Suit Challenges Interfaith Portion of Jewish Cemetery

AP reported yesterday on a case originally filed nearly a year ago involving a dispute over who can be buried in a Jewish cemetery. The case is coming up for trial next month. At issue is an interfaith section of a cemetery in Colchester, Connecticut belonging to a Conservative synagogue, Congregation Ahavath Achim.  The first, and only, person buried there so far is Juliet Steer, a Jamaican-born African American woman who was interested in the Jewish faith and liked the peacefulness of the cemetery.  In 2009, the synagogue board agreed to set aside a portion of their cemetery for interfaith couples, their non-Jewish children and other non-Jews. However synagogue member Maria Balaban has now sued claiming that creating a non-Jewish section of the cemetery violates a 1999 merger agreement between Ahavath Achim and the Colchester Jewish Aid Congregation.  The synagogue's attorney, in a court filing last month, argues that Balaban originally approved creation of the non-Jewish section and is suing now only because Steer is African-American and Balaban does not want her buried near her family's plots. After that charge of racism was made, Balaban filed an amended complaint adding a claim for damages for emotional distress, saying that she has been made to feel unwanted by members of the congregation.