Rab"d against 'Atra Kadisha: "give hand to harm dead"

Rab"d of the Eda Hareidis, Hag"r Moshe Sternbuch, attacks – for the second time – in a letter he issued against the organization Atra Kadisha. The subject of debate – a building site in Netishyn, Ukraine, in which bone fragments and Jewish scriptures were recently found in a land area allocated for construction.

Following the findings, Hezki Kalmanovitz, a representative of the 'Atra Kadisha', was invited to the site, and with the help of the municipality the remains were transferred to an alternative location, allocated for it by the authorities.

The information reached the ears of the Rab"d, who argued that this is a blatant violation of the agreements which were reached by rabbis who dealt with removing graves in Europe in the past. The letter is sent to HaGaon Harav Eliakim Schlesinger.

"I received his comments on the evacuation of a mass grave overseas, and I wonder how could they not shake to lend a hand to affront the dead who have acquired their place and can not be evacuate. And one must protest that they should not harm elsewhere. And we should demand the insult to the dead kedoshim, and I join and protest vehemently against harming graves. And the Gedolei Hora'a have expressed themselves a long while ago regarding the prohibition of removal, especially in mass graves," remarks the Rab"d.

The Rab"d's intention is to letters which were issued in the past by the Gedolei Yisroel after the fall of the Iron Curtain, in which they emphatically forbade the evacuation of mass graves in Europe. In 5762 a meeting was held under Hagr"a Schlesinger, Rosh Yeshivas Harama in London, where all participants signed such a letter, among the signatories was Av Beis Din of 'Ha'eda' Hgri"t Weiss, The Rebbe of Peshversk, and even HaGaon R' Shmuel Vozner joined the letter.

Even the rabbis of the committee to save cemeteries in Europe, sent a letter to Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, Chief Rabbi of Kiev, against the removal of graves, "Hareidi people go with disdain, without any account at all, and evacuate mass graves from place to place, so they could build hotels and guest houses on the site of the graves.

"And besides the enormity of the Issur and the disgrace to the dead, G-d forbid, they also publish this as if it was an achievement and great Mitzvah, and do not take into account that Heaven forbid this is risking the continued existence of all the thousands of mass graves in Ukraine – to evacuate them from place to place," Signed: Avraham Chaim Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee for saving cemeteries in Europe.

This morning (Tuesday), there was a commotion in the neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem when a motorcyclist distributed pamphlets against the organization Atra Kadisha, in the area of the Shtiblach: A number of Sicrikim affiliated with the organization tried to prevent the distribution by force, the police intervened - and prevented the riot.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!