Minister of Religious Affairs Ya’akov Avitan and members of his office paid a visit to the cemetery on Har Hamenuchos in Yerushalayim on  Thursday, in order to draw up plans for renovating the access roads and sidewalks, as well as expanding the area for burial plots of the famed cemetery. Accompanying them for the visit was the Director of the Council of Cemeteries in Israel, Rabbi Tzuriel Krispel and members of the Chevra Kadisha.

“We see the tremendous work and investment in this cemetery,” Avitantold reporters. “Jews from all over the world are coming to be buried in Jerusalem. There is a cemetery here where the righteous and holy are buried and we have to make sure that the roads leading to the cemetery are adapted to the growing needs here as well as to prepare more and more burial places.”

Some of the initial stages of the plans to renovate the cemetery are already beginning in the coming days. The cost of the renovations is upwards of 6,900,000 million NIS. The cost is being covered in part by the Religious Affairs Ministry, the city of Yerushalayim, and the Council of cemeteries.

Krispel expressed his hope that the renovation will be over quickly. It had been delayed for the past few months due to the lack of a national budget because of the lack of a government.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)