Rabbi oversees returning bodies of crash victims from Chile

Rabbi Leibel Miller was in Chile on Thursday dealing with how to return bodies to the United States – and the ticking clock of Jewish law.

Miller, of Hallandale Beach, Fla., was in the desert “in the middle of nowhere,” he said, rushing to get the dead home to New Jersey following Wednesday’s accident when 14 Celebrity Cruise ship tourists in a van careened off a Chilean mountainside. A dozen died and two were injured.

Miller needed to bring the bodies home by the Sabbath beginning Friday at sundown. Jewish law prohibits flying on the Sabbath, and the law also requires the dead be buried as quickly as possible.

Miller, director of the burial society Chevra Kadisha of Chabad Lubavitch of Florida based in Aventura, was asked by Celebrity Cruises to oversee the return of the remains of the victims, most of whom are senior citizens from a B’nai B’rith chapter in New Jersey. The passengers were on an excursion to Lauca National Park when the accident happened.

“The concept of a Jewish Burial Society is we take responsibility of the internment of our own deceased,” said Miller, 50, via cell phone from Chile. “This goes back to our (Biblical) patriarchs. The Jewish people are like one family and our rituals are very important to us.”

On Wednesday night, Miller, a father of four, returned to his Broward home from a Chabad fundraising dinner. At 10:30 p.m., he was putting on his pajamas when the cruise line called. He was on a chartered plane that left South Florida at 1 a.m. Thursday.

He arrived in Chile just after noon.

“I’m here to take care of the spiritual needs and transfer of human remains,” said Miller.

The site, Arica, is 1,250 miles north of the capital, Santiago, and Celebrity was flying victims’ relatives to the scene Thursday. The Associated Press said the Chilean government and the cruise line distanced themselves from the operator of the tour bus, saying Andino Tours wasn’t among the agencies it authorizes to run side trips for passengers.

Dante Noce, Arica’s municipal tourism director, identified the dead as: Marvin Bier, 79; Shirley Bier, 76; Miriam Diamond, 76; Hans Wilhelm Otto Eggers, 72; Maria Eggers, 71; Ira Greenfield, 68; Linda Gail Greenfield, 63; Arthur Joseph Kovar, 67; Frieda Kovar, 74; Carole Ellen Rochelman, 63; Barbara Rubin, 69; and Robert Rubin, 72.

Miller worked with the Chilean District Attorney’s Office on Thursday to facilitate the paperwork for the flights home. Then, he convinced the Chilean government to allow shipping the bodies without embalming, according to Jewish law and tradition. Embalming is usually required by some countries for shipment.

In Chile, he rented refrigerated containers to store the bodies before he was able to seal them in caskets.

Late in the day he was still working with the police to release bloody clothing. Proper Jewish burials call for the entire body to be interred, including blood.

Miller is the Florida representative of ZAKA, a recovery service, which best known for its work in Israel. Volunteers gather human remains from the streets after gruesome bomb blasts there.

“We’ll be collecting whatever we can,” Miller said.

Miller said two chartered planes are expected to transport the remains at 3 a.m. Friday. There is a chance the bodies will be sent immediately from Miami to New Jersey, or they might be sent to one of three local funeral homes to await instructions before they are transported to New Jersey, he said.

“The speed of the burial is a priority from a Jewish perspective,” said Rabbi Avi Shafran, a spokesman of the Orthodox organization Agudath Israel of America in New York. “When a person dies, it’s imperative for him to be returned to the soil from where God created the first human beings.”

In addition, Jewish law dictates the body never be left alone until burial.

Miller has worked with Celebrity in the past as an adviser to kosher food issues, said company spokesman Ian Abrams. “Having him on scene is helpful to us and the families,” Abrams said.

There were 64 people on the cruise ship Millennium who live in The Ponds, a senior apartment complex in Monroe Township in New Jersey, who are also members of B’nai B’rith, said Harvey Berk, B’nai B’rith spokesman in Washington, D.C.

The international Jewish service organization is best known for summer camps in the United States, senior housing projects and advocacy for Israel, Berk said. Eight of the 12 people killed were from that B’nai B’rith chapter, Berk said.

Miller was also consoling the two survivors who both lost their wives. “They are shattered,” he said.