Summary: ZAKA has seen a 1,200% increase in demand for assistance in facilitating burial in Israel during COVID-19. From averaging 3 or 4 requests per week, ZAKA is now handling 7 per day.

According to the Talmud, when the Moshiach arrives, all dead people whose bodies are not buried in Israel will roll through underground tunnels to the holy land. Avoiding this process, which is considered to be spiritual torture, is one reason a growing number of Jews worldwide are choosing to be buried in Israel.

“That is where he [the messiah] is going to show up, that’s the starting point,” Jewish Miami resident Tony Goldglanz told the Sun Sentenial. “It’s going to be first-come, first-serve.”

Goldglanz, buried his 90-year-old father, Beno, in Jerusalem following his death in 2012.

His father, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, was so passionate about observing the tradition that he made arrangements twelve years earlier, buying a plot for $4,500.

The tradition of being interred in Israel comes from the Bible. The most in-demand burial site is the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, precisely where the “Redemption of the Dead” will start.

But arranging a funeral in Israel, especially from across the ocean, is complex and the journey can be daunting.

Faceless bureaucracy can make the process of being buried in the Holy Land a nightmare. Many families give up on the idea altogether after realizing how complicated the local authorities make it for them.

That’s why ZAKA, an international humanitarian aid association, has stepped up and has been running a program called ‘Bring them Home.’

In this program, ZAKA helps with logistics and bureaucratic paperwork ensuring that the burial process is done properly from start to finish.

It should be noted that no other humanitarian organization in the world is assisting with Jewish burials in Israel – not Magen David Adom, not United Hatzalah and not even the Israeli government themselves.

However, the time and cost involved with navigating Israel’s crippling bureaucracy is starting to take a toll on this holy organization. That’s why they are currently reaching out to donors to help them continue their battle to ensure that every Jew who wants to be buried in Israel, no matter where they are in the world without any headache.

During COVID-19 ZAKA went from handling an average of 3 or 4 requests per week to 7 requests per day! To date from just March 2020, ZAKA has handled over 1,800 requests for assistance. That is a 1200% increase in requests for assistance.

That’s because ZAKA realizes that losing a loved one is difficult enough. Adding more layers of stress to the mourning by cutting through walls of red tape can be too overwhelming a process causing families to give up on the dying wish of their loved ones.

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