Manhattan, NY – A no-nonsense judge ended a three-month tug of war over the body of 105-year woman Monday – saying the woman’s wish to be cremated must be honored.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Ethel Baar’s body has been on ice in a Gramercy funeral home since shortly after she died.
In her will, Baar said she wanted her ashes spread in Israel. Her religious grand-nephew, James Pollock, sought a traditional Jewish burial – and went to court.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon put an end to the battle after reading from the will, in which Baar wrote, “I desire that my body be cremated.”
“That, my friends, is all it is,” Solomon declared. “If I were a cadaver, I would want my situation resolved sooner rather than later.”
She refused to hear testimony about Baar’s supposed change of heart, calling it hearsay that cannot trump the signed document.
Ellen Gordon, the daughter of Baar’s best friend, hoped to testify that Baar ultimately agreed to be buried.
Baar’s other relatives said they don’t believe she wanted a burial.
“From anything I know about her, she had no interest in Orthodoxy at all,” said her cousin William Wolf. “She was a woman of very strong will and no one could change her mind.”
Baar, who died Sept. 11 at the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale, will be cremated and, following her request, her ashes scattered in Israel, where Pollock lives.
“He can be there when the ashes are dispersed,” the judge said.
While most frum yidden would not want creation, the court ruled correctly and the wishes of the niftar should be respected.
I am sure in Gan Eden she will have her final peace..She was probably a Tinik Shenishbe ….
She just lost her future.
He can appeal it, however i dont understand why he is fighting.Who cares she wanted that let her rot in hell.
what a shame
The surprise is that he managed to drag it out so long. What was his legal basis?
Did James Pollock have any kind of relationship with his aunt during her lifetime? If he never bothered to call or visit while she was alive, it’s none of his business to mix in now that she is dead.
My own parents expressed a wish to be cremated many years ago, but my sons and I persuaded them to purchase burial plots at a Jewish cemetery.
Cremation is against the Torah. A person’s dead body is supposed to be treated with respect and to be given an honorable burial in the ground.
Even if a Tinok Shenishba doesn’t know while she is alive that cremation is wrong; certainly after she is dead and in the World of Truth, she will realize that she will not want her body to be cremated.
So her grand-nephew is doing a great Chesed for her.
Usually Chesed She’ll Emes gets involved and they get their way BH
1) Make sure to designate, in writing (with 2 witnesses signing the document), a health care proxy to make medical decisions for you if / when you become incapacitated
2) Assign, in writing, someone to act as a durable power of attorney for financial matters
3) Prepare a will.
4) Keep these documents with your attorney. You should have copies of them as well.
Legally her grand-nephew lost …morally he won..he tried his best.
that looks like a cofftin
What the article is careful not to point out is that it is far from clear what the woman’s wishes were. The judge was extremely hostile and refused to hear testimony from people who spoke to the woman. They reported that she changed her mind. This will was fifteen years old.
The Daily News article was extremenly biased and uncritically reported the accusations of the family that the nephew was “bullying” his aunt.
People I spoke to who were at the trial told me that the reporters did not even bother to speak to anyone on the other side of the issue.
None of us can really know what the truth is, but, as usual, nobody should rely on the “aidus” of a newspaper article.