BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 13, 2009 — The reports continue to surface: Across the country, graves have been dug up and bodies moved to make room for new remains. More disturbing, according to Bruce Jacobs, founder and president of Your Funeral Advocate, LLC (http://www.yourfuneraladvocate.com), is that the desecration has occurred in Jewish cemeteries owned by a large corporation. Now Jacobs is speaking out about the desecration of Jewish graves and urging the Jewish community to take a stand against the conglomerate that owns the cemeteries.
“The recent desecration of graves in Jewish cemeteries clearly shows that the company charged with caretaking has no concern or respect for the Jewish dead,” Jacobs explained. “Are rabbis and Jewish leaders condoning their congregants’ support of funeral homes that are owned by a company that does not care about the Jewish religion or the importance of its traditions? We cannot allow such practices to continue.”
Jacobs believes Jewish-owned media and Jewish leaders have been reluctant to decry the ongoing grave desecrations by corporate cemetery owners publicly because of the significant advertising dollars those same companies spend in Jewish newspapers and the sizable donations they have been rumored to give to synagogues throughout the nation. But the willful desecration of Jewish graves, he says, is something that no amount of money can convince him to overlook.
“All rabbis, Jewish community leaders and Jewish media need to protest and condemn grave desecration and come out in opposition of certain corporate-owned funeral homes,” Jacobs stated. “Rabbis, community leaders and Jewish publications cannot sit back and be silent on this issue! Anything less would be interpreted as indifference to or endorsement of the ongoing disrespect for Jewish tradition.”
Jacobs, a licensed funeral director who has spent well over 40 years in the funeral industry, is passionate in his advocacy for families facing funeral arrangements and in his support for locally owned and operated funeral homes and cemeteries. He spends his time working on behalf of families to ensure they are treated fairly and with respect during the most difficult times of their lives - and he does it at no charge.
That passion drives Jacobs to take a public stand against the practices in which he says corporate-owned funeral homes are knowingly engaging for the sake of the bottom line. When graves are desecrated to make room for new bodies, he says, the families of the deceased must live with the pain of that violation for the rest of their lives, while a large corporation reaps the financial benefits.
So Jacobs is calling for the criminal prosecution of the officers of any corporation that has engaged in such practices. “I hope the Jewish community will stand with me,” he concludes. He also calls for careful inspection of all non-Jewish cemeteries owned by the large corporation as desecrations may very well be occurring in those cemeteries as well.
Related articles:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/thegodblog/item/jewish_cemetery_accused_of_desecrating_500_graves_20090912/
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13335511
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/25/AR2009042503075.html
About Your Funeral Advocate, LLC
Your Funeral Advocate, LLC offers free funeral consulting, advocacy and agency services, providing direct representation in select areas of New York, New Jersey and Florida and nationwide via telephone or Internet. Learn more at http://www.yourfuneraladvocate.com.
Contact:
Bruce Jacobs
Your Funeral Advocate, LLC
845-652-3979
bruce@yourfuneraladvocate.com
http://www.yourfuneraladvocate.com
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