British Court Rejects Challenge To Jewish Cemetery's Refusal To Allow Exhumation

In Britain this week, a High Court judge has denied an application for leave to obtain judicial review of a decision by a Jewish cemetery that refused to allow a man's body to be exhumed for reburial in Israel.  According to the Jewish Chronicle, the case involves the late Joseph Charazi who was buried in a Jewish cemetery in Hertfordshire in 1993. Charazi was born in Israel and his wife Anne claims his dying wish was to be buried back there. However in 1993 his widow could not afford to send his body that distance. In 2011, his widow herself moved to Israel and now wants to carry out Charazi's wishes even though 4 of Charzi's children oppose the move.  Adath Yisroel Burial Society that administers the cemetery followed a ruling of the rabbinate that the body should not be exhumed.  The court held that a decision of a religious body in a matter of a religious nature is generally not amenable to judicial review.