Serge Bokobza’s family did not want him to be buried anywhere other than Jerusalem. So, on her death, she transferred her remains from France to the Holy Land despite the difficulties posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and at the cost of attending the burial by videoconference.
Died of the new coronavirus, this Jewish doctor from Créteil, in the Paris suburbs, was buried a few weeks ago on the Mount of Olives, opposite the Old City of Jerusalem, by gravediggers dressed in sterile coveralls and protective masks .
Only one family member, Rabbi Shraga Dahan, who lives in Israel, was present at his funeral.
“I installed Zoom (the videoconferencing application) so that everyone can follow the burial live,” Dahan told AFP. “Hundreds of people were present virtually, but there were about ten of us, including the employees of the funeral directors.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Israeli sky has been almost deserted, the authorities having very early closed the borders and suspended air traffic.
But some cargo planes continue to land on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, sometimes with on board bodies of Jews who absolutely wanted to be buried in the Holy Land and whose relatives organized the transfer, costs what does it cost.
Because of the few flights to Tel Aviv, “families had to rent private planes to bring the body of their loved one and paid huge sums,” said Yehouda Meshi-Zahav, founder of the Zaka organization, who helping to organize funerals in Israel for Jews from abroad.
He mentions a jet paid for $ 250,000 by a Jewish family in New York and says that around 250 foreigners, dead or not, have been buried in Israel since the start of the pandemic. Some 1,500 foreigners are usually buried there over the course of a year.
– Eternal burial
Any Jew who wants to be buried in Israel must buy a concession, which in Jerusalem can cost around 100,000 shekels (27,000 euros).
Many Jews want to be buried in the only predominantly Jewish state in the world, where they believe that their graves are less likely to be desecrated by anti-Semitism.
Also, tradition dictates that Jews have the right to an eternal burial. However, if they agree to be buried in a municipal cemetery in their country of origin, they run the risk of having their remains removed and moved decades later for lack of space.
Choosing to be buried in Israel is also seen as a guarantee that Jewish funeral rites will be better respected, especially in times of pandemic. In France, for example, to avoid the potential risks of contamination, the funeral toilet is prohibited, which is unthinkable for religious Jews whose remains must be washed before being wrapped in a shroud and placed on the ground.
“To deal with this difficult task in this period of contamination, it was necessary to train the funeral directors in the strictest sanitary rules”, explains Mr. Meshi-Zahav.
– “Honorable” burial
“We transport the bodies in two sanitary covers, then we take over with our Israeli colleagues who, in turn, take care of everything according to local sanitary rules”, explains Yves Sportes, boss of a funeral director in France who has made approximately 50 body transfers to Israel since the start of the health crisis.
As the Israeli transporter El Al no longer operates from French airports, the remains must be transported to Belgium, before being placed in cargo planes to Tel Aviv.
With the next resumption of commercial flights, the remains can be placed in the hold again which will allow families to bury their relatives in Israel “in an honorable manner and at a fair price,” said El Al, who charges 3,000 euros this service from Europe.
“The most difficult thing remains that families cannot accompany their loved one,” said Sportes, however.
It was alone, facing Serge Bokobza’s body, in front of the gravediggers in combination and the family on Zoom, that Rabbi Shraga Dahan thus recited the kaddish, the prayer of the dead: “It was very strange”.
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