The following is from the Post Gazette:
An Orthodox rabbi from Pittsburgh has filed a federal lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Board of Funeral Directors and two other state officials, saying that the board is violating Jews’ religious freedom by insisting that licensed funeral directors oversee all burials.
The suit from Rabbi Daniel Wasserman of Shaare Torah Synagogue in Squirrel Hill accuses the state Board of Funeral Directors of intimidating rabbis, synagogues, grieving Jewish families and funeral homes that cooperate with rabbis, in a quest for profit. It was filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, based in Scranton.
Beyond what he does for his own synagogue, Rabbi Wasserman leads the group that organizes ritual mourning and burial for the wider Orthodox Jewish community in Pittsburgh.
The lawsuit is “to preserve and restore the historical right of clergy to conduct religious burial and funeral rites free from interference and harassment by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and professional, secular funeral directors who serve no health or safety interest,” according to the lawsuit, which cites state and federal constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion.
“Plaintiff — unlike some clergy from other religions — is now being threatened with civil action and criminal prosecution, including stiff fines and even imprisonment, for conducting religious funerals in place of licensed funeral directors who, under color of state law, interfere in purely religious observances for no other justification than personal profit,” according to the lawsuit.
The rabbis comply with all state health rules for treatment of dead bodies, and the State Department of Health, not the State Board of Funeral Directors, is responsible for seeing that those rules are followed, according to the lawsuit.
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3 Responses
I read the story in the “paper” but I am still funcused & upmixed.
It’s nothing but protectionism for an elite of licensed “professionals”. Essentially the law requires the chevra kadisha to hire a non-Jewish licensed funeral director to do nothing, and pay him.
This is right up the alley of the Institute for Justice http://www.ij.org It’s very like many cases they have fought and won. E.g. in some states African hair braiders were not allowed to practise unless they undertook an expensive and time-consuming training and passed exams to be a licensed hairdresser, a course that didn’t even teach braiding! The purpose was purely to create income for the few by keeping out competition.
This lawsuit would be totally unnecessary if the state would limit the amount of money funeral directors can charge to oversee a burial. Charging upwards of $2000 just to stand there and watch the proceedings is excessive. I realize it’s the funeral director’s head that will roll if something goes wrong, but the amount of money they charge vulnerable, grieving people is obscene.