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Who HFBA Helps
HFBA is a unique organization in that it will bury any Jew regardless of financial ability or affiliation (or lack of affiliation) with any Jewish organization. The impoverished, the elderly with no family nor friends, the mentally ill, refugees and immigrants, the homeless, the forgotten, are all welcomed by HFBA as Jews deserving of a Jewish burial. Currently, a large percentage of those buried by HFBA are immigrants from the former Soviet Union who were unable to put down roots and thrive in America prior to their deaths.
HFBA is a community resource depended upon by social service agencies that deal with the poor and the sick. We are also a source of aid to hospitals, nursing homes and individuals who know of a deceased Jew with no financial ability to pay for a Jewish funeral or have no family member or friend to assume the task.
Our referrals come from many different sources, including private agencies and people with whom the decedent may have had a relationship, however superficial.
Please contact our office to request copies of our informational brochures or if you would like our director to speak at your agency about our services.
The stories of some of those recently buried by HFBA appear below.
- Recently our caseworker received a call in reference to Mr. C. who had died in a nursing home after having lived in mental institutions for most of his life. Our research revealed that in 1936, Mr. C.'s mother had arranged with HFBA for the eventual burial of her two mentally disabled children. Mr. C.'s sister had been interred with HFBA's help in1943 and, nearly seventy years after the initial arrangements were made with the mother's considerable foresight, the second of her two children would be buried according to their mother's wish and plans.
- Richard J. was found dead in his apartment by his wife, who, as a result of the shock, suffered a mental collapse. Because of her severe mental health problems, she could not authorize a burial. For six weeks, HFBA worked with an attorney and with Richard's sister and brother-in-law who lived out of town. They were reluctant to get involved, and the body lay in the city morgue. Finally, after much effort by Mrs. J.'s psychiatrist, she was finally able to authorize her husband's burial two months after his death.
- A compassionate physician, Dr. T., called us after the death of his patient, Mr. P. who, at age 47, had died of cancer and had no family. Dr. T. was upset that his former patient would be buried in an anonymous grave in the city cemetery. HFBA called the Public Administrator and applied for, and received, permission to bury Mr. P. among his religious brethren.
- Police officers found Victor's friend's name in his address book after being called to his apartment upon his death. His friend, a fellow musician in a rock band in Russia, called HFBA and got a group together to help pay for the funeral. The friends were loyal to Victor, a man in his 40's with no known family in the U.S. They were concerned that he be buried according to Jewish tradition, an interest he was pursuing more and more in his musical writing and his studying. HFBA made sure that Victor received the burial he would surely have wanted.
- Anticipating a lonely end, Selma called HFBA in 1989 to arrange for her own eventual funeral, having no one to rely on and little money to earmark for expenses. We kept the information and this year, when the nursing home in which she was residing called us, we were able to bury Selma according to her wishes.
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