The following article is from the Post Gazette:  An Allegheny County judge has given a Jewish family permission to move its father, who died nearly 45 years ago, from a cemetery in Richland to one in Point Breeze so that he can be next to his wife and son.

Howard Tobin’s family filed a petition in December asking that the court require the Congregation Poale Zedeck cemetery in Richland to permit the disinterment.

Following a hearing in April, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Lawrence J. O’Toole issued an opinion on the matter on Wednesday. Attorneys for Poale Zedeck have 30 days to appeal.

They have not said if they will ask for reconsideration.

The cemetery rejected the Tobin family’s request, saying that Jewish law forbids moving a body except in specific situations.

Howard Tobin’s widow, Roberta, and their children requested the move last year.

Mr. Tobin, died unexpectedly on June 13, 1965. Mrs. Tobin, who was caring for four children at the time, allowed her husband’s brothers to handle his burial arrangements. They chose a plot at Poale Zedeck — even though her husband no longer attended services there, and the cemetery was far from their Squirrel Hill home.

Mrs. Tobin was not pleased with her husband’s location nearly an hour from her house, but it wasn’t until her son, Steven, died unexpectedly of heart disease in July 2008 that she felt he needed to be moved.

Steven Tobin was not married.

“She could not bear to have my brother buried by himself,” said Mrs. Tobin’s daughter, Shelly Frankel. “The thought of having my dad moved to be near my brother brought her a little peace.

“Once she made that choice, she didn’t realize there’d be controversy.”

Mrs. Tobin bought three plots in the Star of David section at the Homewood Cemetery. One for her son, one for her husband and one for herself.

What followed was a religious and legal battle over whether Howard Tobin’s body could be moved.

Associate Rabbi Ari Goldberg, of Poale Zedeck — an Orthodox congregation — eventually decided that he could not permit the removal.

Jewish law considers the body sacred, and removal can be considered a form of desecration. It would be acceptable, for example, only if the family wanted to move Mr. Tobin’s body to Israel or to an ancestral burial ground.

Rabbi Goldberg said he respects the Tobin family’s wishes to be together.

“I don’t think they do it with any malice to Conservative or Orthodox Jews,” he said.

Ms. Frankel, who said her family members are the less restrictive Reform Jews, filed a petition in Orphan’s Court, arguing that Mrs. Tobin never had a chance to decide where her husband should be buried.

Judge O’Toole agreed, finding that the congregation’s reason for opposing the disinterment was based solely on Jewish law.

“[The] court is convinced that the petitioners’ interest in reinterring the remains of the decedent outweigh the interests of the congregation in preventing the reinterment,” he wrote.

Mrs. Tobin died of cancer on Jan. 28 at the age of 81.

Before she died, she asked her family members to continue the fight for her husband’s move. She did ask, though, that if they lost, they would not go back to court.

Joel Pfeffer, who represents Poale Zedeck, said he will speak to the congregation’s rabbis for guidance on whether to appeal.

“It’s a question of our obligation to those buried in our cemetery, including Mr. Tobin, to permit them to rest in peace,” he said.

Ms. Frankel was elated by the court’s decision.

“I know in my heart that is where my dad would want to be,” she said. “It’s a nice tribute to my mother that it’s Mother’s Day. We promised her we would carry on and get this done for her.

“Finally, we’re at peace with this.”

(Source: Post Gazette)