City Hall – Council Member Simcha Felder (D – Brooklyn) is outraged by reports that proposed cuts to the City Medical Examiner’s budget may affect Jewish and Muslim burial rituals. City Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch told the City Council that State budget cuts would mean the closing of outer borough offices; a move that would force families to travel to Manhattan to identify bodies of loved ones and receive death certificates before burial. This would delay the process for Jewish and Muslim families whose burials customarily take place within 24 hours of death. The state is threatening to withhold the $18.4 million that allows for the City Medical Examiner’s office to fulfill these religious rituals, calling them “optional” services.
“Worrying about the effects of budget cuts when you’re alive is tough enough, but now we’re going to have to worry about budget buts when we die? “said Felder, “For the State to call the elimination of these services ‘optional’ is outrageous. It is unconscionable to make people worry whether they will be treated with dignity and respect when their time comes.”
(YWN Desk – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
3 Responses
DON’T DIE!!!
Make a law making dying ILLEGAL!
Seriously,when less people work and the economy goes down,there is less money for services. The city and state may have to start using volunteer help,like the volunteer fire depts and EMT s in many towns.
Rabbi Mendy Rosenberg from CSE (Chesed Shel Emes) and Rabbi Gluck are working with state officials on this issue.
Let’s hope they have hatzlacha.
Not a surprising policy. Since the goyim spend a week drinking and partying over the dead body in their “wake” ritual, what’s the hurry to bury their beloved bizayon?