Will Jeffrey Epstein Get A Jewish Burial, Despite His Crimes And Sins? "When a Jew dies, it swiftly sets in motion a succession of ancient customs, often carried out by the local community. The body is guarded until burial. A special group — called a “holy society” in Hebrew — prepares the body for burial in a custom called the tahara, the purification. Prayers are said over it, it is cleaned with water and finally wrapped in a plain shroud. In so doing, the holy society ushers the soul into its next stage: judgment before God. But what happens when the person is sure to be judged most harshly? What happens when that person is Jeffrey Epstein? New York’s chief medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide; he died in prison on August 10 while in federal custody. Already, the treatment of his body has deviated from Jewish norms. Jewish burials happen within one to three days and Epstein’s corpse awaits a second, independent autopsy. Numerous additional traditions govern the process of Jewish death, and experts say the Epstein case is so unusual they can’t be sure what will happen to him now. “The prayers associated with the tahara ask God to have mercy on the person,” says David Zinner, the executive director of Kavod v’Nichum and the Gamliel Institute, which provides training in Jewish burial practices. “Does Jeffrey Epstein deserve mercy? I’m not so sure about that.” Epstein was being kept at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, a jail that has been described as less hospitable than Guantanamo Bay. The MCC has a chaplaincy program, which has had rabbis from various denominations over the years. When reached by the Forward, Rabbi Jacob Hoenig, a chaplain at MCC in recent years, declined to comment. Jewish burial customs are based on the Hebrew Bible. Traditionally, they are “guarded” by the chevra kadisha, the holy society — people, frequently volunteers, who sit with the body, usually at the funeral home. They are then interred without any formaldehyde treatment, in an untreated pine box, wrapped in a white shroud. Zinner said that he wouldn’t be surprised if a chevra kedisha outright declined to receive Epstein’s remains because of his alleged crimes. “There’s a question of, would some tahara teams decline doing a tahara for someone who is — not of upstanding moral character, let’s put it that way. Although it’s a lot worse than that,” he said. et Isaac Pollak, head of the chevra kadisha on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where Epstein lived in New York, said his group would have performed the traditional rites for Epstein, but he had not been contacted by any synagogue in the area regarding Epstein’s remains. “We work with everybody who wants to meet their maker in the traditional way,” he said. Two of the largest Jewish funeral homes in Manhattan, Riverside Memorial Chapel and the Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, said they have not been contacted about receiving Epstein’s remains. The Hebrew Free Burial Association, which arranges burials for Jewish inmates who do not have family to receive their body, also said they have not been contacted." https://forward.com/news/national/429406/will-jeffrey-epstein-get-a-jewish-burial-despite-his-crimes-and-sins/