ZAKA Saves Jewish Man From Cremation By His Wife

RAMAT GAN (VINnews) — The Israeli District Court prevented the cremation of a Jewish man who died at the Tel Hashomer hospital on October 12th.

The man’s wife had requested to cremate his remains allegedly according to his express wishes and the rabbi of the family asked the rabbi of ZAKA (the organization for “Identification, Extraction and Rescue – True Kindness”, maintaining the dignity of those who pass away) if the children could sit shiva on a father who was cremated.

The children, who were from his first marriage, were asked to contact the legal department of ZAKA in an attempt to prevent the defilement of the dead person.

ZAKA submitted a petition to prevent the transfer of the deceased person’s body for cremation until a decision was reached on the matter. On Thursday at a hearing in the Tel Aviv family court, Judge Iris Arbel-Assel decided that despite the request of the deceased that his spouse “take care of his burial”, she is allowed to cremate his body. The judge also ruled that ZAKA should pay legal fees of 3000 NIS.

The organization appealed the decision and on Monday the Tel Aviv District Court, headed by deputy president Hon. Shaul Shochat overturned the lower court’s decision and ruled that the body cannot be cremated and must be brought to burial. He also cancelled the legal fees issued to ZAKA. Shochat explained that the deceased had meant that he wished to be buried and this was the wish of his children and although he had asked his wife to preside over his burial, he had not authorized her to cremate him.