FIRST-EVER REFORM CHEVRA KADDISHA IN NEW YORK CITY IS ESTABLISHED

Four Jewish Organizations Partner to Widen Use of the Sacred
Practice and Elevate End-of-Life Conversations
 
New York — March 7, 2023 — The first-ever Reform Chevra Kaddisha in New
York City has been established by a consortium of four Jewish organizations,
a development that officials said will open the sacred end-of-life practice to a
wider Jewish community.
 
The initiative — by Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, Temple Shaaray Tefila,
Congregation Beth Elohim, and seminarians at Hebrew Union College – JewishInstitute for Religion — is one result of a partnership started by the four
organizations two years ago to elevate conversations around end-of-life
issues and rituals in Jewish tradition.
 
“Formation of this pilot Chevra Kaddisha is not only a significant expansion of
how the Jewish community may practice meaningful ritual, it is also a
moment for us to grow our individual and communal conversations about
end-of-life and inform our relationship to it,” said Stephanie Garry, Executive
Vice President of Communal Partnerships at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel.
 
A Chevra Kaddisha (“holy society”) is a group of community volunteers who
prepare bodies for burial by ritually washing it, dressing it in a traditional
plain white garment, and keeping watch over it from the moment of death
until burial. This ritual practice dates back centuries, but until recently has
rarely been emphasized in more progressive Jewish communities.
 
With the support of Kavod v’Nichum — a non-profit dedicated to transforming
the Jewish community’s engagement with Jewish end-of-life rituals and
practices and that provides education, training, and support to new and
existing Chevrot Kadisha in the United States and Canada — the four
organizations have held trainings with more than 50 volunteers from their
communities.
 
Components included studying the role of the Chevra Kaddisha, what it
means to be in sacred community, and the rituals of tahara (the ritual
preparation of the body) and shemira (the watching over the body).
 
“Together, we are learning and embracing this most sacred mitzvah of caring
for the dead,” said Rabbi Rachel Timoner of Congregation Beth Elohim in
Brooklyn. “At the same time, we have been developing our own rituals to be
mindful and respectful of the multiplicity of gender identities.
 
“Jewish practices around death are intentional, and we believe that when
families know that their loved ones are being tended to with utmost
sensitivity and reverence, they will find some comfort even as they mourn
their loss.”
 
As the first Reform Chevra Kaddisha in New York, it is hoped that a new
dimension and practice for end-of-life ritual will be adopted and grow, officials
said.
 
“The success of this chevra will mean bringing ownership of these mitzvot
and traditions to progressive and Reform Jews so that we may care for our
deceased and bereaved on a New York City communal level for the first
time,” said Alissa Platcow, a fourth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union
College – Jewish Institute for Religion.
 
“It will also mean uniting the Reform and progressive institutions of New York
City in a way that has never occurred before to create lasting relationships.”
Rabbi Joel Mosbacher of Temple Shaaray Tefila, one of the two synagogue
partners in the initiative, agreed, and emphasized the mitzvot that live within
the Chevra Kaddisha.
 
“It is with awe and respect that our collective community has been learning,
and it is with awe and respect that our Chevra Kaddisha will take on this
Jewish act of what the rabbis of tradition call chesed shel emet, of ultimate
kindness,” he said.
 
“The Chevra Kaddisha fulfills these mitzvot (commandments) with the
understanding that they do so knowing that the person they are tending to
will never be able to thank them. May the ritual work of our Chevra Kaddisha,
and that of every Chevra Kaddisha, be blessed.”

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