Recently a religious newpaper disclosed the location of a Jewish owned cremation facility in Israel. The crematorium was burnt down. However MKs have lined seeking legislation on either side of matter.
The presence of or even a debate over cremation in Eretz Yisrael should shock the conscience. An oven for dead Jews has no place in the Jewish State. It is amazing that some survivors’ organization has not yet found an advocate and filed a petition with the Supreme Court to close down and collect damages from the Crematorium’s owners.
With all due respect to the MKs from both Meretz and Shas this is not merely a religious or civil rights issue, not in Israel. Being contrary to Jewish Law only makes cremation a new frontier in Israel’s on going Secular/Religious kulturkampf. However, failure to recognize this facility as evoking the specter of the Shoah speaks volumes on even a more fundamental plane. Tolerance of cremation in Israel lessens the sense of outrage the depraved cruelty of the Final Solution should arouse. A public sentiment that Putting people in ovens is OK is a foreseeable result especially with the ever decreasing numbers of eye witnesses to these crimes against humanity. Imagine the irony the image of a Jewish operated crematorium in the Jewish homeland! Similarly, only addressing cremation to a civil right should be a warning sign of what happens when a people’s educational and philosophical orientation promotes estrangement from its history and heritage. President Peres this why history matters.
No comments:
Post a Comment