Municipal officials in the Israeli capital of Jerusalem have approved the establishment of the city's first non-Orthodox Jewish cemetery. Until now all cemeteries in Jerusalem have been maintained by ultra-Orthodox burial societies that conduct burials according to the strictest standards of Jewish law. Citizens of the Holy City seeking another type of burial have had to find a cemetery outside the city.
Jerusalem's Orthodox cemeteries do not permit burial in a coffin and prohibit the burial of non-Jews, including first-degree relatives of a Jew, in the cemetery, nor do they allow Reform and Conservative Jews to conduct burials according to their respective religious practices.
The municipality's decision comes a decade after the Israeli High Court ordered the government to provide a range of options. Since then, non-Orthodox Jews have tried unsuccessfully to force the city's ultra-Orthodox mayor and other religious officials to allot land for this purpose. Non-Orthodox cemeteries are already operating in several other Israeli cities.
