In a move that will certainly spark more controversy, the Ministerial Law Committee on Sunday, 22 Tammuz 5773 is expected to approve the burial of non-Jewish IDF soldiers alongside their Jewish comrades. Needless to say chareidi MKs are fighting the expected move.
The impetus for the bill was sparked by the incident which occurred last Memorial Day, when IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz placed an Israeli flag on the last soldier who died that year in line with annual tradition. Gantz placed the flag on the last Jewish soldier killed, which in this case was not the last soldier killed. This sparked a fury among many as the last soldier to fall was a soldier from the FSU, a non-Jew.
The bill, sponsored by MK (The Movement) Elazar Stern would give the family of the soldier the final say regarding the burial location. If the family wishes, a non-Jewish soldier would be interred in a military cemetery alongside Jewish soldiers. At present, it appears ministers serving on the committee from The Movement, Bayit Yehudi, Likud and Yisrael Beitenu parties plan to support the bill. Minister Uri Orbach and Deputy Minister Eli Ben-Dahan, both from Bayit Yehudi, told Stern this will support the bill.
When asked to comment on the Maariv report, Rabbi Ben-Dahan denied the accuracy of the newspaper’s statement, stating he remains adamantly opposed to burying non-Jews alongside Jews. The deputy minister of religious services added that doing so would result in Jewish mothers demanding to exhume the bodies of their sons to bury them elsewhere, in a Jewish cemetery. He warns against such a move, which he predicts will create a “major split” among the people.
While the chareidim are strongly opposed Stern insists there is no Halachic reason why non-Jewish soldiers cannot be buried alongside their Jewish colleagues, with Stern referring to a psak Halacha given years ago by Rabbi Shlomo Goren, in which the chief rabbi ruled non-Jewish soldiers who fell in the line of duty are on a higher level than Chassidei Umos HaOlam. Maariv adds that a number of dati leumi rabbonim have given their approval but the report does not mention their names.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
Israel is a zionist state, and it seems logical that zionists should be buried together, even if they aren’t Jews. Remember that only about half of Israelis are Jewish – the rest are either Arabs (many of whom prefer being in a zionist state rather than a Muslim one) or goyim with some Jewish ancestry – which is “Jewish enough” for most zionists.
Is there a source that Chasidei Umos HaOlam are allowed to be buried next to Jews?
This is a real NO NO.
See Sefer Umekareiv Biyamin by Rabbi Chaim Avraham Zakutinsky who discusses this issue of burying non-observant and non-Jews in a Jewish cemetary at lenghth, here is a link- http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=51347&st=&pgnum=310
so what does R’ Drukman and R’ Leor have to say about this???
Hmmm…if you can fight and die for Israel as a full fledged member of the IDF in a regular Zahalk unit, that should be good enough for affoirding the soldier an equal “status” in a state funeral.
Good question #2, thank you #4 for the info.
Where does it stop? When will people see that Zionism is NOT compatible with Torah?
Another confidence step to encourge frummers from joining the army
Well done
As the Gedolim of the previous generation have said Goren was not a Rav and his psakim are not psakim!
to #8. So, should Jews who don’t serve in the army and violate Al Taamod al Dam Reacha be buried in a seperate
burial place also? Even Reuven & Gad were required to fight along their brothers before Hashem gave them permission to separate themselves.
Thank you for the link to Hebrew books by halacha613.
If you can translate it before some more silly comments are made it will be a gr8 to’eles