Some day we will be able to return to traditions currently on pause due to the global pandemic. And I will welcome them. But when we do, I hope innovations like streamed funerals and scheduled shiva calls are not soon forgotten, offering more flexible and meaningful ways for mourners to connect with one another in their grief.
Grieving the loss of a loved one during the fear and anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic can be overwhelming. This guidance is for individuals and families as they work with funeral directors, community and religious leaders, and others to plan and hold funeral services and visitations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our understandings were designed to address a wide variety of experiences, but the kind of global grief we are experiencing — and our inability to physically gather together in its midst — is truly unprecedented.
A member of Rabbi Rachel Timoner’s congregation had died at home of COVID-19, and because they were quarantined, his immediate family members — his wife and their two adult sons — were not able to travel to the cemetery.
For many immigrant families, the pandemic has halted the tradition of repatriating bodies to their country of origin, and finding a plot in France has become ever more difficult.
Since the coronavirus took hold of New York in March, burial rituals in the city have become more complicated. Funeral homes everywhere are backed up and overwhelmed.