Cemetery Rejects Bombing Victim
By Danna Harman
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, August 3, 1997; 8:03 p.m. EDT
JERUSALEM (AP) -- A 15-year-old Russian immigrant paid the
ultimate price for coming to the Jewish state -- his life was taken
in last week's terrorist bombings in Jerusalem.
Then Grisha Pesahovic's body was turned away from cemetery after
cemetery before finally being buried Sunday in a plot owned by the
Baha'i church.
The situation underscored questions about the inflexibility of
religious doctrines governing the Jewish state and reflected
problems facing many of the almost 800,000 immigrants who have
arrived since 1990 -- many of whom are only part Jewish.
``It was an absurd, tragic spectacle that doesn't dignify the
state of Israel,'' said Immigration Minister Yuli Edelstein,
himself an immigrant from the former Soviet Union.
Pesahovic was refused burial because his maternal grandmother
was not Jewish, which meant he and his mother, Olga, were non-Jews
according to the branch of Orthodox Judaism that dictates Israel's
burials, marriages and divorces.
A Greek Orthodox burial ground offered to take his remains in a
civil service. But at the service on Friday, a priest instead
insisted on a religious funeral.
``No, no Priest,'' wept Olga, according to Maariv. ``He lived as
a Jew in the Land of Israel. My son Grisha was not a Christian.''
But the priest was insistent, and after an hour's debate, his
father, Yvgeny, exclaimed: ``Give me a shovel or a spade, and I'll
bury him alone -- I don't care where!''
While the dispute buzzed, the casket was taken back to city hall
where social workers passed out drinks to mourners waiting in the
parking lot.
The studious boy who spoke four languages and knew everything
about the Beatles was finally buried in a Baha'i plot abutting a
Jewish cemetery. The Baha'i movement, headquartered in Haifa,
allowed his burial on humanitarian grounds, but stressed that no
precedent was being set.
``I did not even know they were not fully Jewish,'' said Tali
Valkov, a family friend of the Pesahovics. ``What difference does
it make? He was a sweet, funny boy and his mother's only son.''
© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press
