Recently, an Israeli icon, Rona Ramon, died of cancer. She was the widow of astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed in the Columbia shuttle disaster. Rona Ramon did a lot of charitable work, and was very popular in Israeli society. It was a shock therefore, to find out, that she wished after her death, to be cremated, and not buried – as Jewish law prescribes. It is such a terrible thing to be cremated in Jewish Law, that the case was brought to the High Court, to try to prevent the cremation from happening.
However, Israe’s High court rejected the request to stop the cremation, stating that… “the petitioner has no legal standing to object to fulfilling the will of the deceased, and to intervene in the matter between a person and himself and his family.”
So who’s right here? What is the proper thing to do? Honor the deceased’s wishes, or honor Jewish law?
Also, Tamar speaks with David Ben Moshe, an American Black man who served some prison time, and while serving his sentence, he started reading and studying about Judaism. He subsequently converted to Orthodox Judaism, and today lives in Israel with his Israeli wife, but he’s stuck in a 9 month bureaucratic nightmare, trying to change his status to become an Israeli citizen. Why is it taking so long? To contribute to David’s help-fund, go to: www.gofundme.com/stop-the-deporta…9I4WEy5qD7bBVitk