Hundreds of Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh residents gathered over the weekend at protest rallies against the Chevra Kadisha's tunnel burial system at Har Hamenuchos, following an incident on erev Hoshana Rabbah in which a family says officials threatened to leave their relative's body in a cooler through Yom Tov unless they agreed to burial in the underground tunnels.
The rallies, held under the banner "Tears of the Oppressed," came after what speakers described as a pattern of coercion by the Chevra Kadisha Klalis "Perushim," which operates sections of the tunnel system carved beneath the Kehillas Yerushalayim cemetery on Har Hamenuchos. Rabbanim at the gatherings accused Chevra Kadisha officials of exploiting families who cannot afford the higher cost of traditional field burial, refusing to provide a regular grave even when the deceased lies before them.
The incident that brought the dispute to a head involved a respected talmid chacham who was niftar in Yerushalayim on erev Hoshana Rabbah. His family faced hours of delay as Chevra Kadisha officials insisted on tunnel burial, claiming the family could not afford a field plot. According to the family, they had received a psak from one of Yerushalayim's leading poskim to do everything possible to avoid burial in the tunnels.
When the family resisted, Chevra Kadisha officials told them that if they refused the tunnel burial, the body would remain in the Shamgar funeral home cooler through Yom Tov until they relented, the family said. With no alternative, the family initially agreed, though some members later tried to prevent the tunnel burial at the site itself. After what witnesses described as sharp confrontations that included physical altercations, the niftar was buried in the tunnel system.
Among those who addressed the rallies was HaRav Dovid Menashe Rothschild, deputy chairman of the Badatz of the Eidah Hachareidis in Yerushalayim, who sharply criticized the conduct of tunnel burials and accused Chevra Kadisha leadership of what he called "deceiving the rabbanim" about the system's operation.
The main Yerushalayim rally was held under heavy security following threats from various parties to disrupt the event. The threats did not materialize, and the gathering concluded as planned before a packed hall.
