Rabbis in Russia Face a Battle Over Burial

Lazar, who grew up in Italy and studied in the United States, came to Russia as a Chabad Lubavitch rabbi in 1990. He stayed on and became chief rabbi of Russia, amid some controversy. He is not Russian, but is known for his close ties to President Vladimir Putin. Hundreds of Chabad Lubavitch rabbis have followed Lazar to Russia and other former Soviet republics.

In recent years, Lazar said, Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated and vandalized, adding to the hesitance to be buried. "Russian Jews are afraid of what will happen to the cemeteries in 50 years," Lazar said. "We've seen cemeteries, sadly, all over Russia, totally desecrated with bones lying all around. . . . There is no security."

Some of the pensioners at the Ezra Foundation soup kitchen, a Jewish federation project in Moscow, would like a Jewish burial, but not all are convinced they will get one. "I don't want cremation, but I am afraid it might happen because it's much cheaper," Vlasa Doljanskaya said. The 76-year-old eats lunch every week at the soup kitchen. She says the Jewish revival is "like an explosion."

"I am a child of the revolution," Doljanskaya said. "My grandmother spoke Yiddish very quietly in the corner, but my mother was a good communist and would not let us near the synagogue. Now I am studying the Jewish language and the Torah because life is complicated and it helps."

Koval Yankel Shakhnovich, 83, eats lunch twice a week at the soup kitchen. He lost his wife, Luba, three years ago in Belarus and came to live with his daughter in Moscow. "The Jewish cemetery [in Belarus] is full, but I have a space already and when I am dead they will bring me next to my wife," he said.

Rabbis at the Jewish Community Center said later that it was very unlikely that when Shakhnovich died, his body could be transported to Belarus. "We need to talk more to these people," Berkowitz said of the elderly who visit the center.

Meanwhile, Kuperman is getting better at persuading secular children of the elderly to arrange a Jewish burial.

"They say, 'I'm not religious.' I say, 'We'll pay everything,' and I offer them $1,000 over the expenses. Still I can't convince some of them. They see me and they are afraid," he said, touching his yarmulke. "But for those who decide on a Jewish burial, it can be the beginning of a good connection to the community, and we start to see them on Shabbat."