more paperwork and special coffins for virus victims, it’s no longer easy to transport relatives to be laid to rest in Holy Land. But it is still possible
By Raphael Ahren
Members of Chesed Shel Emes, a burial society based in Brooklyn, transport a body for burial at the cemetery it operates in Woodridge, New York. (Courtesy of Rabbi Mayer Berger/ via JTA)
April 23, 2020, 5:43 am
Jewish burial societies face difficult choices as deaths from coronavirus mount
In the last month, the Chesed Shel Emes in Brooklyn’s work has risen fivefold, as it faces hurdles from fears of contagion to mountains of paperwork
By Shira Hanau
A man stands near the body of Holocaust survivor Aryeh Even, 88, the first man to die in Israel from the coronavirus epidemic, at the Har HaMenuchot Cemetery in Jerusalem, early on March 22, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
March 22, 2020, 9:51 pm
Burial society gears up for COVID-19 funerals, as health officials lay out rules
Ministry initially bans religious funeral rite for coronavirus victims, then backtracks; chevra kadisha volunteers, in protective gear, being trained to deal with virus casualties
By Marissa Newman
An ultra-Orthodox couple at a cemetery (illustrative photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90)
November 4, 2019, 2:43 pm
Dead ahead: App aims to be a ‘Waze’ for cemeteries
‘Gravez’ provides detailed directions to the burial sites of loved ones, and, eventually, other services including lighting of memorial candles
By Shoshanna Solomon
Anat Hoffman
June 4, 2018, 3:29 pm
Anat Hoffman
Saying goodbye with dignity — in Scarsdale, NY
Laying Rabbi Aaron Panken to rest was sad and comforting; it also drove home what’s missing at Israeli funerals
In this Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017 photo, workers prepare heavy machine to spray cement at the construction site of a massive underground cemetery in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
November 17, 2017, 4:22 pm
Jerusalem cemetery goes deep underground with tunnel burials
Below ground beehive-like structure to make space for some 22,000 graves, providing an innovative solution to meet the capital’s growing needs
By ISAAC SCHARF
Illustrative: A man walks through a cemetery in Jerusalem in this undated file photo. (Nati Shohat /Flash90)
February 6, 2017, 7:55 am
Program helps secular Israelis navigate Orthodox burial
Volunteer rabbis from Tzohar organization to provide guidance so that Jewish tradition won’t be ‘perceived as any sort of burden’
By JTA
Illustrative photo of members of Brazil's Jewish community rallying in solidarity with Israel, June 17, 2014 (photo credit: courtesy)
December 20, 2016, 8:04 pm
Israeli whose body was found in plastic bag in Brazil gets Jewish funeral
Carlos Ginsburg was interred in public cemetery 7 years ago, but his remains were later exhumed and another person buried in grave
By JTA
Tourists seen playing at a casino in Las Vegas. May 20, 2013. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
February 18, 2016, 3:20 pm
Will Netanyahu’s Eilat casino wager pay off?
The papers won’t bet on the PM’s initiative to legalize gambling in the southern city, but highlight the benefits such a move may bring
By Adiv Sterman
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