Jewish Man Saved From Cremation in the Nick of Time

by Tzali Reicher – chabad.org

Whenever Rabbi Yosef Dovid and Shternie Chanowitz walked into the care facility where Joel Schnee lived in the Catskill Mountains in Upstate New York, the elderly man’s face would light up.

Cerebral palsy and other health challenges had left him with limited speech, but not with any shortage of things to say. Schnee would eagerly await the Chanowitzes’ regular programs and visits, and stretch out his arm, ready to wrap tefillin when the rabbi came to greet him. He would proudly show the couple his eclectic collection of Jewish memorabilia, and the pride he took in his Jewish heritage was well known around the facility.

That’s why it was such a shock for the Chanowitzs to hear of the warm man’s passing aged 80 on July 30, several days after the fact, and then to hear that the facility had arranged for Schnee to be cremated within days, with seemingly no recourse or way for them to intervene.

They had to do something.

‘Have That Difficult Conversation’

The Chanowitzes have directed Chabad-Lubavitch of Monticello since 2022, continuing the work of his parents Rabbi Bentzion and Rochel Chanowitz, who served the community for almost three decades.

They serve a number of Catskill shtetls and individuals living in the mountains and valleys in between. In an area known for swelling with visitors in the summer, they care for the year-round community as well, including the large number of elderly Jews who live in assisted living facilities or spend their time in day programs.

“With so many seniors in a wide area, it’s easy to lose touch with people,” Rabbi Chanowitz says. “People move back with their families to the city, or enter care facilities. With no way to regularly communicate, it can be hard to keep up with where all our people are.”

Their focus on encouraging Jewish burial began in 2022, after they heard about an elderly Jewish woman who had wanted a Jewish burial, but was cremated before the Chanowitzes could identify the center she was living at at the time.

“We realized we had to connect with and regularly visit aged care facilities. We had to educate both the Jewish residents and the staff, who are often charged with making decisions after an elderly person with no close family passes, the importance of Jewish burial,” says Shternie Chanowitz.

The importance of a proper burial in Jewish law and tradition cannot be underestimated. “For dust you are, and to dust you will return,” G‑d told Adam, the first human being. Chabad.org’s extensive section on Death and Mourning quotes King Solomon, who said: “And the earth returns to the land as it was, and the spirit returns to G‑d, who gave it.” The article explains that “the next stage in the continuing saga of a human life is that the body should return to the earth, the source of all physical life, and be reunited with it, just as the soul returns to its Divine root.”

Taking part in the proper burial of a Jewish person is considered a mitzvah of the highest order. Maimonides explains that even the High Priest, who was prohibited from attending his own family’s funerals, was required to take it upon himself to personally bury a met mitzvah, an abandoned Jewish body that had no one to attend to its proper burial.

Since 2022, the couple have made Jewish burial awareness a priority of their work. They work closely with Chessed Shel Emes and Last Kindness, organizations devoted to ensuring Jewish burial is accessible to every Jewish person, regardless of their financial abilities or family connections.

“Not every effort ends in success,” Rabbi Chanowitz says, “and cremation remains a primary trend we are working to counteract. The worst time to raise the subject is after a death has already occurred. It is important to have those hard conversations before, and discuss the Jewish view of death and the continuity of the soul, educating families and facilities well beforehand, so a plan is already in place when the moment comes.”

Less Than a Day

The time for Joel Schnee’s soul to return to its Maker occurred on Thursday, July 30, though the Chanowitzes were only made aware of it the next day. They were informed the facility had arranged a cremation, and despite the couple’s protestations, nothing could be done to change or reschedule the service, set for Tuesday, August 4.

Forced to wait over Shabbat and Sunday before they could speak to anyone, the Chanowitzes caught a lucky break: a nurse, moved by their efforts to ensure Schnee would get the Jewish burial he wanted, connected them with higher-level decision makers.

From the moment the clock struck 9 on Monday, Rabbi Chanowitz worked the phones.

He implored implacable managers to reconsider, highlighting the importance of a Jewish burial and the central role Judaism played in Schnee’s life. Ultimately moved, they connected him with the funeral director, saying if he would give the go-ahead for a Jewish burial service to proceed, they would approve it.

The funeral home handling the arrangements was reluctant.

“They told us the cremation arrangements were already made and there was nothing that could be done,” Rabbi Chanowitz said. “But when he saw how important it was to us, and how much it would have meant to Joel, they gave us their conditions to switch to Jewish burial.”

The funeral home said they wouldn’t cover the cost of the changeover and a Jewish interment. If Rabbi Chanowitz was willing to ensure the financials were taken care of, they’d approve it.

“I said, of course we’ll take care of it,” Rabbi Chanowitz recalled telling them, less than 24 hours before the cremation was set to proceed. “I spent the rest of the day working with Chessed Shel Emes. There were times we thought it wouldn’t all come together. Thank G‑d, it did.”

With the help of volunteers, who drove up from Monsey, N.Y., to bury someone they didn’t know, Rabbi Chanowitz and Chessed Shel Emes made sure tahara and shmira were performed, and oversaw his Jewish burial the next day at the Chesed Shel Emes Cemetery in Woodridge, N.Y., laid to rest amongst his own people.

“At the funeral, people from the facility approached us, sharing how moved they were by our efforts to fulfill Joel’s wishes of being buried as a Jew,” Shternie Chanowitz concludes. “They saw how we are really all one people. When one Jewish soul needed help ascending Heavenward, people and organizations that never knew Joel in life, came together in such a beautiful way to escort Joel on his final journey.”