Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Tattooed Jews Can't Be Buried in Jewish Cemeteries

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/fashion/17SKIN.html?ref=fashion

New York Times
17 July 2008

For Some Jews, It Only Sounds Like Taboo

By KATE TORGOVNICK

[...] By the time Ms. Kaplan's daughter Liz Carnes, 49, had teenage daughters who wanted body art, Ms. Carnes knew how to dissuade them.

"I'd say, `If you get a tattoo, you can't be buried in a Jewish cemetery,' " said Ms. Carnes, the owner of a video equipment company in Carlsbad, Calif. "For no real reason, just that's what my parents told me." [...]

[Eight rabbinical scholars contacted by the reporter refuted the belief that tattooed Jews are barred from burial in Jewish cemeteries.]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/07/27/m1a_tattoos_0728.html

Palm Beach Post [FL]
27 July 2008

For Jews, tattoo yearning pits pride against faith

By ANDREW ABRAMSON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

[...] Many Jews have been reluctant to get tattoos because of a long-standing belief that the deceased can't be buried in Jewish cemeteries if they are tattooed.

However, even Orthodox rabbis like [Shlomo Uminer of the Chabad Jewish Center of Martin and St. Lucie Counties] say that's a myth.

The Star of David of the Palm Beaches cemetery in West Palm Beach has no policy regarding tattoos, and Mount Sinai Memorial Park - an Orthodox cemetery in Miami - doesn't have its employees view the body before it is buried. [...]

No comments:

Post a Comment