Manhattan, NY – The corpse of a 105-year-old woman has been chilling for more than two months in a Manhattan funeral home because a relative refuses to let her be cremated.
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Now the Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel is asking a Manhattan judge to help untangle a family feud over the remains of Ethel Baar – stashed in a cooler since she died in September.
Baar asked to be cremated in her June 1999 will, but has been languishing in an afterlife limbo since her deeply devout grandnephew James Pollock protested.
“He objected based on religious grounds to the proposed cremation, arguing that the Jewish religion forbids cremation,” funeral home lawyer Peter Shapiro wrote in court papers.
Pollock, who lives in Israel, was the only relative to object to Baar’s cremation, and his actions have outraged other family members.
“I know from all my conversations with her that she had no feelings for orthodoxy,” her cousin William Wolf told the Daily News.
“She was not a religious person at all and her desire was just that she be cremated.”
A grandniece also pleaded with the funeral home in a letter to do as her “dear deceased great-Aunt Ethel” wanted.
“She entered into a contract with you, and it is your obligation to fulfill it,” Joan Klivans wrote. “Apparently, only one out of many of Aunt Ethel’s relatives has some objection to the cremation process, and this should not override her wishes.”
In an Oct. 29 letter to funeral home director John Kuhn, a lawyer for Pollock wrote that cremation was “not appropriate.”
“Mr. Pollock objected (and still objects) to the cremation,” Mark Kurzmann wrote, adding that “a number of his family members” also did not want her cremated.
The tug-of-war over Baar’s corpse led the funeral home to ask a judge for help, saying it can’t determine “who is right and who is wrong about Jewish law or [Baar’s] wishes.”
“Ms. Baar’s remains are not embalmed, and have been maintained in a refrigeration unit for a prolonged time period,” Shapiro wrote in court papers. “The passage of time has an inevitable impact on the remains.”
Baar, who was born July 6, 1905, in Grand Forks, N.D., was a childless widow who lived in Peter Cooper Village and the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale.
A spokeswoman for the funeral home declined comment. So did Leibert Greenberg, the executor of Baar’s estate.
Wolf said his cousin had paid five years in advance to be cremated by the same funeral home that handled her husband’s remains.
“Knowing her, she would be appalled by all of this,” he said. “She was a feisty woman.”
‘the corpse of a 105-year-old woman has been chilling for more than two months in a Manhattan funeral home’
‘chilling’??
If this is a money issue , I will pay burial expenses. Doesn’t seem to be , nevertheless my offer stands. My contact is [email protected]
Sad to say this but unfortunately, not every yid is zoche to be brought to a yiddishe k’vura.
According to halacha we do not pay attention to the deceased wishes if they included cremation & certainly not to the family members who agree as halacha states clearly that the neshama would thank whoever saved them from cremation as the deceased obviously did not understand what she wanted thanks to the reform movement dumbing down judaism to the point of idiocy. we must do all in our power to save this neshama the same way we would do for any other kind of saving. Imagine, what Hitler could not accomplish physically, the reform movement is accomplishing spiritually. Hitler would be proud.
I don’t think this well intentioned nephew will win this, its in her will ! I give him credit for trying.
Nebech on her Neshama
There is nothing unusual about this episode. Same scenario in Monsey several years ago….
Kurmann is an amazingly dedicated man, who has given hundreds upon hundreds of pro bono hours for such causes. I salute him.
This nephew is amazing. It definitely isn’t easy for him to fight the world!
I doubt that the nephew will prevail. If the woman, herself, is deemed to have been of sound mind when she arranged and prepaid her funeral expenses 5 years ago, then her wishes must be followed. No matter how repugnant we may find her wishes to be, they were her wishes. Add to this the fact that the nephew protesting the cremation doesn’t even live in the US and the local family want her wishes to be followed, there is not much left to be done except to cremate her.
Sad…. A funeral home that does cremations, sides with the nephew & is waiting to see if jewish law of a will prevails …… not the jewish relatives…..
jewish law, sharia law….al Low D’var…..it will be the law of our state that will govern….she will be toasted.
Cremation was not an option in biblical times. It is now, particulary since the corpse that would be buried may be contaminated with Polio, Tuberculosis, or other contagious illness that would surface in a few centuries when the cemetery is bulldozed over. Germs can last forever in any grave.