Tag Archive for cemetery

Liberman’s 1st New Policy: Terrorists’ bodies not to be returned to families

 

Defense Minister Liberman tells IDF to stop handing over dead terrorists to the PA for burial, while the National Security Council is to submit plans for creating a cemetery for terrorists.

By Hezki Baruch

 

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman instructed the IDF Thursday to desist from its policy of handing over terrorists’ bodies to the Palestinian Authority for burial.

Celebratory funeral in eastern Jerusalem – Photo: Reuters

His instruction was given despite the recommendation of the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) to return terrorists’ bodies, because not doing so could cause Arab anger and violence.
Continue Reading »

5 French teens detained for vandalizing three hundred Jewish graves

French Prime Minister Valls blasts Netanyahu for suggesting that Jews are unsafe in Europe.

By i24news

 

Five adolescents aged 15 to 17 have been detained for questioning in eastern France over the vandalism of Jewish graves, a local prosecutor said on Monday.

Investigators examine defaced tombstones at the Jewish cemetery of Sarre-Union, north-eastern France, on February 16, 2015 – Photo: Frederick Florin/AFP

All five are from the region of Sarre-Union in Alsace, where around 300 tombs were defaced and damaged on Thursday.

The youngest came forward after being shocked by the massive reaction across the country to the vandalism, prosecutor Philippe Vannier said. Continue Reading »

Tiny Israel begins building multi-tiered cemetery towers

After initial hesitations, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox burial societies have embraced the practice now that a rabbinical ruling makes the endeavor kosher.

 

At first glance, the multi-tiered jungle of concrete off a major central Israeli highway does not appear unusual in this city of bland high-rises. But the burgeoning towers are groundbreaking when you consider its future tenants: They will be homes not for the living but rather the dead.

Vertical part of the Yarkon cemetery

This Oct. 6, 2014, photo shows a new vertical part of the Yarkon cemetery outside of the city of Petah Tikva, Israel. – Photo: AP

With real estate at a premium, Israel is at the forefront of a global movement building vertical cemeteries in densely populated countries.

Continue Reading »

Jewish cemeteries feeling neglect & disrepair from lack of long-term plans

Lacking funds and having had no long-term plans, many U.S. Jewish cemeteries are in an awful state of neglect.

 

 

NEW YORK (JTA) — For years, the historic Jewish cemetery was so overgrown with weeds, plagued by toppled headstones, and littered with fallen branches, beer cans and snack-food wrappers that at least a quarter of its graves were impossible to reach.

A section of New York's Bayside Cemetery in Queens before a UJA-Federation-funded cleanup. (Courtesy of the Community Association for Jewish At-Risk Cemeteries)

A section of New York’s Bayside Cemetery in Queens before a UJA-Federation-funded cleanup. – Photo Courtesy of the Community Association for Jewish At-Risk Cemeteries

Even now, after a $140,000 cleanup and improved maintenance procedures, the 35,000-grave cemetery relies on the generosity of a non-Jewish volunteer to repair its tombstones, fences and mausoleums.

Continue Reading »

Arab Attacks on Mount of Olives are declining

Thousands of mourners expected to visit Mount of Olives cemetery in the week before Yom Kippur.

Activists also report a drop in grave desecrations by Arab extremists.

By Gil Ronen

 

Thousands of people are expected to come to the ancient cemetery at the Mount of Olives in the days before Yom Kippur, to visit the graves of their loved ones and graves of “tzaddikim,” or wise and righteous people.

Desecration of Jewish graves, Mount of Olives – Israel news photo: Rafi Fischer

This year they can do so with less trepidation, activists say, because the security situation there has improved markedly in recent months. Continue Reading »