by Lorenzo Cremonesi
The 23-year-old killed and disfigured by Hamas had not yet completed her conversion to Judaism. The father: “Our daughter died as a Jew among the Jews.”
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM – Despite everything, Israel remains a deeply divided country. The terrible Hamas massacre on October 7 made us forget for a moment the demonstrations and the serious controversies against the government and religious parties that have deeply torn society as a whole in recent months, but in reality the underlying problems remain unchanged.
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The evidence now comes through tensions caused by the rabbinate’s decision not to bury 23-year-old Alina Falahati, who was killed by Hamas and whose disfigured body was only recently identified, in a consecrated Jewish cemetery. The reasons? Alina had not yet completed the religious procedures to convert to Judaism and therefore has no right to be buried in an official cemetery controlled by the Rabbinate.
The family protests. “Our daughter died a Jew among the Jews,” explains her father. It turns out that other victims, particularly of Russian origin, were not buried according to the procedures of the Rabbinate and Halacha, Jewish law. The question is old. In the 1990s, the rabbinate refused to recognize soldiers who had immigrated from Russia and died in Lebanon. In recent years, the growth of religious parties has heightened tensions.
November 15, 2023 (changed November 15, 2023 | 2:22 p.m.)
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