Israeli Ruling on Cremation Angers Orthodox Jews

JERUSALEM — An Israeli court has decided that cremation is legal in a historic ruling that has angered the country's orthodox community, which believes that it breaches biblical law and offends Jews because it reminds them of ovens used in Nazi death camps. Judge Moshe Sobol, sitting in the Jerusalem district court, decided that Shmuel Rosen, an 80-year-old Holocaust survivor, could be cremated in line with the wishes of his widow and two surviving sons.

Judge Sobol was asked to make the ruling after a distant relative filed a suit opposing the cremation on moral and religious grounds.

The judge cited a recent statement by the Israeli attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, which said that, as there was no law in Israel on cremation, the assumption must be that it was not illegal. But Mr. Mazuz added that the issue raised important ethical and social questions. He suggested that the Knesset debate the issue.

Right-wing parties, including Shas, United Torah Judaism, and the National Religious Party-National Union, have already indicated that they would back a law banning cremation on the grounds that it breaches the Jewish legal code.

The issue has exposed the differences between Israel's large secular and religious communities, with many on the secular side arguing that people should be allowed to choose burial or cremation rather than being told what to do.

It came to light 18 months ago when the first crematorium opened in Israel in the small market town of Hadera.

In spite of the opposition voiced by the country's religious community, a spokesman for the crematorium said dozens of people had chosen cremation at the facility.