| REGINA, Saskatchewan, Aug. 28 (JTA) — On a patch of
green land in this Canadian province, a wrought-iron gate stands at
the entrance to a new cemetery, the words “Dedicated to the
partnership of love and faith” inscribed on its doorway.
The Cemeteries, as the burial ground is known, is the brainchild
of Noel Sandomirsky, a federal court judge who is a lifelong member
of the 100-year-old Beth Jacob Synagogue and the chairman of its
chevra kadisha, or burial society.
What sets the two-month-old
burial ground apart is its purpose: The Cemeteries is meant for Jews
wishing to be buried next to their non-Jewish spouses, something not
ordinarily allowed under Jewish law.
Sandomirsky, 63, is married to a convert. Beth Jacob’s spiritual
leader of eight years, the yet-to-be- ordained Jeremy Parnes, also
has a non-Jewish partner. In fact, most of the 700 Jews remaining in
the once-thriving Regina community — roughly 400 of whom belong to
the unaffiliated but largely Conservative Beth Jacob — are tolerant
of interfaith relationships.
Sandomirsky recalls a vibrant, healthy Jewish population in the
Regina of his youth — many young Jews met and married through the
B’nai Brith Youth Organization. Now, however, there are only about
15 children in the community who will attend Beth Jacob’s Hebrew
school this year.
“I realized some time ago that the sphere of assimilation and how
we deal with that historically involved religions that tend to
excommunicate those who fall in love outside their faith,”
Sandomirsky says. “That’s a high price to pay for falling in love.
We should encourage these people to stay within the faith, creating
a counterbalance to assimilation and the danger of losing people.”
Sandomirsky decided to apply this concept to death as well. He
looked into halacha, or Jewish religious law, and sought out the
possibilities for such an arrangement. The Cemeteries is the result.
Separated from other Jewish burial grounds on the property by
greenery, trees, shrubs and a large entrance gate, the Cemeteries
comprises 42 plots in three rows of 14 each, enough to last the
community for quite some time.
The odd-numbered grave sites are reserved for Jewish members of
the synagogue, the even-numbered ones for non-Jews. Between each of
the rows is a steel post laid into a cement block. A small,
stainless-steel link chain is inserted between each post, creating
an 18-inch-high barrier.
That’s not too high to impede visitors wishing to pay their
respects to a deceased couple, while it does create the barrier
required by Jewish law, Sandomirsky says. To the judge in him, it
appears to be a fair and appropriate solution.
“After a lifetime together, the couple should have the privilege
— indeed, the right — of being buried side by side,” he says.
Rabbi Alan Bright, the spiritual leader of the Conservative
Congregation Shaare Zedek of Montreal, said the concept sounds
acceptable to him.
“I have no problem with the theory as long as there is a barrier,
and it does not have to obscure the view,” Bright says. “As long as
there is a barrier, burying a Jew next to a non-Jew is permissible
according to halachah.”
In small European Jewish communities, he says, the situation of
Jews being buried in close proximity to non-Jews arose all the time.
In the Montreal suburb Beaconsfield, he notes, “we have a row of
trees that acts as a natural barrier between the Jewish and
non-Jewish portions of the cemetery.”
Sandomirsky says that some older and more traditional members of
the community objected when the idea was first proposed but their
concerns were assuaged through dialogue.
“When the rubber hit the pavement this past summer, there was no
opposition at all,” he says.
So far, the idea is proving popular.
“We’ve already had three couples purchase plots in the first two
months of operation. And I’ve also had inquiries from Saskatoon,
Moose Jaw, Jeremy” — all in the province of Saskatchewan — and
Winnipeg in Manitoba, Sandomirsky says.
He adds that he’s not aware of similar arrangements elsewhere.
“I have visited a number of cemeteries over the years, and I have
never come upon anything like this,” Sandomirsky says. “I didn’t
base the idea on an existing place” — just on the idea of eternal
love. | 
