A 400,000 NIS lawsuit has been filed against a Tel Aviv chevra kadisha which erred and buried the wrong person.

The lawsuit was filed by members of the niftar’s family. They explain that their loved one died following a long illness. Family representatives were summoned by the chevra to the tahara room to make a final identification of the niftar prior to kvura. They point out that when the identification was made there were a totoal of five bodies supine on the tables in the tahara room.

The levaya proceeded without incident, Kaddish was recited and they mourners returned home to begin sitting shiva. That evening the phone rang and one of the family members was notified by a member of the chevra that a most unfortunate error has occurred, they buried the wrong person. Their loved one’s meis was still in the tahara room. The person from the chevra kadisha instructed the brother “not to make too big a deal out of it to spare the family anguish”, the lawsuit explains. Three brothers consulted with one another and decided to comply with the request of the chevra kadisha. The buried their loved one that night in a private levaya.

The brothers decided to file a lawsuit. Attorney Karmi Bustinai is representing them.

When asked to comment on the case, a spokesman for the Tel Aviv chevra kadisha explains “mistakes occur, however quite infrequently. One must understand they deal with 8,000 niftarim and if chalila an error occurs, immediate corrective actions are taken and the appropriate lessons are learned to avoid future occurrences of the same error.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)