JERUSALEM — Israel’s chief rabbis are trying to dig into the controversy about burials for immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
Many of the immigrants are not considered Jewish by the Orthodox rabbinate and burial societies.
The chief rabbis promised to set up a committee to unearth a solution to the dilemma after meeting with members of Yisrael Ba’Aliyah recently.
The immigrants’ rights party, headed by former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, won seven seats in the Knesset and is a partner in the Likud-led government.
While burial is perhaps the most sensitive issue for the immigrants, Yisrael Ba’Aliyah members raised other concerns with the chief rabbis.
The party wants an improvement in the level of religious services offered to immigrants, including sending representatives from Israel’s rabbinic courts to the former Soviet Union.
In addition, Yisrael Ba’Aliyah asked the rabbis to ensure that Russian-speaking aides are accessible in the offices of local rabbis and religious councils and that a national network of courses in Jewish studies be established for immigrants.
The burial controversy surfaced amid the arrivals of waves of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Some are either intermarried, or immigrated as Jews but may be the offspring of mixed marriages.
Under Orthodox law, which governs Israel’s life-cycle events such as births, marriages and deaths, non-Jews cannot be buried in Jewish cemeteries. The Orthodox consider Judaism to be determined through matrilineal descent.