“This is a universal thing that everybody goes through,” Rabbi Stan Levy emphasized during the 10th North American Chevra Kadisha and Jewish Cemetery Conference, a three-day event last month at ...

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In the Jewish vernacular, caring for the dead is called chesed shel emet (“true kindness”) because bestowing honor upon the dead is a favor that cannot be returned by the beneficiary. When members of ...

I first joined a Jewish burial society, known as a chevra kadisha, as a college student. At the time, I had recently converted to Judaism, and the work — preparing the dead for burial according to ...

Discussions around the creation of the burial society helped spark growing interest among Reform Jews in Jewish ritual burial and other end-of-life issues. When members of the year-old Reform Communal ...