NYBROOKLYN-L Archives

From:
Subject: NYC Burial Societies
Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 16:35:18 EDT

On 5/2/05 (8:52:37 AM MDT), in a posting to the New York County Ancestry
Board that was 'gatewayed' to , Nancy L ()
asked,

"Can anyone explain what Burial Societies were? Were they only for Jewish
Cemeteries?"


Answering your second question, first: As a general rule, yes.

Jews, unlike Christians, are not required by their faith to have a building
such as a "Church" (the Jewish house of worship is referred to as a shul,
temple or synagogue), but are required to have an owned and consecrated cemetery
property.

The reason for this is that Jewish religious services only require the
presence of a minimum of 10 Jewish adults (usually males only) and these religious
services can be held almost anywhere and do not require the presence of a
cleric (rabbi or cantor). On the other hand, Jews must be buried in a Jewish
cemetery and the cemetery must be legally purchased and consecrated.

While Jewish belief differs from both Christianity and Islam (Christians and
Moslems believe that only those who accept Christian or Islam beliefs can go
to Heaven) in that non-Jews who live a good life will go to Heaven, regardless
of their beliefs, Jewish law requires that Jews only be buried with other
Jews. Hence, only Jews are buried in a Jewish cemetery, and in the case of a
married couple, one who is and one who isn't Jewish, then there is a great
likelihood that they will be buried in separate cemeteries (as was the case for
Houdini (Eric Weiss), who was a Jew, and his wife (Wilhelmina Rahner), who was a
Roman Catholic, who are buried in separate cemeteries: Houdini in Machpelah
Cemetery in the Ridgewood section of Queens and his wife in Gate of Heaven
Cemetery in Hawthorne, NY).

Now, turning to your first question: Burial Societies were member
organizations, usually organized by where the immigrants who emigrated from, the purpose
of which was to purchase, by themselves or along with other burial societies,
land to be used as a cemetery.

(Burial Societies are also groups of very religious persona who do the ritual
washing of the bodies (Taharah) and stay with the body overnight, saying
Psalms, until the body is taken from the funeral home for burial, normally the
next day.)

For more information, please see:
http://www.jewish-funerals.org/



I hope this information is useful or, at least, interesting.

Regards,

Walter Greenspan

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